Adam Smith's invisible hand metaphor (IH) is examined in light of two different accounts of the origin of traits: Charles Darwin's theory of evolutionary optimization and William Paley's theory of divine intervention. Smith's stand supersedes both accounts. For Smith, intermediating drives, such...

Drawing on literature underpinning brand management in marketing, product life cycles in economics, fads in sociology and aging in biology, this paper argues that brand demise is inevitable and not necessarily caused by managerial incompetence. Rather, this demise is a natural part of a brand's...

The paper identifies two major conceptual challenges facing evolutionary economics and shows how they parallel similar challenges facing evolutionary and developmental biology. One issue is the differentiation between learning-by-doing, on one hand, and habit formation, on the other. Another...

The recent era of economic turbulence has generated a growing enthusiasm for an increase in new and original economic insights based around the concepts of reciprocity and social enterprise. This stimulating and thought-provoking Handbook not only encourages and supports this growth, but also...