ABSTRACT
Adam Smith (1776, cited in Khalil 2001) coined the phrase and general philosophy of capitalism with his reference to the “invisible hand” that kept the market in equilibrium while also fomenting capital formation and new wealth. As such, this invisible hand is thought of as a self-regulating (Sorzano 1975) or self-correcting mechanism for the market. 1 This viewpoint doesn’t go far enough, however, in that it begs the question of whether the invisible hand is influencing market making or, based on our current understanding, is a self-regulating force that moves markets toward equilibrium. It does not explain market making in an open system where continued disequilibrium as shaped by moral meaning (Fourcade and Healy 2007) may be the only constant. Market making in the current age is shaped by the new invisible hand of altruism (McMahon 1981). 2 We hypothesize that it is this new invisible hand of altruism that is motivating the making of new markets, such as the high-technology industry, necessitating a new theory of value to explain market making and related value creation in the twenty-first century.
