No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

I propose to examine the theme of this Special Issue from the perspective of its treatment - and, of especial significance, its lack of treatment - within economics. In the course of this examination we shall observe that the concepts of entrepreneurship and the firm are generally kept separate, and attempt to explain why. I shall avoid any discussion of recent work, which is more productively left to my fellow contributors, choosing instead to devote the first half of my contribution to providing an analytical basis for the second half by exploring the problem of knowledge in economic systems, and relating this problem to the evolved nature of human beings and their relationship with their environment. In this exploration I shall rely almost entirely on the work of economists, though much of it was not directed to conventional economic issues. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2007.

Time matters because knowledge changes. Knightian uncertainty excludes correct procedures and proven knowledge, but makes room for imagination and creativity, which drive an evolutionary process. Human cognition relies less on logic than on pattern-making; we impose connecting principles to create patterns and causal linkages between them as representations of phenomena, which are imperfect and often subject to multiple interpretations. Stable patterns provide the necessary baseline for selection. Our personal patterns are supplemented by institutional regularities, and organisations of various kinds help to shape the development of knowledge, which grows by making connections at the various margins of existing knowledge. JEL classification: D20, D83, L10, O10