rethinking the firm

Guardian - Atlantic 2013

what’s the problem ?

stakeholder activism, Dodd-Frank, etc.

capital

social benefit

profit

labor

firm

management governance

mgt educ - Humanist Mgt, PRME, etc.

Mayer, Colin. (2013). Firm Commitment: Why the Corporation is Failing Us and How to Restore Trust in It. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.187

Fischel, Daniel R. (1982). The Corporate Governance Movement. Vanderbilt Law Review, 35(6), 1259-1292.

1904

1923

Keay, Andrew. (2011). The Corporate Objective. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. p.38Bottomley, Stephen. (2007). The Constitutional Corporation: Rethinking Corporate Governance. Aldershot: Ashgate.

so what is ‘the firm’ ?

some ToF variants

• bureaucratic, OT, systems theory

• sociological, political, stakeholder

• institutional, networked, legal

• behavioral, psychological

• evolutionary, org routines, organic

• self-organizing, emergent

• post Coasian - TCE, PAT, nexus, property rights, team production, ...

• RBV, KBV, DCs ... chaos or contingency ?what problem is being addressed ?

value creation, profit :

Knightian uncertainty

& bounded rationality ?

new theory of the value-creating firm ?

NO engagement with uncertainty/profit - NONE of these !!

‘the firm’ is just an idea about a real problem

opportunity

technological change expands

opportunity space

competitive activity decreasesopportunity space

new funding

ethi

cal c

onst

rain

ts

- meeting Knightian uncertainty with managerial judgment

- constructing entrepreneurial opportunity

- managerial rhetoric for harnessing others' judgment

- ‘theory of the managed firm’ (TMF) as unique language

governmentregulation

ecologicalissues

if Coase’s questions are the problem

management research & education

• reading the political-economic situation• immersion, entrepreneurial judgment, coup d'oeil• knowledge creation - data, meaning, practice• language construction• rhetorical practices for harnessing others• TMF as indexical discourse of collaborative value-creation

Botticelli Judgment of Paris (1485)