Transaction Cost Economics: The Origins

This paper is an autobiographical recollection of how my interest in and work on transaction cost economics progressively developed. It begins with an overview of the transaction cost economics project. A sketch of my undergraduate and graduate education follows. Key events in the 1960s that set the stage for my 1971 paper on “The Vertical Integration of Production” are then described. This paper would turn out to be the entering wedge from which transaction cost economics would take shape and continues today, as set out in the closing pages of the article.     

Scientific Background: Oliver E. Williamson's Contributions to Transaction Cost Economics

In a seminal paper in 1971, and an ensuing book, Markets and Hierarchies, 4 years later, Oliver Williamson developed a detailed theory of the firm in the Coasean spirit. For reasons to be explained below, Williamson claimed that organizing transactions within firms is more desirable when transactions are complex and when physical and human assets are strongly relationship-specific. Since both complexity and specificity can be usefully measured, Williamson's theory had the required empirical content.     

交易费用、经济组织与治理机制——诺贝尔经济学奖得主奥利弗·威廉姆森的学术贡献和借鉴意义

奥利弗·威廉姆森教授是2009年度诺贝尔经济学奖得主之一,其学术贡献不只是对纵向一体化或企业边界问题的开创性研究,纵向一体化只是经济组织问题的一个特例。以制度、组织和治理为主线,对威廉姆森的学术生涯、知识谱系、代表性著作的回顾,揭示了他所提出的交易费用经济学的分析方法,特别是匹配交易活动与治理形式的契约关系有效治理的分析框架,具有更大的理论价值和广泛的适用性。此外,他把产业组织理论与交易费用分析融合在一起,对反垄断和规制等问题的研究成果也独具特色。其理论成果在经验检验、应用经济学和公共政策研究领域具有广阔的应用前景,跨学科研究方法具有借鉴意义。     

Epilogue: Popperian Perspectives on Transaction Cost Economics and Future Directions of Empirical Research

The 2009 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel Prize to Oliver Williamson was not a surprise to scholars in business research. Transaction cost economics (TCE) has been among the most important streams of empirical investigation in business research during the last four decades. TCE has formed, developed and changed business research across disciplines during this era. Williamson, (1999:1092) himself noted that “I have no hesitation, however, in declaring that transaction cost economics is an empirical success story.” The Nobel Prize is a milestone event in business research, and the use of the criterion of falsification in this essay provides a compass to navigate future efforts. We present potential avenues of TCE research based on a Popperian lens focused on research discussed throughout this milestone issue of the Journal of Retailing.     

Oliver Williamson and His Impact on the Field of Strategic Management

In honor of Oliver Williamson's receipt of the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, this paper provides a set of perspectives on Williamson's impact on the field of strategic management. In addition to a few personal vignettes, the paper compiles citation statistics from the Strategic Management Journal over its entire history to report on the most frequently cited authors, most frequently cited papers, and dynamics of annual citations with respect to the most frequently cited authors. The paper also considers the breadth of topics to which Williamson's research contributes. The evidence suggests that Williamson's impact on strategic management research is not only profound but also continues to grow. Shifting to a prospective assessment, the paper explores the extent to which Williamson's research may impact future research in strategic management. To conclude the assessment, the paper turns to Williamson's PhD students who self-identify as strategic management scholars to understand his direct impact on a more personal dimension.     

从交易成本经济学看第三方物流的信用风险问题

我国第三方物流发展缓慢,其中最主要的障碍是第三方物流服务的交易成本过高,导致物流需求的不旺。分析信用风险对我国第三方物流交易成本的影响,企业缺乏信用意识、国家缺乏信用管理、社会信用环境较差和信用违规行为缺乏惩治机制等等,是信用缺失对第三方物流交易成本影响的关键。应从完善政府信用监督管理体系、推动和完善信用中介机构的发展和加强中介机构的监督作用及企业内部信用管理等方面发展我国第三方物流。     

The Transaction Cost Economics of Market‐based Exchange: The Impact of Reputation and External Verification Agencies

In this analysis, we empirically investigate market‐based transaction costs. We measure market‐based transaction costs indirectly by examining variations in market prices when selling Morgan Silver Dollars on eBay. We find that the reputation of both the seller and the coin‐rating agency employed significantly influences the price premium obtained. Moreover, we find that the use of a coin‐rating agency with a poor reputation proved more damaging than the use of no coin‐rating agency. Thus, we find support for the suggestion that the reputation of sellers and third‐party verification agencies have a significant influence on perceived market‐based transaction costs.     

合同农业产生的交易成本经济学机理

以产业化方式经营农业已成为现代农业的重要特征。在"公司+农户"的产业化组织模式中,通过合同建立交易关系是普遍的组织形式。基于交易成本经济学的理论逻辑分析表明:受农业特性以及农产品市场结构转变的影响,随着组织形式向科层或市场集中,组织成本曲线将出现非线性的增长趋势。采用合同交易方式是公司、农户在既定的约束条件下,对交易成本和管理成本进行权衡的选择结果,由此获得相对于企业与市场的组织优势。但在实践中,契约合作型"公司+农户"的组织形式所蕴涵的优势并非完全无条件地展示,组织优势的发挥依赖于好的治理机制。     

The Economics of Business Process Design: Motivation,Information and Coordination Within the Firm

This paper presents a transaction cost analysis of the internal business processes of firms. Business processes are collections of activities which are technologically or managerially linked so that they jointly affect value added. Their organisation is characterised by their ‘architecture’—the allocation of responsibilities amongst individuals and groups and communication between them for information and coordination—and their incentive structure. The overall costs of organisation are determined by losses due to imperfect motivation of process members, which flows from the incentive structure, and imperfect information and coordination, which flow from the architecture, together with the resource costs associated with incentives and architecture. Perfect motivation corresponds to ‘team behaviour’ and a quantitative model, based on team theory, indicates how the best architecture depends on the degree interaction between activities comprising the business process.     

