Entrepreneurship as a Science of the Artificial
Posted: 6 Sep 2009
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Entrepreneurship as a Science of the Artificial
Entrepreneurship as a Science of the Artificial
Date Written: 2003
Abstract
This essay connects four key ideas from Herbert Simon’s 'Sciences of the Artificial' to recent research on entrepreneurial expertise: (1) natural laws constrain but do not dictate our designs; (2) we should seize every opportunity to avoid the use of prediction in design; (3) locality and contingency govern the sciences of the artificial; and, (4) near-decomposability is an essential feature of enduring designs. The essay is based on a series of conversations and emails with Simon about the empirical findings of my doctoral dissertation that involved a protocol analysis study of expert founder-entrepreneurs.
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