Abstract

In this chapter I will discuss a particular kind of economic behaviour that is not an integral part of the homo oeconomicus model. This behaviour is called meso because it is neither part of micro- nor of macroeconomics alone and it is shaped systemically through interactive socioeconomic associations. Thereafter, meso is characterized through structure as well as process components of dynamic change. In the second section I will identify some prototypic descriptions of such behaviour in the work of T.B. Veblen and J.A. Schumpeter in order to motivate an analytical discussion for generating meso behaviour. These prototypes include the instinct of workmanship and innovative entrepreneurship, as well as financing the means of the latter. It is argued that meso behaviour transforms the economy from within (i.e., leading to structural change including the possibility of economic crisis). However, the aforementioned scholars did not have analytical tools that were effective to translate these narratives into didactic analytical models. For this very reason, appropriate concepts and tools are discussed in order to ease the involved complexities for generating meso behaviour in models and simulations.