This paper deals with the theories of evolutionary economics and the evolutionary nature of the firm. Although mainstream economics, which is influenced by equilibrium-based Newtonian mechanics, dominates the academic-world we have seen a revival of interest in evolutionary ideas in heterodox economics more generally over the last two decades. Contemporary evolutionary economics, which mainly stems from works of Schumpeter, focuses on entrepreneurship and technological change in the capitalist economy and criticizes the static framework of neoclassic economics. The main aim of this paper is to summarize evolutionary approaches in economics and to investigate the source of technological change at the firm level. Main presumptions of evolutionary economics can be summarized as the consideration of dynamics, the acceptance of heterogeneity among agents and the view of interaction among agents as a selection mechanism and finally the recognition of source of continuous novelty in society. Moreover, this paper presents an assessment of emergent topics in the evolutionary literature, namely self-organization and complexity theory.
Key words: Evolutionary Economics, Localized Technological Change Article Language: EnglishTurkish
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