Research findings have established a relationship between organizational size and a substantial set of organizational outcomes, resulting in size's distinction as “perhaps the most powerful explanatory organizational covariate in strategic analysis”. We draw on the theory of the firm to...

We develop a new perspective on the boundary of the firm that is consistent with the empirical observation that the share of entrepreneurs first decreases and then increases in the course of economic development. Existing theory based on transaction costs is difficult to relate to these...

Recent thinking has emphasized the importance of consistency in a firm?s compensation policy. By starting from Williamson?s ideas about idiosyncratic exchange, this view can be supplied with some theoretical foundation. At the same time, the consistency view can be applied to a number of...

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...

In American Needle the Supreme Court unanimously held that for the practice at issue the NFL should be treated as a “combination” of its teams rather than a single entity. However, the arrangement must be assessed under the rule of reason. The opinion, written by Justice Stevens, was almost...

The recent seminal work of Gabaix (2011) raises a puzzling question: If centralization-putting different projects under the same roof-reduces diversification for investors, how does this situation reconcile with the seemingly contradictory fact that it also boosts a firm's borrowing capacity? To...

Modern multi-tenant firms have as their origin the ancient bazaars of the Middle East and include today's airports, physical and virtual shopping malls, cable television providers, port terminals, trade-shows, sports leagues, and food franchises. The multi-tenant firm operates as a “firm of...

Firms are not isolated entities of the business world, only transacting at arm's-length distance with suppliers and customers. Instead, multiplex cooperative arrangements and the co-evolution of corporate capabilities abound in the business landscape. Strategizing in the (networked) business...

We revisit and critically assess the contribution of Edith Penrose's classic book “The Theory of the Growth of the Firm” in economics and management scholarship, on occasion of its fiftieth anniversary and the publication of its fourth edition. We revisit an earlier claim of ours that the...

This article reviews the conglomerate literature with a focus on recent papers which have cast strong doubt on the hypothesis that conglomerate firms destroy value on average when compared to similar stand-alone firms. Recent work has shown that investment decisions by conglomerate firms are...