Management as a science of the artificial

In some of his final papers on organization economics, Simon suggested building a new theoretical edifice of organizations and markets based on a “full-bodied” theory of the firm, as opposed to the “skeletal” view currently embraced by economics. The full-bodied firm would, in Simon’s conceptualization, rest upon: (a) the fundamental behavioral assumption of docility rather than opportunism; (b) focus on design activities of managers as well as on their decision making; and, (c) challenge the ubiquity and exogeneity of markets, making them instead an artificial product of human design. In other words, the endeavor he left us with is to begin constructing a behavioral theory of markets.