A Possible Reinterpretation of the Micro, Meso, and Macro Relationships in the Context of Complexity

In this chapter we evaluate—for the purposes of studying the micro, meso, and macro relationships in the Economics of Complexity—the potential of using an approach that is close to the logic of complex social systems. If we represent the company as a self-referential system, we admit that it is primarily interested in self-reproducing the conditions of its existence. It defines itself as a system for tackling the complexity of the environment and aims to continuously regenerate its diversity with respect to the surrounding world; for this purpose, the enterprise system implements a “systemic selection,” based on its “meaning,” which continuously refers to this reproduction. The organization of the company as a system also implies that any success achieved by it, in terms of stability or reproduction, makes the environment of all other systems more complex. Thus, it follows that whenever an entrepreneurial form is capable of overcoming its challenge with the complexity of the reference context even temporarily, it brings about not only new complexity within it but also renewed complexity in its reference environment. The enterprise system, in fact, is in turn part of the environment of other systems—among which we can identify other companies (competitors, suppliers, customers, and partners) and broader systems (sectors or markets)—and any increase in complexity within it produces an increase in complexity in the environment of these other systems.