Planned obsolescence and the manufacture of doubt

In this chapter we adopt and extend in a precise direction Mayhew's critical arguments against the evolutionary theory of the firm as elaborated by Nelson and Winter (Mayhew 2000). Focusing on the distinction between ‘fixed and open systems of analysis’, Mayhew emphasizes the sharp difference between Veblen's theory of business enterprise and the ‘truncating’ view of Nelson and Winter (ibid.: 57).