Fonseca, M. G. D. “Routines, Rules and Patters of Behaviour in the context of Emergence.” In Texto apresentado na DRUID Nelson and Winter Conference. Aalborg , pp. 12-15. 2001.
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Forty years after Schumpeter explained in 1942 the process of competition - using the concept of a “destructive-creative” inner mechanism - Nelson and Winter (1982) published their synthesis of evolutionary economic theory based on a metaphor of the natural selection theory. The impact of their intellectual work was just felt in the beginning of the new Century. Their analytic framework compose presently one of the most complete explanations of micro dynamics and technical change. A remarkable point about the new evolutionary approach come forth in the deep similarity between the process of competition between agents (units of business) and the mechanism of natural selection. The selection principle must be transposed to the economic process of market competition, which is by its turn dependent on a continuous and varied production of goods, services and knowledge. Alternatively, it also depends on a large and diversified necessities. Evolutionary models also display other important characteristic: it can modify the market structure throughout a group of variables, provoking changes in the behaviour of agents.