Tag: Fads

Books that John has reviewed in the past...

We are told that corporations are becoming ever more powerful; a match even for national economies. Before getting too concerned it is worth considering the nature of this authority.

The idea of rational profit- and utility maximisation is prominent in economics, but was challenged by Herbert Simon, a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics who died in February. Instead Simon emphasised the idea of bounded rationality in economics. This article explains why that approach deserves to survive its author.

Seemingly conflicting theories about economics and business may in fact just illustrate different aspects of an issue. It is often pointless to look for a single explanation of a successful business operation or economic behaviour in general. The post-modernist idea that scientific truths are not objective facts captures something very important about the nature of social science

Christmas Quiz (with full answers)

The interrelationship of technology, economic advance, and social and political systems, has many ramifications. The last ten years, in economic terms, have constituted an American decade. But the way in which the American decade comes to an end is probably the most important issue for the world economy today.

Can conventional economic theory be extended to understanding Christmas gifts? Maybe it can, but this would require a more subtle understanding of human behavour than the idea of rational economic man. This article shows that we do not simply value gifts in terms of the cost of the purchase.

Oxford University is still one the world's greatest academic institutions. To rise to fresh challenges in the twenty first century it must begin to address the ineffectiveness of its proceedings.

John resigned as Director of Oxford University's Said Business School in July 2000. A year and half later, he breaks his silence to talk about some of the frustrations of attempting to help the university face up to the challenges of the twenty first century.

Dr Clarendon, an expert on the Management of Decline, provides a more light-hearted account of John's views on the state of Oxford University.