Economics language and assumptions: How theories can become self-fulfilling

Fabrizio Ferraro (), Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
Additional contact information
Fabrizio Ferraro: IESE Business School, Postal: Research Division, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN
Jeffrey Pfeffer: Stanford University
Robert I. Sutton: Stanford University

No D/530, IESE Research Papers from IESE Business School

Abstract: Social science theories can become self-fulfilling because they shape institutional designs and management practices as well as social norms and expectations about behavior, thereby creating the behavior they predict. Social theories also perpetuate themselves to the extent that they promulgate language and assumptions that become widely used and accepted. Language and assumptions affect what people see and think about and what alternative organizational arrangements they consider implementing. We illustrate these ideas by considering how the language and assumptions of economics shape management practices. We argue that theories can "win" in the marketplace for ideas independently of their empirical validity to the extent that their assumptions and language become taken for granted, normatively valued, and therefore, create conditions that make the theories come "true."

Keywords: language; self-fulfilling prophecy; social science; economic theories (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2003-12-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0530-E.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0530

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IESE Research Papers from IESE Business School IESE Business School, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Noelia Romero ().