Many successful franchise chains directly own a positive fraction of stores --- a structure referred to as plural form. We propose that this ownership structure is chosen as a commitment not to expropriate franchisees. The theoretical model is based on an empirical analysis of contract and...

The paper suggests that the Just War theory provides an excellent methodological device for determining the conditions of legitimacy of companies. Just War Theory has different sets of criteria. The first establishes the right to go to war ("jus as bellum"); the second establishes the right...

The problem of designing, coordinating, and managing complex systems has been central to the management and organizations literature. Recent writings have tended to offer modularity as, at least, a partial solution to this design problem. Two unifying themes characterize the extant literature on...

The problem of designing, coordinating, and managing complex systems has been central to the management and organizations literature. Recent writings have tended to offer modularity as, at least, a partial solution to this design problem. Two unifying themes characterize the extant literature on...

This article examines how dynamic changes in information cost structure and time preferences affect consumers' search and switching behavior over time and lead to lock-in. The information cost structure is conceptualized as a tradeoff of initial setup costs and ongoing usage costs. Lock-in is...

Frank Knight distinguished between 'uncertainty' and 'risk' to specify the true nature of 'profit’, but his specification never caught on and I do not see realistic possibilities for renewing research in this direction. Knight also used uncertainty to specify the distinctive role of the...

This chapter explains how socially responsible investing (SRI) has evolved in the last few decades and sheds light on its latest developments. It describes different forms of SRI in the financial markets; and deliberates on the rationale for the utilisation of positive and negative screenings of...

In this paper we use the theory of social situations (TOSS) to examine the stability in advertising and (price) competition games. In this context, we derive the interesting result that with endogenous and exogenous advertising the incumbent need not maintain a hungry-look, i.e.,...

Subjective uncertainty helps explain features of entrepreneurial activity that fall outside the scope of models that focus on information asymmetries and misaligned incentives. Uncertainty, construed simply as missing information, can lead to unintended misjudgments. Efforts to control...

This paper comprised Part One of a book in progress.This book aims to help modernize and extend Knight's forgotten construct of uncertainty. Part One includes a preface, a very detailed Introduction, and six chapters which examine the formidable obstacles to the modernization as well as some...