„Two of the most prominent theories of business – transaction cost analysis and agency theory – are taught and researched in virtually every school of business around the world. They are built on a mean-spirited and distorted view of human nature and on a narrow, outdated, and repudiated notion of ethics. Although business educators and researchers are not directly responsible for the scandals – such as Enron and, more recently, the credit crisis – that have racked the business world in recent years, they are contributing and enabling factors.“ (Mitroff, I.I./Silvers, A. 2010: Dirty Rotten Strategies. 115. Stanford)
„An even more telling blow to economics are the following comments; unfortunately one of the key concepts of economics, the concept of rational economic man, applies more to apes than it does to humans:
‚Economic theory has contrived a species it calls Homo economicus – a „rational maximizer“ who grabs what he can for himself. [However, in experiments, p]eople do not act like Homo economicus. Instead they are the arbiters of fairness. … [In experiments] chimps are simply rational maximizers – Pan economicus, if you like.‘ (Buckley, C. 2007: Patience, Fairness, and the Human Condition. The Economist, October 6, 2007, 93)
The conclusion? We have developed the kind of economics that applies mainly to apes. Why? Because it is founded, whether knowingly or unknowingly, on the behavior of apes.“ (Mitroff, I.I./Silvers, A. 2010: Dirty Rotten Strategies. 119. Stanford)
Albert Martin 