ABSTRACT
The first chapter was dedicated to the discussion of general concepts of risk and decision making. Starting with the influential formulation of Knight (1921), I argued that economic theories of decision making under risk neglect too many empirical phenomena which are relevant from a sociological perspective. Therefore I considered it necessary to use genuinely sociological concepts of decision making, and of risk, in order to analyse processes of decision making under risk in organisations. These concepts are provided by neo-institutional and systems theoretic accounts of organised decision making. The basic notion is that decisions do not take place on the basis of preferences, but as a reaction to behavioural expectations. As far as future events are attributed to present decisions, one can speak of risk.
