Making It Happen: Beyond Theories of the Firm to Theories of Firm Design

Saras D. Sarasvathy

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2004, vol. 28, issue 6, 519-531

Abstract: Current theories of the firm provide no explanation for entrepreneurial success except in terms of firm success. Even when the focus is on the entrepreneur, s/he is entirely cast as a bundle of traits/behaviors or heuristics/biases that serves to explain firm performance. In this article, I suggest putting the entrepreneur center stage, adopting an instrumental view of the firm. Drawing upon the work of Simon in symbolic cognition and Lakoff in semantic cognition, I explore how we can go beyond explanations based on economic forces and evolutionary adaptation to entrepreneurial effectuation; I end with specific research questions pertaining to firm design .

Date: 2004
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:28:y:2004:i:6:p:519-531

DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2004.00062.x

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