scholarly journals The Theory of the Firm as Governance Structure: From Choice to Contract

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver E Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Theory Of The Firm ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Choice Approach

The propositions that organization matters and that it is susceptible to analysis were long greeted by skepticism by economists. One reason why this message took a long time to register is that it is much easier to say that organization matters than it is to show how and why. The prevalence of the science of choice approach to economics has also been an obstacle. As developed herein, the lessons of organization theory for economics are both different and more consequential when examined through the lens of contract. This paper examines economic organization from a science of contract perspective, with special emphasis on the theory of the firm.

Governance in Online Stolen Data Markets

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meltem Odaba¸ ◽  
Thomas J. Holt ◽  
Ronald L. Breiger
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
User Groups ◽  
Underground Economies ◽  
Two Sided Markets

We analyze the governance structure of online stolen data markets. As cybercriminal underground economies, stolen data markets are beyond the reach of state intervention, and yet they need form and regulation in order to function. While the illicit nature of the business brings risks to its participants, the online characteristics of these markets enable the participants to communicate easily, which is a crucial means of generating trust. We first identify stolen data markets in terms of their economic organization as two-sided markets, economic platforms with two distinct user groups that provide each other with network synergies. This characterization enables us to understand the role of the forum administrator as that of an intermediary, market creator, and market regulator. Then we clarify the role of communication networks and social structure in creating trust among buyers and sellers.

Organizing, Organizations, and the Role of Social Media Conversations

2018 ◽  
pp. 62-78
Author(s):  
Veronica R. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Theory Of The Firm ◽  
Organizational Participation ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Communicative Theory

This chapter traces the concept of organizational identity in organization theory and places it in the social media context. It proposes that organizational communication theories intellectually based in the “linguistic turn” (e.g., the Montreal School Approach to how communication constitutes organizations, communicative theory of the firm) are well positioned to illuminate the constitutive capabilities of identity-bound interaction on social media. It suggest that social media is more than another organizational tool for communication with stakeholders in that it affords interactants the opportunity to negotiate foundational organizational practices: organizational identity, boundaries, and membership, in public. In this negotiative process, the organizing role of the stakeholder is emphasized and legitimized by organizational participation and engagement on social media platforms. The Montreal School Approach's conversation–text dialectic and the communicative theory of the firm's conceptualization of organizations as social, are two useful concepts when making sense of organization–stakeholder interaction in the social media context.

Extended Enterprise Integration vs. Market B2B Integration

2010 ◽  
pp. 578-586
Author(s):  
Frank G. Goethals ◽  
Wilfried Lemanhieu ◽  
Monique Snoeck
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Extended Enterprise ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Enterprise Integration ◽  
Communication Processes ◽  
It Department ◽  
Business To Business

The human communication processes that are involved in analyzing and designing a business and in designing, implementing, and maintaining information systems are affected by the fact that the information technology (IT) department of one company nowadays has to create software to fulfill requirements of people not only in their own company but in other companies too. In this context, the term “extended enterprise” is often used. The concept “extended enterprise” is, however, not unequivocally defined. This article first discusses the concept of the extended enterprise and opposes this form of economic organization to the two other basic forms of economic organization, namely, the firm and the market. Next, we derive from organization theory (see, e.g., Hatch, 1997; Morgan, 1996) two basic types of business-to-business integration (B2Bi), namely, extended enterprise integration and market B2Bi. We show that the extended enterprise constitutes a specific context within which information systems are being developed, integrated, and maintained, and that this context allows for/needs specific ways of integration. We discuss the role of standards and coordination for both types of B2Bi.

European Union Studies as a Tributary of Global Policy and Transnational Administration

2019 ◽  
pp. 292-309
Author(s):  
Stella Ladi
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Networks Analysis ◽  
European Union Studies ◽  
Analytical Frameworks ◽  
The Eu

The study of European Union (EU) governance and policy making processes, as well as its impact upon member states and beyond, can be inspiring for the development of theoretical propositions on global policy and transnational administration, and vice versa. For a long time, the EU has been perceived as a unique governance structure because it is neither a federal state nor an intergovernmental international organization and thus new models and concepts have been developed in order to analyse it. The aim of this chapter is to outline some of the most influential conceptual frameworks (e.g. multi-level governance, EU networks analysis, and Europeanization) in EU studies and to show how they can be translated into useful analytical frameworks for the analysis of global policy and transnational administration. The literature on the role of the EU as a global actor is also reviewed since it directly connects the European and global levels of analysis.

scholarly journals Use of coordination spheres in food economics

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 69-71
Author(s):  
József Tóth
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Price Theory ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Coordination Spheres ◽  
Economic Goods ◽  
Positive Nature ◽  
Hybrid Forms

The coordination plays central role in the economics. The conventional economic theory looks at the market and enterprise (or hierarchy) as two different, separated manner of coordination of economic goods and services. However the modern organization theory, price theory and institutional economics show that different types (not only market and enterprise, but also several types of hybrid forms) of coordination (or governance structure) necessarily live together in the current economic system. Based on my previous research on the field of regional clusters in the food industry I came to the conclusion that the cluster is one of the spheres where economic coordination can occur.At the same time I pointed out that the ways of coordination can be ordered on an ordinary scale according to its normative or positive nature. I’ve also found that the choice between the coordination spheres (market, enterprise or cluster) is not arbitrary, but instead depends on the interest’s dimension which is represented by the exchange of goods and services in question.

