Browsing Working Papers (SMG) by Author "Klein, Peter G."
Now showing items 1-15 of 15
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Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper offers a critical perspective on Israel Kirzner’s basic analytical framework. Specifically, we characterize Kirzner’s emphasis on processes of equilibration as a departure from the causal-realist price theory developed by Menger and his nineteenth- and twentieth-century followers. In this context, we contrast Kirzner’s interpretation of entrepreneurship as discovery with a more realistic, and operationally meaningful, idea of entrepreneurship as action. Finally, we discuss an inconsistency in Kirzner’s treatment of the antecedents of entrepreneurial behavior. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8029 Files in this item: 1
CBS_Forskningsindberetning_SMG_247.pdf (249.8Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We discuss the emergence of the theory of the firm (in the Coasian sense); survey and discuss the main currents of the theo~y of the firm, and discuss what has determined the emergence of the theory of the firm. We argue that advances in the theory of the firm have been strongly influenced by conceptual innovations in (mainstream) economics in general and by the ongoing division of labour in economics in tandem with a recognition of the importance of a number of empirical anomalies The substantive borrowing from neighbouring disciplines, such as business history, law, psychology, organizational sociology and business administration has been relatively limited and ad hoc (although some scholars, notably Williamson, have made more substantive use of these disciplines than othe~s) The fact that the theory of the firm has stayed relatively close in to the (changing) economic mainstream and that its substantive borrowing from neighbouring disciplines has been relatively limited unde~lie and explain much of the "external" critique of the theory (i.e., the critiques of sociologists, heterodox economists and management scholars). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7444 Files in this item: 1
cbs forskningsindberetning smg 38.pdf (6.112Mb) -
Origins, Attributes, CritiqueFoss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Israel Kirzner’s concept of entrepreneurship as alertness to profit opportunities is one of the most influential modern interpretations of the entrepreneurial function. Shane and Venkataraman’s (2000: 218) influential assessment defines entrepreneurship research as “the scholarly examination of how, by whom, and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered, evaluated, and exploited.” As such, “the field involves the study of sources of opportunities; the processes of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities; and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them.” Shane’s General Theory of Entrepreneurship (2003) cites Kirzner and “Kirznerian opportunities” more than any writer other than Joseph Schumpeter. More generally, the entrepreneurial opportunity, rather than the individual entrepreneur, the startup company, or the new product, has become the centerpiece of the academic study of entrepreneurship. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7755 Files in this item: 1
SMG WP 2009-02.pdf (317.2Kb) -
From opportunity discovery to judgmentFoss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Entrepreneurship has become a fast-growing subfield in management research, and is increasingly appearing in economics, finance, and even law. We survey a number of approaches to entrepreneurship in the economics and management literatures, and argue that modern research in this area need to be focused around ideas from Austrian economics and Frank Knight on entrepreneurial judgment. We critically discuss the recent opportunity discovery literature in management, and argue that it has partially misunderstood the Austrian origins of the theory, and fails to ade-quately distinguish between opportunity identification and opportunity exploitation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7485 Files in this item: 1
smg wp 2008-05.pdf (347.1Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Entrepreneurship is ultimately about the arrangement of resources into productive activi-ties. Much of the entrepreneurship literature, however, has focused on the demand side of the market. While resource heterogeneity is a feature of many theories of the firm, such theories are not built on a systematic theory of capital. We show how the approach to capital developed by the Austrian school of economics provides a natural bridge between theory of entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm. We refine Austrian capital theory by defining capital heterogeneity in terms of subjectively perceived attributes, the func-tions, characteristics, and uses of capital assets. Such attributes are not given, but have to be created or discovered by means of entrepreneurial action. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7443 Files in this item: 1
smg wp 2008-03.pdf (348.5Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Bylund, Per L. (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The study of entrepreneurship and the study of economic organizing lack contact. In fact, the modern theory of the firm virtually ignores entrepreneurship, while the literature on entrepreneurship often sees little value in the economic theory of the firm. In contrast, we argue in this chapter that entrepreneurship theory and the theory of the firm can be usefully integrated, and that doing so would improve both bodies of theory. Adding the entrepreneur to the theory of the firm provides a dynamic view that the overly static analysis of firm organizing cannot support. Moreover, adding the firm to the study of the entrepreneur provides important clues to how we can understand entrepreneurship. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8250 Files in this item: 1
SMG WP 6_2011.pdf (160.0Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai Juul; Klein, Peter G. (, 2011)[More information][Less information]
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Towards a new SynthesisFoss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Kor, Yasemin Y.; Mahoney, Joseph T. (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper maintains that the consistent application of subjectivism helps to reconcile contemporary entrepreneurship theory with strategic management research in general, and the resource−based view in particular. The paper synthesizes theoretical insights from Austrian economics and Penrose’s (1959) resources approach, arguing that entrepreneurship is inherently subjective and firm specific. This new synthesis describes how entrepreneurship is manifested in teams, and is driven by both heterogeneity of managerial mental models and shared team experiences. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7463 Files in this item: 1
