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Discusses the economic contributions of George Barclay Richardson. Detailing the Austrian and Marshallian aspects of his work, argues that all his contributions – on industrial organization, welfare economics, history of thought, etc. – are united in their concern with the co‐ordination problem, that is, the problem of theoretically demonstrating how order may be achieved in decentralized market economies. Furthermore, argues that Richardson′s work from 1953 to 1972 in the answers it gave to this problem anticipated a number of themes that have only recently acquired prominence in economic theory, specifically in neo‐institutionalist thought. The pioneering originality of his work also partly accounts for the relative neglect with which it was originally received.

Middle managers’ intrapreneurial actions can be a powerful source of organizational adaptation and strategic renewal. Better understanding what drives such intrapreneurial actions is important, yet requires data, which allows testing directional claims. For example, whereas autonomy and supportive leadership might be antecedents to such intrapreneurial behavior, it equally seems possible that firms delegate more autonomy to individuals behaving entrepreneurially (rather than being “lazy”) or that senior managers are more inclined to show support for individuals engaging in entrepreneurial action. Lagged or longitudinal survey evidence to test whether autonomy and leadership support are antecedents of intrapreneurship or consequences, is – like for many other questions in research on strategic responsiveness – hard and expensive to collect. Vignette experiments (also called factorial surveys or conjoint studies) may be a way out – especially when combined with cross-sectional evidence. The present chapter illustrates this approach by studying the relations among autonomy, supportive leadership, and intrapreneurship by means of a vignette experiment and a cross-sectional field survey. The findings suggest that autonomy and supportive leadership are indeed antecedents to intrapreneurial behavior and illustrate the value of vignette experiments for research on strategic responsiveness.