Organizing Economic Experiments: Property Rights and Firm Organization

Many economists, notably Austrian economists, have argued that the market process is essentially an experimental process. We briefly try to clarify this conceptualization, and then argue that we may understand the firm in much the same light. A basic view of the firm as an experimental entity is derived, drawing on property rights insights.     

企业边界变迁的产业组织演化

交易成本理论从成本角度分析企业边界形成与变迁,企业能力理论则采用比较利益的方法从收入角度分析.短期中,如果企业能力有很大的差异,交易成本降低,位于价值链中上下游的企业将趋于专业化生产;如果企业能力均匀分布,交易成本降低,对专业化生产没有影响.长期中,企业能力、交易成本、企业边界形成互动循环的演化机制,并且在竞争过程中实现自然选择,引起产业组织演化.     

企业的性质:要素使用权交易合约之履行过程

本文对企业的性质进行了分析 ,发现企业的性质在于 ,企业是市场中由要素所有者签订的一组不完备的要素使用权交易合约的履行过程。要素使用权交易合约的履行过程包括要素投入、要素使用权 (核心是剩余控制权 )的行使以及要素增值的分配 (核心是剩余索取权的行使 )以及企业组织资本与组织资产的创造和使用等 ,这一过程融交易功能与生产功能于一体。该组合约的关键内容就在于企业剩余索取权与剩余控制权的安排。作为要素使用权交易合约的履行过程 ,企业与市场是不能截然对立分离的 ,即要素市场、资产及服务市场等与要素使用权交易合约的签订与履行是互为基础 ,互相促进的。     

The Williamsonian Ambiguity on Authority and Power in Transaction Cost Economics

Power has traditionally been rejected from economics and more particularly from the economics of the firm. Although he proposes building an interdisciplinary approach to the firm, Williamson rejects power from the economics of transaction costs. However, regarding the theoretical and behavioral hypotheses he makes, we can raise the following question: does the Williamsonian approach to the firm have intrinsic properties for developing a theory of power? After analyzing Williamson’s argument on power/authority, this paper aims to shed light on the fact that the 2009 Williamson, Oliver E. 2009. “Pragmatic Methodology: A Sketch, with Applications to Transaction Cost Economics,” Journal of Economic Methodology 16 (2): 145-157.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] Nobel Prize winner has built a theory based on power that he rejects due to a questionable methodological choice. Conversely, we defend the thesis according to which power cannot be removed from the economics of the firm and transaction cost economics–at the risk of providing a distorted picture of the reality of capitalism.     

企业同质性假设、异质性假设与企业性质

本文通过对企业同质性假设和异质性假设的进一步探讨,认为运用企业同质性假设的抽象方法可以合乎逻辑的解释企业的契约本质和企业契约的"规制或分配性",而企业异质性假设方法的运用可以理解企业的多样性和差异性,从而对企业契约的"生产性"做出令人信服的解释.企业契约理论和企业能力理论在事实上共同构成了一个有关企业性质认识的完整分析框架.     

Codification,Abstraction, and Firm Differences: A Cognitive Information-based Perspective

Synopsis The resource-based view shares with population ecology, organizational systematics, organizational cladistics, and institutional theory a concern with why firms differ and with what keeps them different. These two questions only have meaning if – as has been the case in the eoclassical theory of the firm – similarities between firms are taken as the default assumption. This paper distinguishes between ontological heterogeneity – differences in the world – and epistemic heterogeneity – differences in the way that the world is construed. Focusing on the latter, it puts forward an argument for taking epistemic heterogeneity between firms as the default assumption. It starts with a general analysis of how living systems make sense of the world. It then goes on to identify the cognitive activities of codification and abstraction as key sources of epistemic heterogeneity. The findings are applied to those systems called firms where a dominant logic allows epistemic heterogeneity to persist. In some case this leads to competitive advantage, in others to a debilitating inertia. The implications for a knowledge-based theory of the firm are briefly explored.     

国外企业本质理论的演进与评述

本文在回顾企业理论演进史的基础上．比较与评述了各流派企业本质理论的主要观点。本文认为,各流派对企业本质的认识,从分析与讨论的焦点来看,集中体现为生产、交易与契约3个概念;而从认识与方法论来看．主要包括分工、交易成本与熊彼特传统3个角度。因此,对企业本质的认识还远未结束。     

企业的契约性质、所有权理论及公司治理结构述评

公司治理结构是一个企业所有权安排的契约,而企业所有权的制度设置是由企业的本质决定的,对企业本质的不同认识必然导致不同性质的公司治理结构.本文通过文献综述,旨在勾勒出企业的契约性质--企业所有权理论--公司治理结构三者的演进脉络和之间的对应关系,发现企业家人力资本产权与企业所有权之间的复杂联系是未来公司治理问题研究的焦点.     

Reproducing the Firm: Routines,Networks, and Identity

Firm survival or reproduction does not occur as a matter of course. Especially under circumstances in which uncertainty and equivocality prevail is firm reproduction potentially problematic. Uncertainty prevails when there is insufficient or inadequate information to assess a situation, equivocality when the information available is multiinterpretable. Firm routines, social networks in a firm, and an organization’s identity can explain how a firm reproduces. We offer suggestions as to which of these will contribute to firm reproduction under what circumstances.     

