People can be lazy. We often don’t find out all information relevant to the decision we are making. It is hard work to find information. Our decisions based upon limited information can lead to personally or environmentally destructive outcomes. People wouldn’t make these decisions if they thought a little harder. This is a problem. What…
Category: Management Theory
Evolution And Jack Welch
While it is rarely explicitly acknowledged evolutionary thinking is central to business theory. People often believe selection pressures change populations competing in markets. (How exactly this happens is often a little vague). What is the connection between evolution and Jack Welch? Evolutionary Thinking In Economics Armen Alchian was an early proponent of evolutionary thinking in…
Rational Voters?
Whenever I hear someone say “rational” I worry. Everyone means a different thing. This is a problem as obviously you can’t discuss rationality without knowing what it is. Bryan Caplan uses his view of rationality to criticize democracy in The Myth of the Rational Voter (Caplan 2007). The book left me with mixed feelings. I love…
Paranoia Doesn’t Make Sense
The most infuriating articles are written by otherwise impressive scholars. One such article is Roderick Kramer’s When Paranoia Makes Sense. Written in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Enron debacle it may have resonated at the time. Still, it is irredeemably flawed and socially malignant. Kramer should have known better. Paranoia Doesn’t Make…
Friedman’s Ethical Joker
In 1970 Milton Friedman produced perhaps the most influential popular article by an economist, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits. Admittedly 43 years late is not the snappiest comeback. (I wrote this in 2013). Still Friedman’s argument has flaws. Many have already tackled major weaknesses. Here I will concentrate on a…
Selfishness and Rationality
People often imply that selfishness is central to rational decision making. Yet this is wrong by any meaningful definition of rationality. Selfishness and rationality are not inextricably intertwined. Defining Rationality Definitions matter in the real world. Managers can believe they commit a business sin by considering others — they are being irrational by not being…
What Is Marketing?
Many issues in management seem to cause confusion. The first I see as a business school professor is the simple question “What is marketing?” This can be surprisingly difficult. (Interestingly if you look the discipline seems to have changed quite a lot since the early days). What Is Marketing Not? Let’s get rid of some…
