The 'Austrian' tradition is well-known for its definitive contributions to economics in the twentieth century. However, Austrian economics also offers an exciting research agenda outside the traditional boundaries of economics, especially in the management disciplines. This Element examines how Austrian ideas play a key role in expanding the understanding of fields like entrepreneurship, strategy, and organization. It focuses especially on the vital role that entrepreneurs play in guiding economic progress by shaping firms and their strategic behavior. In doing so, it explains a wide range of contributions that Austrian economics makes to the understanding of key problems in management, while also highlighting many directions for future work in this inspiring tradition.

Microfoundations

by Nicolai J. Foss and Stefan Linder

Published 18 November 2019
'Microfoundations' has become prominent in the discourse of management scholars. But what is it and how does it matter? This Element provides a characterization of microfoundations based on classical work on the methodology of social science and documents and discusses its manifestations in management research over the last one and a half decades. It also covers the relation of microfoundations to multilevel research, criticisms of microfoundations, and empirical research strategies for microfoundations.