The objective of this book is to answer the calls from front-line managers, entrepreneurs, and scholarly researchers to reconstruct the theories of economics and business. Their request is for new theories to be more relevant to real life than the now-prevalent ones. To provide that answer, the book proposes to develop elementary postulates at the level of the four natural endowments of a business firm or an individual: self-awareness, imagination, conscience, and free will. Then, conclusions based on these postulates can be established through logical reasoning. On this realistic footing, the book employs the concepts, methodology, and logical reasoning of systems science to answer a full list of theoretically and practically important questions. Those queries involve such topics as rationality, the meanings of optima and choices of optimization methods, the relationship between micro- and macro-phenomena, consumption preferences, and utility representations.

The target audience of the book includes graduate students and scholarly researchers, particularly those who look for opportunities to develop new territories in the world of economic and business knowledge. The book also aims at front-line decision-making managers and entrepreneurs who seek sounder theories than the commonly available ones on which to base their critical decisions. By competently employing the systemic intuitionyoyo model, graduate students, scholarly researchers, decision-making managers, and entrepreneurs can attain new conclusions. In addition, they will gain insightful understanding of market signals without unnecessarily expending other resources of limited availability.

Provides scholars with a brand-new approach to the research of applied economic and business topics Employs systems science and holistic logical reasoning to avoid the serious limitations of conventional methods Develops economic and business theories for practical use by eliminating unrealistic assumptions

Autorentext
Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest (aka Yi Lin) earned his PhD degree in mathematics from Auburn University, Alabama; and served as a visiting professor of economics, finance, mathematics, and systems science at several major universities from various countries. Currently, he is a professor of mathematics and the research coach for the School of Business at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Other than heading the International Institute for General Systems Studies, he served or serves on the editorial boards of thirteen scholarly journals, as a co-editor-in-chief of the international journal "Advances in Systems Science and Application," the editor- or co-editor-in-chief of four book series, "Grey System (Springer)," "Systems Evaluation, Prediction, and Decision-Making (CRC Press, New York)," "Communications in Cybernetics, Systems Science and Engineering," and "Communications in Cybernetics, Systems Science and Engineering - Proceedings (CRC Press, Balkema)." As of today, he publishedover 500 research works, including over 50 authored or edited volumes.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Revisits to Some Fundamental Issues Facing Economic & Business Studies.- Chapter 2. Systems Science and the Logic of Systemic Reasoning.- Chapter 3. Closed and Open Systems.- Chapter 4. The Evolution of Freely Competitive Markets.- Chapter 5. Consumer's Natural Endowments.- Chapter 6. Scenarios not Adequately Investigated. Chapter 7. Each Customer Defines What is Optimal and How to Optimize.- Chapter 8. Rationality: Optimal Fit to the Underlying Value-Belief System.- Chapter 9. Economy's Properties Emerging out of Micro Agents of Inconsistent Interests.- Chapter 10. Overcoming the Challenge of the Fallacy of Composition.- Chapter 11. Production, Costs and Profits of a Producer Firm.- Chapter 12. Production Possibilities, Correspondence and Factor Demand.- Chapter 13. Optimal Production Correspondence and Aggregated Supply/Demand.- Chapter 14 Consumption Preferences and Utilities.- Chapter 15. Convexities of Consumption Preferences.- Chapter 16. Budget and Demand Correspondence.- Chapter 17. Management Efficiency and Organizational Inefficiency.