IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/halshs-01070615.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

An artificialist theory of the firm: contours and perspectives

Author

Listed:
  • Joelle Forest

    (EVS - Environnement, Ville, Société - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Mines Saint-Étienne MSE - École des Mines de Saint-Étienne - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - INSA Lyon - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon - Université de Lyon - INSA - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - ENTPE - École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État - ENSAL - École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Lyon - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ALLHiS - Approches Littéraires, Linguistiques et Historiques des Sources - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne)

Abstract

There is nothing new in applying the concept of artificiality to organizations; however, few researchers have followed Simon's suggestion, put forward in the early 1940s, that firms should be considered artifacts. The present article attempts to remedy this situation by outlining the contours of an artificialist theory of the firm. The design process is shown to be at the heart of the artificialist approach; therefore, the firm can no longer be represented purely in terms of choices between available alternatives. Highlighting the central role of design also leads theories of the firm to integrate the concept of creative rationality, alongside the idea of bounded rationality. As well as providing a positive vision of the firm, the artificialist approach discards the idea of natural evolution in favor of artificial evolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Joelle Forest, 2009. "An artificialist theory of the firm: contours and perspectives," Working Papers halshs-01070615, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01070615
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01070615v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01070615v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stavros Ioannides, 1999. "Towards an Austrian Perspective on the Firm," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 77-97, January.
    2. Nicolai J. Foss, 1996. "Capabilities and the Theory of the Firm," Revue d'Économie Industrielle, Programme National Persée, vol. 77(1), pages 7-28.
    3. Peter Maskell, 2001. "Knowledge Creation And Diffusion In Geographic Clusters," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(02), pages 213-237.
    4. Radner, Roy, 1996. "Bounded Rationality, Indeterminacy, and the Theory of the Firm," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1360-1373, September.
    5. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    6. Yuri Biondi & Arnaldo Canziani & Thierry Kirat, 2007. "The Firm as an Entity: Implications for Economics, Accounting, and the Law," Post-Print halshs-00203355, HAL.
    7. Richard R. Nelson, 1995. "Recent Evolutionary Theorizing about Economic Change," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 48-90, March.
    8. Nicolai J. Foss, 2006. "The Emerging Knowledge Governance Approach Challenges and Characteristics," DRUID Working Papers 06-10, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    9. Ioannides, Stavros, 1999. "Towards an Austrian Perspective on the Firm," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1-2), pages 77-97.
    10. Bart Nooteboom, 2000. "Learning by Interaction: Absorptive Capacity, Cognitive Distance and Governance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 4(1), pages 69-92, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joelle Forest, 2003. "For An Artificialist Way Of Thinking Organization," Post-Print halshs-01070614, HAL.
    2. Joelle Forest, 2009. "The Creative Rationality As A Key Driver For Enhancing Innovation Capability," Post-Print halshs-00620865, HAL.
    3. Darcy W E Allen, 2020. "When Entrepreneurs Meet:The Collective Governance of New Ideas," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number q0269, August.
    4. Kapás, Judit, 1999. "Szükséges-e többdimenziós vállalatelmélet?. Az evolúciós vállalatelmélet kritikai összefoglalása [Is a multi-dimensional theory of the firm necessary?. A critical summary of the evolutionary theory," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 823-841.
    5. Fikret Adaman & Pat Devine, 2002. "A Reconsideration of the Theory of Entrepreneurship: A participatory approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 329-355.
    6. Quemin, Simon & Trotignon, Raphaël, 2021. "Emissions trading with rolling horizons," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    7. Argandoña, Antonio, 2010. "From action theory to the theory of the firm," IESE Research Papers D/855, IESE Business School.
    8. Yannis Caloghirou & Stavros Ioannides & Nicholas S. Vonortas, 2003. "Research Joint Ventures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(4), pages 541-570, September.
    9. Sandra Silva & Jorge Valente & Aurora Teixeira, 2012. "An evolutionary model of industry dynamics and firms’ institutional behavior with job search, bargaining and matching," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 23-61, May.
    10. Richard N. Langlois & Nicolai J. Foss, 1999. "Capabilities and Governance: The Rebirth of Production in the Theory of Economic Organization," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 201-218, May.
    11. Sachs Sybille, 2001. "Edith T. Penrose und ihr Einfluss auf die moderne „theory of the firm“," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 221(1), pages 115-120, February.
    12. Foxon, Timothy J., 2011. "A coevolutionary framework for analysing a transition to a sustainable low carbon economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2258-2267.
    13. Markus Grillitsch & Bjørn T. Asheim, 2017. "Cluster policy: Renewal through the integration of institutional variety," Chapters, in: Dirk Fornahl & Robert Hassink (ed.), The Life Cycle of Clusters, chapter 4, pages 76-94, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Saras D. Sarasvathy & Nicholas Dew, 2013. "Without judgment: An empirically-based entrepreneurial theory of the firm," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(3), pages 277-296, September.
    15. Thierry Aimar, 2009. "The curious destiny of a heterodoxy: The Austrian economic tradition," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 199-207, September.
    16. Sandra Silva, 2009. "On evolutionary technological change and economic growth: Lakatos as a starting point for appraisal," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 111-135, February.
    17. Werner Hölzl, 2005. "The evolutionary theory of the firm: Routines, complexity and change," Working Papers geewp46, Vienna University of Economics and Business Research Group: Growth and Employment in Europe: Sustainability and Competitiveness.
    18. Nicolai J. Foss, 2010. "Bounded Rationality and Organizational Economics," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Ruttan, Vernon W., 1996. "Sources Of Technical Change: Induced Innovation, Evolutionary Theory And Path Dependence," Bulletins 12974, University of Minnesota, Economic Development Center.
    20. Sandra Tavares Silva & Aurora A.C. Teixeira, 2006. "An evolutionary model of firms' institutional behavior focusing on labor decisions," FEP Working Papers 227, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01070615. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.