Ronald Coase

What is a firm? Why do firms exist? How is production and administration best co-ordinated? What are the reasons for vertical integration? And disintegration? Is there a conflict between establishing and developing long-term relationships on the one hand, and the operation of free market competition on the other? Is there a choice between markets and hierarchies? What about networks and clans? These questions continue to be explored with economics, management, sociology and other related disciplines. Firms, Organizations and Contracts brings together the best inter-disciplinary analysis of the topic, and contains classic contributions and material not normally seen by those outside their own particular disciplines. It combines pioneer articles with more recent discussions of an area attracting growing attention amongst those studying industrial organization--whether on courses in economics, management, strategy, organization, law, or public administration. The volume includes Coase's initial enquiry into `The Nature of the Firm' and Ouchi's analysis of `Markets, bureaucracies and clans' Kaldor's questioning of `The Nature of the Firm' and Dore's discussion of `Goodwill and the spirit of market capitalism'. This book will be an invaluable tool for students in economics, management and sociology. In view of the growing use of contracts within the public sector, and within the private regulated sector, the book also sets out some of the key issues of concern to policy makers and public sector strategists.

This interesting work presents a unique perspective on the history of economic thought by showing that classical economists from Adam Smith to Alfred Marshall had sympathy for workers - for example, the theory of the subsistence wage echoed the theological call for a just wage that existed in the middle ages. It also describes how these thinkers promoted either a set of social obligations or a form of social insurance to assist workers. These economic thinkers of the past argued that a subsistence standard of living was important to maintain and improve workers' efficiency and to raise healthy families. The notion that these writers had an undeveloped theory of social costs that they applied to labor should appeal to economists and others concerned with the plight of workers as the modern economy restructures itself.

This book brings together the work of leading international thinkers working in the overlapping areas of economics, organization studies, business history, corporate strategy, and innovation. There is a growing awareness that the perspectives of a single discipline are unable to capture and explain the complexities and dynamics of firm behaviour, organizational structure, and corporate strategy. All the chapters in this book are drawn from the pioneering journal Industrial and Corporate Change opening up the inter-disciplinary coverage of the journal to a wider readership. Here readers will find extensive and original contributions from economists Oliver Williamson, Richard Nelson, and Martin Fransman; sociology and organization theorists Mark Granovetter and Gary Hamilton; business historians William Lazonick and Jonathan West; innovation scholars Parimal Patel, Keith Pavitt, and Giovanni Dosi; and business strategists David Teece and Gary Pisano. This book will be vital reading for all those who want to get to grips with the best of current international thinking on the dynamic interplay of technology, organization, and competition.

This unique study offers a comprehensive analysis of American jurisprudence from its emergence in the later stages of the nineteenth century through to the present day. The author argues that it is a mistake to view American jurisprudence as a collection of movements and schools which have emerged in opposition to each other. By offering a highly original analysis of legal formalism, legal realism, policy science, process jurisprudence has evolved as a collection of themes which reflect broader American intellectual and cultural concerns.