Existing research on ecosystems is overly descriptive and structural. While description and structure are important, in this essay we argue for a microanalytic and firm-specific approach to ecosystems. We focus on the “hypothesis-led” firm—the role that a firm-specific hypothesis plays in...

The corporate headquarters (CHQ) is an important part of the organization of large firms; yet, it is neglected in organization design theory. In this brief essay, I argue that we need a better understanding of the CHQ to further our understanding of the link between the top-management team and...

Research highlights the role of external knowledge sources in the recognition of strategic opportunities, but is less forthcoming with respect to the role of such sources during the process of exploiting or realizing opportunities. We build on the knowledge-based view to propose that realizing...

Does the RBV represent a case of scientific progress? And has it emerged as the dominant approach to the analysis of competitive advantage for this reason? Conventional criteria for scientific progress, notably those of the growth of knowledge literature, are not particularly helpful for...

We argue that the stakeholder and CSR literatures can benefit from more systematic thinking about ownership. We discuss general notions of ownership in economics and law and the entrepreneurial notion of ownership we have developed in prior work. On this basis, we argue that stakeholder theory...

The corporate headquarters (CHQ) is an important part of the organization of large firms; yet, it is neglected in organization design theory. In this brief essay, I argue that we need a better understanding of the CHQ to further our understanding of the link between the top-management team and...

The “knowledge governance approach” is characterized as a distinctive, emerging approach that cuts across the fields of knowledge management, organisation studies, strategy, and human resource management. Knowledge governance is taken up with how the deployment of governance mechanisms...

Assumptions about the knowledge held by economic agents have been an integral part of the theory of economic organization since its inception. However, recent work — here called “knowledge governance” — has more explicitly highlighted knowledge as both an independent and dependent...

A concern with teams was central to early attempts to grasp the nature of the firm, but fell out of favor in later work. We encourage a return to the emphasis on teams, but argue that the idea of teams as central to the nature of the firm needs to be grounded in an appreciation of the importance...