How the purpose of the inter-firm relationships influences the choice of the governance form: evidence from the machine tool and the pharmaceutical industries

In today's competitive landscape, the choice of the appropriate mode to govern an inter-firm relationship is a critical factor for companies. In the literature several theoretical strands have examined the impact of the purpose of inter-firm relationships on the forms of governance. Building on a robust literature review on the topic, this study focuses on a specific issue influencing the choice of the form of governance in inter-firm relationships, i.e. the purpose of inter-firm relationships with relation to partner's resources. We gather in a unique framework three typologies of partner's resources, i.e. production, R&D and marketing, and through two empirical analyses in two different Italian industries, machine tool and pharmaceutical, we show how differently these purposes shape the choice of the governance mode.     

产权保护、业务变更与企业绩效

针对我国上市公司频频发生的业务变脸行为,本文考察了产权保护对上市公司主营业务变更的影响及其经济后果。研究发现,在产权保护越差的地区,由于研发投入的不足和已有竞争优势的较快散失,公司更易变更自己的经营主营业务;国有公司由于更多地得到政府支持,产权保护对其主营业务变更的影响较弱,且这一结果主要集中于政府绝对控股和直接持股的公司。短期内,通过改变经营主营业务,公司业绩得到改善,但长期来看,由于竞争力的缺乏和发展后劲不足,主营业务变更公司的市场表现较差。     

基于交易成本二维结构的企业边界分析

由于交易成本分析范式的一维性,所以在解释当前企业边界变动上遇到了现实和理论的双重挑战.笔者通过分析认为.决定企业边界治理结构模式的交易成本具备二维性:一是交易的物质条件;二是交易的行为条件.通过引入技术进步因素,研究其对交易成本的影响,笔者提出企业边界治理的二维结构分析框架.     

O．E．威廉姆森学术思想发展的三个阶段

2009年诺贝尔经济学奖获得者O．E．威廉姆森的学术思想经历了三个发展阶段：早期侧重于企业行为与市场管制;巅峰时期研究交易成本和企业边界;晚年集中于公司治理和管理。威廉姆森的研究深受赫伯特．西蒙的影响,将经济学、管理学、法学、心理学、政治学等结合起来,从跨学科的视角研究真实世界里的企业,对经济发展和社会科学研究产生了广泛而深远的影响。     

Worker Cooperatives in the Theory of the Firm: Marx and Veblen on Technological Determinism

This article contends that, in their treatments of worker cooperatives, the predominant theories of the firm adhere to the logic of technological determinism, and can accordingly be evaluated using the ideas of Thorstein Veblen and Karl Marx. Invoking these patriarchs’ respective distinctions between instrumental and ceremonial institutions and between the technical and social relations of production, the article argues that, contrary to contemporary theories of the firm, worker cooperatives possess an inherent but often latent advantage in implementing bureaucratic organizational structures, enjoying their instrumental/technical benefits for technology and coordination without incurring their ceremonial/social drawbacks for behavior and cooperation.     

基业长青的企业本质: 一种基于广义虚拟经济视角的解释

制度经济学的企业理论在探寻企业的本质时,将企业抽象为市场的对应物,抹杀了现实中不同企业之间存在的差别(异质性),难以理解企业之间的竞争及企业是如何成长.战略管理学则倾向于重视这种差别,并以此为基点从理论上阐释了企业是如何获取并持久保持竞争优势以促进企业成长,但忽视了企业的同质性.本文则从广义虚拟经济二元价值容介态的视角...     

How Applicable is the Dominant Firm Model of Price Leadership?

In this paper, we examine the usefulness of the dominant firm model of price leadership to serve as a benchmark for organizing behavior in laboratory markets. This well established model, whose origins can be traced back over a hundred years, has been recently applied to such landmark antitrust cases as Standard Oil and Alcoa and more recently to the analysis of deregulated markets for electric power. Our results indicate that in posted offer markets the dominant firm quite often produces more than the model's benchmark and sometimes at much greater prices. With sealed offer auction rules and a low elasticity of fringe supply, the dominant firm produces the theoretical output at a price greater than the prediction. However, with a high elasticity of fringe supply, the dominant firm produces more output over a wide range of prices that includes the predicted price.     

偏好、禀赋、技术与企业产权制度的演进

通过对要素所有者的最大化行为的分析发现,企业产权分配依赖于要素的投入系数和产出系数,企业所依存的偏好、禀赋和技术条件正是通过对这两个参数的影响而主导着企业产权制度的发展.从历史过程和这三个条件的发展趋势来看,企业产权制度演进的趋势必然是以人力资本为主导的联合产权制度.     

基于交易成本经济学的企业业务外包分析

企业业务外包是近年来在国外兴起的一种经营行为,它的目的是降低成本,提高企业的竞争力。目前中国很多企业也纷纷在尝试这一做法。然而不是任何企业,任何业务都适合外包。本文将从交易成本经济学的角度来对企业业务外包这一行为进行分析,提出适宜进行业务外包的情况,并说明进行业务外包时应该注意的问题。     

Induced Institutional Innovation and Transaction Costs: The Case of the Australian National Native Title Tribunal

The theory of induced innovation says that technological innovations which economize on relatively scarce inputs will be invented and adopted. Hayami and Ruttan have hypothesized that this model also holds for institutional innovations. Coase and Williamson suggest that economic organization, such as vertical integration, is the result of transaction cost minimization. Coase discusses the transaction costs of negotiation versus other alternatives for solving externality problems. This paper brings these previously unconnected threads of the literature together and incorporates transaction costs in an induced institutional innovation model.

This conceptual model is brought to bear on the issue of institutional innovations over time in relation to the National Native Title Tribunal. In addition to the reductions in transaction costs from a negotiated settlement rather than litigation, there are other advantages of negotiation. These may include improved “quality” of settlements, improved relations between the negotiating parties, and more timely resolution.