Richard N. Langlois - Böcker

Traditonal western forms of corporate organization have been called into question by the success of Japanese keiretsu. Firms, Markets and Economic Change draws on industrial economics, business strategy, and economic history to develop an evolutionary model to show when innovation is best undertaken. The authors argue that innovation is a complex process that defies neat categorization and government policy should be to facilitate change rather than to direct it.

Traditonal western forms of corporate organization have been called into question by the success of Japanese keiretsu. Firms, Markets and Economic Change draws on industrial economics, business strategy, and economic history to develop an evolutionary model to show when innovation is best undertaken. The authors argue that innovation is a complex process that defies neat categorization and government policy should be to facilitate change rather than to direct it.

Co-winner of the 2006 Schumpeter Prize of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society.This book explains the shift of the organizational landscape away from vertically integrated firms and towards more specialized entities connected by markets and networks. In doing so, it places in a larger theoretical framework the work of Joseph Schumpeter and Alfred Chandler, two of the twentieth century's most important analysts of the modern corporation.Weaving together business history, economic theory and the history of ideas, Langlois - who won the Newcomen Award in 1992 - sorts through the competing understanding of the rise and (relative) eclipse of the multi-unit enterprise. Rather than rejecting the accounts of Schumpeter and Chandler, he offers his own nuanced and historically grounded account of the rise and success of the corporation and its subsequent unbundling. Topical and timely, Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism is a useful resource for postgraduates and academics interested in the economics of organization, business history, economic sociology, and the history of economic thought, as well as to the general reader interested in the place of the corporation in the new economy.

The essays in Economics as a Process are all concerned with exploring theoretical approaches alternative to the conventional or 'neoclassical' paradigm. Among the schools of thought represented are transaction-cost economics: evolutionary theories: modern 'Austrian' economies: law and economics: reliability theory: and the game-theory approach to the economics of social institutions. The essays are united not by a single topic but by a coherent set of themes - themes best described under the heading of the New Institutional Economics. These include an interest in economic processes as well as in states of equilibrium: a sensitivity to the limits and contours of human rationality: and an emphasis on the various sorts of social institutions that aid and inform economic action. But the essays are not solely methodological or critical. They also include substantive essays that illustrate the New Institutional Economics in practice.

A definitive reframing of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial eraThe twentieth century was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism, brought forth what became a dominant narrative: that administrative coordination by trained professional managers is essential to the efficient running of organizations both public and private. And yet if managerialism was the apotheosis of administrative efficiency, why did both its practice and the accompanying narrative lie in ruins by the end of the century? In The Corporation and the Twentieth Century, Richard Langlois offers an alternative version: a comprehensive and nuanced reframing and reassessment of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial era.Langlois argues that managerialism rose to prominence not because of its inherent superiority but because of its contingent value in a young and rapidly developing American economy. The structures of managerialism solidified their dominance only because the century’s great catastrophes of war, depression, and war again superseded markets, scrambled relative prices, and weakened market-supporting institutions. By the end of the twentieth century, Langlois writes, these market-supporting institutions had reemerged to shift advantage toward entrepreneurial and market-driven modes of organization.This magisterial new account of the rise and fall of managerialism holds significant implications for contemporary debates about industrial and antitrust policies and the role of the corporation in the twenty-first century.

A definitive reframing of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial eraThe twentieth century was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism, brought forth what became a dominant narrative: that administrative coordination by trained professional managers is essential to the efficient running of organizations both public and private. And yet if managerialism was the apotheosis of administrative efficiency, why did both its practice and the accompanying narrative lie in ruins by the end of the century? In The Corporation and the Twentieth Century, Richard Langlois offers an alternative version: a comprehensive and nuanced reframing and reassessment of the economic, institutional, and intellectual history of the managerial era.Langlois argues that managerialism rose to prominence not because of its inherent superiority but because of its contingent value in a young and rapidly developing American economy. The structures of managerialism solidified their dominance only because the century’s great catastrophes of war, depression, and war again superseded markets, scrambled relative prices, and weakened market-supporting institutions. By the end of the twentieth century, Langlois writes, these market-supporting institutions had reemerged to shift advantage toward entrepreneurial and market-driven modes of organization.This magisterial new account of the rise and fall of managerialism holds significant implications for contemporary debates about industrial and antitrust policies and the role of the corporation in the twenty-first century.

Co-winner of the 2006 Schumpeter Prize of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society.This book explains the shift of the organizational landscape away from vertically integrated firms and towards more specialized entities connected by markets and networks. In doing so, it places in a larger theoretical framework the work of Joseph Schumpeter and Alfred Chandler, two of the twentieth century's most important analysts of the modern corporation.Weaving together business history, economic theory and the history of ideas, Langlois - who won the Newcomen Award in 1992 - sorts through the competing understanding of the rise and (relative) eclipse of the multi-unit enterprise. Rather than rejecting the accounts of Schumpeter and Chandler, he offers his own nuanced and historically grounded account of the rise and success of the corporation and its subsequent unbundling. Topical and timely, Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism is a useful resource for postgraduates and academics interested in the economics of organization, business history, economic sociology, and the history of economic thought, as well as to the general reader interested in the place of the corporation in the new economy.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.This incisive book presents a succinct overview of the economics of organization. Combining traditional approaches with more challenging, cutting-edge perspectives, Richard N. Langlois critically examines the ways in which tasks and transactions in the economy are organized.Drawing on a diverse array of historical and real-world examples, chapters outline key principles of the field including division of labor, transaction costs, moral hazard, and asset specificity. This Advanced Introduction investigates ‘organization’ more broadly, delving into underexplored areas such as capabilities and routines, evolutionary selection, dynamic transaction costs, and modular systems.Key Features:Emphasizes narrative and storytelling to convey technical conceptsDeconstructs popular misconceptions and didactic fables in the fieldProvides an engaging, non-technical analysis of the economics of organizationThe Advanced Introduction to the Economics of Organization is an invaluable resource for academics and students in economics, business and management, sociology, finance, and accounting, as well as instructors in graduate-level microtheory courses.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.This incisive book presents a succinct overview of the economics of organization. Combining traditional approaches with more challenging, cutting-edge perspectives, Richard N. Langlois critically examines the ways in which tasks and transactions in the economy are organized.Drawing on a diverse array of historical and real-world examples, chapters outline key principles of the field including division of labor, transaction costs, moral hazard, and asset specificity. This Advanced Introduction investigates ‘organization’ more broadly, delving into underexplored areas such as capabilities and routines, evolutionary selection, dynamic transaction costs, and modular systems.Key Features:Emphasizes narrative and storytelling to convey technical conceptsDeconstructs popular misconceptions and didactic fables in the fieldProvides an engaging, non-technical analysis of the economics of organizationThe Advanced Introduction to the Economics of Organization is an invaluable resource for academics and students in economics, business and management, sociology, finance, and accounting, as well as instructors in graduate-level microtheory courses.