Strategic IT Resources and Sourcing Strategy

2011 ◽  
pp. 256-314
Author(s):  
Eng K. Chew ◽  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of The Firm ◽  
Optimal Growth ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Internal Resources ◽  
Sourcing Strategy ◽  
It Resources ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Managerial Knowledge ◽  
Resources And Capabilities ◽  
Industry Conditions

As introduced in Chapter II and Chapter V, performance differences across firms can be attributed to the variance in firms’ resources and capabilities. The essence of the resourcebased theory of the firm lies in its emphasis on the internal resources available to the firm, rather than on the external opportunities and threats dictated by industry conditions. A firm’s resources are said to be a source of competitive advantage to the degree that they are scarce, specialized, appropriable, valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate or substitute. A fundamental idea in resource-based theory is that a firm must continually enhance its resources and capabilities to take advantage of changing conditions. Optimal growth involves a balance between the exploitation of existing resource positions and the development of new resource positions. Thus, a firm would be expected to develop new resources after its existing resource base has been fully utilized. Building new resource positions is important if the firm is to achieve sustained growth. When unused productive resources are coupled with changing managerial knowledge, unique opportunities for growth are created (Pettus, 2001). The term resource is derived from the Latin word resurgere, which means “to rise” and implies an aid or expedient for reaching an end. A resource implies a potential means to achieve an end, or as something that can be used to create value. The first strategy textbooks outlining a holistic perspective focused on how resources needed to be allocated or deployed to earn rents. The interest in the term was for a long time linked to the efficiency of resource allocation, but this focus has later been expanded to issues such as resource accumulation, resource stocks, and resource flows (Haanaes, 1997).

Interns of the “Russian Grain” company on their trips to Slovenian lands (1909–1913)

2020 ◽  
pp. 321-344
Author(s):  
Lyubov A. Kirilina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Country ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
At Home

This essay reveals some yet unexplored pages in the history of Russian-Slovenian relations. Based on materials in the Russian and Slovenian archives, the main features of the trips of Russian peasants, who were trainees of the Russian grain company, to practice in Slovenian lands are reconstructed. These visits were carried out with the aim of studying progressive methods of agriculture, which they would then be able to effectively apply at home. The organizer from the Slovenian side was the liberal politician and long-term župan (lord mayor) of Ljubljana, Ivan Hribar. Parties of Russian interns were sent to Slovenian lands in 1909 and 1912 and many of the trainees stayed abroad for one or two years. The main focus of this study is the analysis of the feedback of Russian peasants about their work and study in a foreign country and their impressions of the Slovenes. Reviews by the Russian peasants who were dispatched in 1909 were more favourable than those sent on the 1912 trip, which was for various reasons less successful. In general, the trainees who remained in the Slovenian lands for a long time acquired a lot of new knowledge and skills, which could then be successfully applied in Russia. Slovenes as a people, their culture, and their economic organization made a good impression on the Russian peasants. In addition, it was the peasants' first encounter with another world, and being close to the Slovenian people in language, culture, and traditions contributed to the expansion of their common horizons.

Firms versus corporations: a rebuttal of Simon Deakin, David Gindis, and Geoffrey M. Hodgson

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Robé
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Theory Of The Firm ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Legal Institution ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
Specific Concept ◽  
And Control

Abstract I share the view expressed by Simon Deakin, David Gindis, and Geoffrey Hodgson (‘DGH’) that social scientists need to consider the constitutive role of law in their disciplines. This is particularly the case for economists working on the theory of the firm and on institutions more generally. Their analyses are often built on assumptions about the legal system which do not correspond to reality. One major issue is the generalized confusion between the concepts of ‘corporation’ and ‘firm’. In day-to-day parlance, the two words are synonyms. But, when the constitutive role of law is considered, the word corporation corresponds to a specific legal device which should be clearly differentiated from a less-specific concept which can be called a ‘firm’ or an ‘enterprise’. The notion of firm usually corresponds to the economic organization of various resources via contracts to produce goods or services. The corporation is a legal institution with peculiar characteristics, including a potentially eternal legal personality, an asset partitioning effect, and several layers of separations of ownership and control. Corporations are often used to legally structure large firms because they are very efficient legal devices to concentrate capital. But, firms are practically and conceptually different from the corporation(s) used to structure them. DGH consider that the understanding of what a firm is should not go against general, day-to-day understanding. In their view, although not all firms are corporations, all corporations are firms. I disagree. Only by clearly explaining that corporations are not firms can lawyers help social scientists consider the constitutive role of the law of corporations in the structuring of our present-day economy.

scholarly journals The Problem of Contract Enforcement in Economic Organization Theory

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels G. Noorderhaven
Keyword(s):  
Agency Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Utility Maximization ◽  
Contract Enforcement ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Individual Utility ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Economic Theories

Recently, economists have directed attention to the phenomenon of organization. An important difference between the newly developed economic theories of organization, such as for example agency theory, and sociological theories of organization is the fact that economists explicitly employ an individual utility maximization assumption. In this paper, it is reasoned that this assumption, if used as in agency theory, entails logical inconsistencies if we try to explain the existence of the kind of agreements that purportedly form the basis of organiza tions. However, if the condition of uncertainty — to which agency theorists merely pay lip—service — is taken seriously, the observed inconsistencies can be reconciled. A classificatory scheme of four 'sources of obligation' is proposed for the analysis of the basis of agreements. Taking all four sources into consideration in the analysis of organizational agreements can help to avoid one-sided attention to, for example, formal, legally enforceable agreements. The findings of empirical research suggest that two basic dimensions lie at the root of the proposed classifi catory scheme. Further research is needed to check this supposition and its implications.

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