cbs forskningsindberetning smg 67.pdf (455.7Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We briefly survey Hayek’s work and argue for its increasing relevance for organizational scholars. Hayek’s work inspired aspects of the transaction cost approach to the firm as well as knowledge management and knowledge-based view of the firm. But Hayek is usually seen within organizational scholarship as a narrow, technical economist. We hope to change that perception here by pointing to his work on rules, evolution, entrepreneurship and other aspects of his wide-ranging oeuvre with substantive implications for organizational theory. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8655 Files in this item: 1
Foss_Klein_SMGWP2013_3.pdf (737.3Kb) -
Implications of Strategic Management TheoryAgarwal, Rajshree; Barney, Jay B.; Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Macroeconomic theory assumes that factors of production in the economy are homogeneous and fungible. As a result, it may be ill-suited for developing policy responses to the recent financial crisis. Theories of strategic management and organization, with their emphasis on heterogeneously distributed resources and capabilities, may be better positioned. Examples of where macroeconomic theory may lead policies astray, and where theories of strategic management may be more appropriate, are provided. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7906 Files in this item: 1
SMG WP 2009-06.pdf (470.7Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Entrepreneurship and the theory of the firm are two of the fastest-growing fields in eco-nomics and management. The two fields developed largely in isolation and are only now beginning to be brought together. We argue that each field has much to learn from the other and that combining them yields a better theory of the firm and a fuller understand-ing of the nature and effects of entrepreneurship in the economy. Specifically, the Knightian concept of entrepreneurship as judgment, combined with the Austrian ap-proach to capital heterogeneity, leads to a number of unconventional insights about the nature, boundaries, and internal organization of the firm. The judgment perspective also shifts attention from the discovery or recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities to the exploitation of those opportunities through the acquisition, combination, and recombina-tion of resources, adding to our understanding of the causes and consequences of entre-preneurship. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7461 Files in this item: 1
smg wp 2008-04.pdf (328.7Kb) -
Foss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This chapter reviews and discusses rational-choice approaches to organizational governance. These approaches are found primarily in organizational economics (virtually no rational-choice organizational sociology exists), particularly in transaction cost economics, principal-agent theory, and the incomplete-contracts or property-rights approach. We distill the main unifying characteristics of these streams, survey each stream, and offer some critical commentary and suggestions for moving forward. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7438 Files in this item: 1
smg_wp_11.pdf (832.2Kb) -
Foss, Nicilai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Linder, Stefan (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Austrian economics focuses on markets, but has much to say about organizations. In particular, Austrian insights on the structure of production, the heterogeneity and subjectivity of resources, the nature of uncertainty, the role of monetary calculation, and the function of the entrepreneur provide solid foundations for a distinctly Austrian theory of organizations. We review these insights, discuss recent literature on Austrian economics and the theory of the firm, and suggest new directions for developing and extending an Austrian approach to organizations. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8692 Files in this item: 1
Foss_Klein_Linder_SMGWP2013.pdf (544.3Kb) -
An Entrepreneurial Theory of Economic OrganizationKlein, Peter G.; Foss, Nicolai J.; Foss, Kirsten (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Recent work links entrepreneurship to the economic theory of firm using the Knightian concept of entrepreneurship as judgment. When judgment is complementary to other as-sets, and these assets or their services are traded in well-functioning markets, it makes sense for entrepreneurs to hire labor and own assets. The entrepreneur’s role, then, is to arrange or organize the human and capital assets under his control. We extend this Knightian concept of the firm by developing a theory of delegation under Knightian uncertainty. What we call original judgment belongs exclusively to owners, but owners may delegate a wide range of decision rights to subordinates, who exercise derived judgment. We call these employees "proxy-entrepreneurs," and ask how the firm’s or-ganizational structure — its formal and informal systems of rewards and punishments, rules for settling disputes and renegotiating agreements, means of evaluating perform-ance, and so on — can be designed to encourage forms of proxy-entrepreneurship that increase firm value while discouraging actions that destroy value. Building on key ideas from the entrepreneurship literature, Austrian economics, and the economic theory of the firm we develop a framework for analyzing the tradeoff between productive and de-structive proxy-entrepreneurship. We link this analysis to the employment relation and ownership structure, providing new insights into these and related issues in the eco-nomic theory of the firm. Keywords: Judgment, entrepreneur, delegation, employment relation, ownership. JEL Codes: B53, D23, L2 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7452 Files in this item: 1
smg 2006-48.pdf (368.6Kb) -
Klein, Peter G.; Barney, Jay B.; Foss, Nicolai J. (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Strategic entrepreneurship is a newly recognized field that draws, not surprisingly, from the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship. The field emerged officially with the 2001 special issue of the Strategic Management Journal on “strategic entrepreneurship”; the first dedicated periodical, the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, appeared in 2007. Strategic entrepreneurship is built around two core ideas. (1) Strategy formulation and execution involves attributes that are fundamentally entrepreneurial, such as alertness, creativity, and judgment, and entrepreneurs try to create and capture value through resource acquisition and competitive posi-tioning. (2) Opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking—the former the central subject of the entrepreneurship field, the latter the central subject of the strategic management field—are pro-cesses that should be considered jointly. This entry explains the specific links between strategy and entrepreneurship, reviews the emergence and development of the strategic entrepreneurship field, and discusses key implications and applications. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8514 Files in this item: 1
Klein_Barney_Foss_SMGWP2012_3.pdf (457.4Kb)
Now showing items 1-15 of 15