Information and Organization: A New Perspective on the Theory of the FirmOUP Oxford, 1997 M01 30 - 328 páginas This book offers a vision of the economy as a system of structured information flow. The structuring is effected by institutions, and in particular by firms, which specialize in processing the information needed to allocate resources properly. Firms are the institutional embodiment of the visions of individual entrepreneurs who believe that they have found a better way of allocating resources. Entrepreneurial vision is only a partial vision, however, in the sense that it does not encompass the entire economy, but only a subset of it. Free market economies encourage the exploitation of such partial visions because they encourage intermediation—-it is by mediating between potential buyers and potential sellers that entrepreneurial visions are realized. A legal framework of private property, coupled with a moral framework to control the incidence of cheating, allows very sophisticated structures of information processing to emerge. These structures effect an elaborate division of labour in the dimensions of information and control. Each firm is a small component of the overall structure of information flow. This structure is highly flexible and evolves continuously as circumstances change. Efficient adaptation is encouraged by rewarding entrepreneurs who create new firms to be slotted into the existing structure. This vision has evolved over the last fifteen years, during which the author has researched a variety of topics connected with the theory of the firm——entrepreneurship, business culture, multinational enterprise, joint ventures and the like. In each of these areas he has identified the ways in which the orthodox theory of the firm needs to be modified in order to make it work properly. This book represents a major intellectual synthesis of that work. |
Contenido
Imitation and Instability | 146 |
Factual and Moral | 172 |
Industrial Districts | 197 |
Freestanding Firms | 217 |
Chartered Trading Companies | 245 |
The Historical Significance of Information Costs | 274 |
Bibliography | 298 |
Index | 309 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Information and Organization: A New Perspective on the Theory of the Firm Mark Casson Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Information and Organization: A New Perspective on the Theory of the Firm Mark Casson Vista de fragmentos - 1997 |
Términos y frases comunes
activities advantage asset bounded rationality buyer capital Casson Chapter collected colonial commodity communication comparative advantage competition concept concerned consumer contract coordination creates decisions demand direct investment division of labour economic economies of scale effected elite employees entrepreneur environment equity example explained exploitation export finance fixed costs foreign direct investment free-standing company free-standing firm headquarters hierarchy high-trust household illustrated in Fig imitation important indicated individual industry information costs information flow innovation integration intermediator inventory investor involved kind m₁ marginal rates merchant Merthyr Merthyr Tydfil monitoring moral multinational nature negotiations normally opportunity organization owner ownership particular port possible Prato problem procedures production rate of substitution rational relevant retailer role seller ship shocks situation sources specific strategy sunk costs supply synthesis theory tion transaction costs transitory factor trust vertical integration volatility Walrasian auctioneer
Pasajes populares
Página 119 - It defines trust as a warranted belief that someone else will honour their obligations, not merely because of material incentives, but out of moral commitment too.
Página 90 - FIRM knowledge of who is the best person to put it to that use. Although the final users know this too, they do not know the sources of supply as well. The intermediator can obtain both the items of information required for coordination more cheaply than other people. He has the optimism that demand will be buoyant for the goods he has bought, and is not so risk-averse, or devoid of confidence, that he fears for the consequences of his judgement being wrong.
Página 136 - Ease is for him not only a means to an end, but also an end in itself. Nevertheless, in counseling "ignoble ease, and peaceful sloath," he takes care to disguise these vices in the garb of virtue.
Página 81 - In the light of this discussion, a firm may be defined as a specialized decision-making unit, whose function is to improve coordination by structuring information flow, and which is normally endowed with legal privileges, including indefinite life. There are, of course, many other common characteristics of firms, but these are best regarded as following from the implications of this definition rather than being elements of the definition itself.
Página 114 - Indeed, the present theory goes beyond this by emphasizing that managerial competence resides in handling information in a variety of ways — collecting it, assimilating it, disseminating it and storing it, as well as using it to take decisions. It avoids the rather restrictive emphasis on technological information characteristic of some of the resource-based literature (Cantwell, 1995) by recognizing the enormous varTHE NATURE OF THE FIRM iety of information associated with market-making intermediation...
Página 77 - The basis for the theory is that the economic environment is continuously disturbed by shocks of both a persistent and a transitory nature. Persistent shocks provide a stimulus to the formation of new firms or the radical restructuring of existing firms. Persistent shocks are intermittent and diverse and are usually dealt with by improvisation. This improvisation is effected by the entrepreneur who founds the firm or restructures it later on.
Página 299 - Come cambia un distretto industriale: strategic di riaggiustamento e tecnologie informatiche nell'industria tessile di Prato', Economia e politico industriale, 70: 121-52.
Página 89 - ... the seller to supply goods in advance of payment in a way that the buyer could not. Similarly he can require the buyer to pay in advance of delivery in a way that the seller could not. In this way he can guard himself against default by the parties lacking reputation, whilst passing on the product between them.
Página 116 - The key to the firm's success lies not in specific business strategies, as suggested by Porter (1980), nor in specific ownership advantages, such as technology, as suggested by Dunning (1977). These are both short-run consequences of long-run decisions about organization and corporate culture taken previously by the entrepreneur.
Página 100 - This diversity of opinion about the permanent factors may be explained by the fact that the underlying market situation cannot be observed directly, but only through certain symptoms. Some people interpret the situation in terms of one symptom and others in terms of another. Each symptom is correlated with the true situation. Accurate symptoms are highly correlated with the true situation and the most successful owners use these. Others are more weakly correlated. Some symptoms may not be used at...
Referencias a este libro
Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving: Developing Useful and Usable ... Barbara Mirel Sin vista previa disponible - 2004 |
The Knowledge-based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated Loet Leydesdorff Vista previa limitada - 2006 |