Transaction services and SME internationalization: The effect of home and host country bank relationships on international investment and growth

Building on the argument put forward by North and Wallis (1994) that the transaction sector enables economic growth by lowering the costs of transacting, we investigate how internationalizing firms’ host and home country bank relationships affect their international specific investments and growth. Banks provide payment, liquidity, and risk management services, which are essential to international business relationships, yet little is known about how banks affect international business relationships. In a sample of 255 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we find that host and home country bank relationships affect the dependent variables differently. We contribute to the literature by explicating the role and effects of banks in international business relationships. Our findings have implications for understanding transaction services in international business as well as the choices made by their customers.     

商务成本国内研究综述

本文对目前商务成本的内涵和构成要素、变化和发展趋势、商务成本对产业结构调整和区域经济发展的作用,以及商务成本的应对策略做了综述,目的在于帮助企业对商务成本进行系统的认识,以便积极应对挑战。     

企业成本管理方法研究综述

传统的成本管理方法和几种系统型成本管理方法虽有其各自的特点,又有其缺点和不足,没能同时从整体和局部全方位地去考察成本控制问题。为此建立一种在表皮成本、内皮成本和葱心成本基础上的新的成本管理方法——洋葱成本方法,从而可实现整个生产流程的成本节约,为强化成本控制提供了有效的途径。     

区域经济一体化组织形态比较研究——一个交易成本经济学的视角

文章将交易成本概念引入区域一体化组织形态比较这一领域中.根据交易成本经济学的基本理论构建的理论分析框架,用中间性组织的竞合关系演变以及事前交易成本和事后交易成本概念分析了选择不同组织形态的原因.指出深层次一体化组织以合作为主,虽然事后交易成本小,但是事前交易成本过高.随后结合中国选择区域一体化组织形态的目标和现实约束建议中国从组建浅层次、双边的、灵活的一体化组织入手,坚持制度化、封闭型的原则,尽快实施一体化战略.     

上海国际航运中心国家战略的政治经济学研究

世界历史表明,世界经济中心转移的历史同时也是国际航运中心转移的历史,航运是联系全球生产与全球市场的纽带。随着我国外向型经济的发展,随着我国参与到经济全球化进程中,参与到全球商品竞争与全球资源配置过程中,我国航运业也得到了发展。而上海由于其特殊的地理位置、发达的腹地经济和重要的军事战略地位,加强上海国际航运中心建设,对于我国承接发达国家产业转移,参与全球资源配置,适应经济全球化需要,提升产业层次,提高在国际航运业中的地位,加强海权建设具有重要战略意义。     

Insights on the go: Leveraging business podcasts to enhance organizational performance

Managers need to stay connected to current trends and gather new insights to maximize organizational performance, but many struggle to find the time to read enough to remain informed. Business podcasts—digital episodic series covering a variety of business topics in an easy-to-consume audio format—are a relatively new tool that can help solve this dilemma. Business podcasts that offer unique perspectives on salient topics can teach managers valuable techniques for dealing with common business issues and keep them up-to-date on the latest business news. In this article, we introduce 10 popular business podcasts and discuss the insights for improving organizational performance offered in exemplary episodes of each series. Episode content ranges from detailed profile interviews of top executives and their day-to-day activities to the impact of national and global events on specific industries or businesses.     

选择与选择成本——品牌降低选择成本的机制分析

本文通过对选择爆炸式增长的描述,抽象出一般选择过程模型,并深入分析这一过程中所发生的成本及构成,证明品牌正是通过降低消费者的选择成本提高了选择效率,而企业外部顾客的选择效率决定了处于过剩阶段企业的内部价值的实现和内部效率的高低。本文区分了交易费用与选择成本的差别,进一步深化了对"品牌经济学"分析范式的核心范畴——选择成本的认识。     

Erin Anderson and the Path Breaking Work of TCE in New Areas of Business Research: Transaction Costs in Action

This review article synthesizes Erin Anderson's academic contribution, with an emphasis on two path breaking aspects of her work, namely the operationalization of TCA in different contexts and the refinement of the theory. We review the measures that she developed to reflect key TCE constructs, and identify five contexts in which Erin Anderson's application of TCE concepts broke new paths. These are employee or representative salesforces, choice of foreign entry mode, new market entry and innovation, countertrade, and ethics. We highlight a number of ways in which her research integrates other theories to transaction cost economics, thereby deepening our understanding of key issues involving make or buy decisions. Finally, we draw attention to directions for future research identified through her work.     

Forty Years of Business Research in China: A Critical Reflection and Projection

Indigenous business research has largely mirrored the economic growth in China over the past 40 years, which has reached a critical juncture. It is, therefore, important to take stock of the past progress to identify critical success factors and remaining challenges, in searching for paths to the next leap forward. To this end, this commentary will first review the key milestones in indigenous business research over the past four decades. Then it will highlight two paradoxes, namely, the lack of indigenous theories despite the phenomenal growth of Chinese firms, and the growing divergence between scientific rigor and low relevance to practice, which will need to be addressed in the future. Lastly, several predications and suggestions will be offered.     

我国石油供应链成本构成与管理问题研究

本文将我国石油供应链特点与希尔英供应链成本管理模型相结合,构建了我国石油供应链成本构成的三维模型,通过该模型对石油供应链成本及其成分进行分析,从而找出了成本管理中存在的问题,并提出加强成本管理的合理化建议.本文认为我国石油供应链的成本管理需要政府和企业的双方努力,并通过加强企业内部整合、提高作业成本管理效率、引进信息管理系统等方法有效管理成本.