F. A. Hayek vs. J. M. Keynes in Shackle's marginal gloss

The intellectual rivalry of F.A. Hayek and J.M. Keynes has recently caught the attention of historians of economic thought, journalists and the broad public. However, how was it viewed at the time? This article uses archival material in the form of marginal annotations made by G.L.S. Shackle to determine contemporary reading responses to the theoretical developments of the 1930s. Shackle’s unique reading style that includes legible, dated, annotations and the fact that a substantial part of his academic library survives, gives us a unique vantage point from which to explore anew this period of intellectual history

Contracting for the unknown and the logic of innovation

This paper discusses the components of contracts adequatefor governing innovation, and their microfoundations in the logic of innovative decision processes. Drawing on models of discovery and design processes, distinctive logical features of innovative decision making are specified and connected to features of contracts that can sustain innovation processes and do not fail under radical uncertainty. It is argued that if new knowledge is to be generated under uncertainty and risk, 'relational contracts', as usually intended, are not enough and a more robust type of contracting is needed and it is actually often used: formal constitutional contracts that associate resources, leave their uses rationally unspecified, but exhaustively specify the assignment of residual decision rights and other property rights, and the decision rules to be followed in governance. The argument is supported by an analysis of a large international database on the governance of multi-party projects in discovery-intensive and design-intensive industries

The Materiality of Absence:Organizing and the case of the incomplete cathedral

This study explores the role of absences in making organizing possible. By engaging with Lefebvre’s spatial triad as the interconnections between conceived (planned), perceived (experienced through practice) and lived (felt and imagined) spaces, we challenge the so-called metaphysics of presence in organization studies. We draw on the insights offered by the project of construction of Siena Cathedral during the period 1259– 1357 and we examine how it provided a space for the actors involved to explore their different (civic, architectural and religious) intentions. We show that, as the contested conceived spaces of the cathedral were connected to architectural practices, religious powers and civic symbols, they revealed the impossibility for these intentions to be fully represented. It was this impossibility that provoked an ongoing search for solutions and guaranteed a combination of dynamism and persistence of both the material architecture of the cathedral and the project of construction. The case of Siena Cathedral therefore highlights the role of absence in producing organizing effects not because absence eventually takes form but because of the impossibility to fully represent it

Primary and secondary markets

The analytical starting point determines the course of a theoretical investigation and ultimately the productiveness of an approach. The classics took production and accumulation as their point of departure, the neoclassics exchange. Exchange implies behavioral assumptions and notions like rationality, optimization, and equilibrium. It is widely recognized that this approach has led into a cul-de-sac. To change a theory means to change its premises or, in Keynes’s words, to ‘throw over’ the axioms. The present paper swaps the standard behavioral axioms for structural axioms and applies the latter to the analysis of the emergence of secondary markets from the flow part of the economy. Real and nominal residuals at first give rise to the accumulation of the stock of money and the stock of commodities. These stocks constitute the demand and supply side of secondary markets. The pricing in these markets is different from the pricing in the primary markets. Realized appreciation in the secondary markets is different from income or profit. To treat primary and secondary markets alike is therefore a category mistake. Vice versa, to take a set of objective propositions as analytical starting point yields a comprehensive and consistent theory of market exchange and valuation

Discovery and Creation: Alternative Theories of Entrepreneurial Action

As oportunidades empreendedoras existem, independentemente, das percepções dos empreendedores, esperando apenas para serem descobertas? Ou, estas oportunidades são criadas pelas ações dos empreendedores? Duas teorias, internamente, consistentes com as oportunidades empreendedoras são: teoria da criação e teoria da descoberta- as quais serão descritas. Enquanto, será sempre possível, descrever a formação de uma oportunidade particular, como exemplo, de um processo da descoberta ou da criação de oportunidade, estas duas teorias têm implicações importantes para a eficácia de uma variedade ampla de ações empreendedoras em contextos diferentes. As implicações destas teorias para sete destas ações serão descritas, acompanhadas de uma discussão sobre algumas das implicações teóricas mais amplas destas duas teorias para os campos do empreendimento e do gerenciamento estratégico