Suchergebnisse

pt. 1. Micro foundations : from bounded to epistemic rationality -- pt. 2. Contracts and the firm beyond transactions : the governance of knowledge and association -- pt. 3. Organization design beyond comparative assessment : the discovery of forms, and forms for discovery.

An intended contribution to new thinking on an institution that seems to have lost memory of its origins and functions, conducted with the tools of organization, law and economics. The argument shows how far we can go in reconceptualizing the firm as a democratic institution using only efficiency and innovation arguments.

Abstract An intended contribution to new thinking on an institution that seems to have lost memory of its origins and functions, conducted with the tools of organization, law and economics. The argument shows how far we can go in reconceptualizing the firm as a democratic institution using only efficiency and innovation arguments.

Abstract:Integrating organization theory, organizational economics, and organizational law considerations, it is argued that the 'nature of the firm' can be more completely understood if it is considered a complete society-establishing contract, including constitutional pacts on procedures for the selection of actions, rather than a nexus of incomplete transactional contracts complemented by authority, power, or relational norms. The explanation is more general since firm-establishing contracts are a sub-set of those society-establishing contracts that are capable of regulating any venture in condition of high uncertainty and potential conflict, and because the constitutional regime adopted (authority-based, democratic, or other) becomes a specification of particular types of firms rather than part of the explanation of the firm. Evidence from published studies, as well as from newly gathered data on firm-founding contracts and other partnership establishing contracts (500 record database on large multi-party projects), document that actual contracts under uncertainty do fit the hypothesized pattern.