Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/31854 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Papers on Economics and Evolution No. 0606
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
One reason why firms exist, this paper argues, is because they are suitable organizations within which cooperative production systems based on human social predispositions can evolve. In addition, we show how an entrepreneur - given these predispositions - can shape human behavior within a firm. To illustrate these processes, we will present a model that depicts how the biased transmission of cultural contents via social learning processes within the firm influence employees' behavior and the performance of the firm. These biases can be traced back to evolved social predispositions. Humans lived in tribal scale social systems based on significant amounts of intra- and even intergroup cooperation for tens if not a few hundred thousand years before the first complex societies arose. Firms rest upon the social psychology originally evolved for tribal life. We also relate our conclusions to empirical evidence on the performance and size of different kinds of organizations. Modern organizations have functions rather different from ancient tribes, leading to friction between our social predispositions and organization goals. Firms that manage to reduce this friction will tend to function better.
Subjects: 
Theory of the Firm
Cultural Evolution
Entrepreneurship
Firm Performance
Cooperation
JEL: 
L25
D21
M13
M14
C61
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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