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Cross-Disciplinary Scientific Foundation for Sustainability Chapter j 3 47

Some evidence may bear on process models that incorporate a characterization
of grammatical competence, while other evidence seems to bear on competence
more directly, in abstraction from conditions of language use.
Chomsky (1957, p. 201).
In order words, qualitative methods for language usage, are the basic data
collection procedure for linguists. They use discovery and description of
everyday language as the basic core for their analyses and theories. Clark and
Sørensen (1994a,b, 1995, summarized in Clark and Sørensen, 2002) have
applied Chomsky’s linguistic theory(s) to understanding business and
economics. Clark and Fast (2008) have now refined qualitative economics in
terms of theory and methodology. In particular, the direct application of the
theories and methods in this volume to specific business cases has proven
invaluable. Of particular interest for the business community has been the
plethora of legal cases involving corporate governance, scandals, and bank-
ruptcies in the Unites States. Qualitative economics is both useful and
scientific in analyzing, understanding, and predicting future corporate actions
(Clark and Demirag, 2006).

QUALITATIVE ECONOMICS: TOWARD A SCIENCE OF
ECONOMICS

The subjectivist paradigm is reflected in an interactionism perspective to
specific concepts in business economics. We want to explore a few areas in
which some of the concepts in the book might be applicable to everyday
business. Although our concern is primarily with organizations (organizing)
and international business, we do present other basic concepts of business in
new theoretical perspectives.
In particular, we take both real business situations and cases as examples of
how the science of qualitative economics works. We discuss situations wherein
research organizations seek to commercialize their discoveries. Also, we
discuss companies that appear to have exposed conventional economic models
and annual reports whereby their statistics and accounting lead to false and
criminal acts.
Moreover, we look at the science of economics from the public policy
perspective wherein decision makers have created deregulation or privatiza-
tion schemes for certain vital infrastructure sectors to the determinant of the
general public, while enhancing the enormously false profits of their execu-
tives. A qualitative economics approach to business exposes such financial
schemes.