Herbert Simon and the concept of dispersed entrepreneurship

This essay discusses the direct and indirect ways in which HerbertSimon’s ideas influenced two British scholars in the study of decision making and entrepreneurship in the large and complex modern business corporation. It suggests that his focus on imperfect and dispersed knowledge and on subsystems in organisations were forerunners of the notions of incrementalism and diffused entrepreneurship. While having proper regard to the characteristics of the inspirational individual as entrepreneur, we have drawn on the behavioural science approach which, in significant respects, transcends traditional ideas of leadership in decision making. We have been drawn by the continuing thread in Simon’s work, through bounded rationality, variety of objectives, procedural rationality, and organisational complexity. His emphasis on processes as determinants of the quality of decision making in economic organisations has been a significant influence