Toward a Framework for Behavioral Strategy: What We Can Learn from Austrian Economics

Abstract

The Austrian school of economics has recently made inroads into and appears may become an important perspective in the study of strategic management and entrepreneurship. Yet we see little of the prediction two decades ago that a specifically "Austrian school of strategy" would emerge (Jacobson, Academy of Management Review, 1992). This chapter summarizes the measurable influence of "Austrian economics" in strategy to date, and notes core insights from the Austrian school that are yet to be discovered by strategy and entrepreneurship scholars. I argue that our field has much to gain from looking closer at the uniquely integrated framework, perspective, and approach of the Austrian school, rather than just incorporate individual Austrian concepts, and illustrate the argument with a discussion on the distinctively Austrian conception of time and implications thereof for strategy and entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Austrian economics, strategy, entrepreneurship, time

JEL Classification: B53, L1, L26