Uncertainty and Enterprise
Venturing Beyond the Known
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 4 February 2025
- ISBN 9780197688359
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages440 pages
- Size 237x165x41 mm
- Weight 771 g
- Language English 576
Categories
Short description:
Where does confidence come from, especially when we attempt something new? How do we justify judgments prone to mistake and disagreement? Drawing on more than thirty years of research, Amar Bhidé cuts through esoteric theories and glib "how-tos" to explain the practical ways we cope with uncertainties. Weaving together forgotten insights from the economist Frank Knight and other great twentieth-century thinkers, Bhidé presents a fresh perspective that sheds light on surprising aspects of entrepreneurship, from why startups and giants coexist to how vividly described possibilities help make the imagined real.
MoreLong description:
Uncertainty--doubt about what is or could be--fuels our ambitions and fears. Tantalizing possibilities spur us to innovate and explore. Yet, we also strive to reduce uncertainty. Mountain climbers and deep-sea divers plan carefully. Rules, routines, and research in business, the law, and medicine are designed to increase predictability and forestall unpleasant surprises.
Mainstream economics, however, hides from uncertainty, banishing it to the mystical world of unknown unknowns or reducing it to mechanistic calculation. Its textbooks ignore everyday problems that lack demonstrably correct solutions. But resolute responses to such problems require confidence. Where does confidence come from, especially when we go beyond the known? How do we justify our fallible judgments to ourselves and others?
Drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and research, Amar Bhidé offers compelling answers. Inspired by--while modernizing--the forgotten ideas of the economist Frank Knight and other great twentieth-century thinkers, Bhidé challenges both hyper-rational economic orthodoxy and claims of pervasive behavioral biases. He shows that while big bets require more justification, the facts alone don't persuade skeptics. Instead, narratives that combine reason, contextual evidence, and creative interpretations align our imaginations.
Bhidé's framework and rich examples explain neglected and surprising features of entrepreneurship. He shows how startups and giant corporations coexist; how seemingly bureaucratic procedures encourage the giants to undertake complex high-stakes initiatives; and, how vividly described possibilities help make the imagined real. Cutting through esoteric theories--but avoiding glib prescriptions--Uncertainty and Enterprise examines the foundations of bold yet reasonable action.
[Frank] Knight has been forgotten or misconstrued repeatedly over the past century. A new book by the scholar Amar Bhidé brings back his original insights and dares to try to improve upon them mostly by extending them into realms that Knight didnt consider, such as the persuasive techniques that entrepreneurs use to overcome the uncertainty felt by investors, customers and partners.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Part I: Invitation to the Voyage
1. The Offering
2. Uncertainty as Doubt
3. Conjectures about Justification
4. Applications to Enterprise
Part II: Formidable Obstacles, Forgotten Beacons
5. Frank Knight: The Spark That Did Not Ignite
6. Practically Omniscient Microeconomics
7. Imperfect Market Theories: Realism without Fallibility
8. John Maynard Keynes: Help to Distraction
9. Herbert Simon: Faded Guiding Star
10. Daniel Ellsberg's Ambiguity: A Simplifying Side Trip
11. Kahneman and Tversky: Gaining Acceptance, Dropping Uncertainty
12. Richard Thaler & Co.: Building the New Behavioral Boomtowns
Part III: The Specialization of Enterprise
13. Including Uncertainty: Recapitulation and Preview
14. "Bootstrapping" Improvised Startups
15. Calculating Capitalists: VCs and Angels Investors
16. The Evolution of Dynamic Bureaucracies
17. The Dominions of Giants
Part IV: Imaginative Discourse
18. The Aims of Discourse
19. The Devices of Discourse
20. Stories As Side Dishes
21. Spillovers from Popular Stories
Part V: Coda
22. The Case for Widening
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
