Entrepreneurs who start new firms may choose not-for-profit status as a means of committing to soft incentives. Such incentives protect donors, volunteers, consumers and employees from ex post expropriation of profits by the entrepreneur. We derive conditions under which completely...

How might technology increase firm value? One method might be to facilitate more efficient use of internal capital. Another method might be to help the firm tap third party capital. This paper uses four unique data sets to measure growth in firm value based on adoption of Application Programming...

The pragmatic theory begins with clarity about the firm's purpose; asserts that knowledge-building proficiency is the primary determinant of a firm's long-term performance; stresses systems thinking; and connects firm performance to market valuation and shareholder returns via long-term, life-cycle...

The incremental innovations that underly much of modern economic growth typically involve changes to one or more components of a complex product. This creates a tension. On the one hand, a principal would like an agent to contribute innovative components. On the other hand, ironing out...

This paper analyzes the determinants of partial ownership of the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms and, in particular, why partial ownership has declined markedly over the last 20 years. The evidence indicates that whole ownership is most common when firms coordinate integrated...

This paper considers two models for analyzing the dynamics of firm behavior that allow for heterogeneity among firms, idiosyncratic (or firm specific) sources of uncertainty, and discrete outcomes (exit and/or entry). Models with these characteristics are needed for the structural econometric...

The goal of this theoretical paper is to provide a framework that can support firms involved in social networks to improve their entrepreneurial orientation by adopting a simple basic principle (division of labour). Entrepreneurship does not depend only on tangible resources (such as physical...

This paper analyzes the determinants of the intra-firm vs arms' length sourcing mode of imported inputs. We build a unique French dataset of 1,141,393 import transactions at the firm, country and product levels in the year 1999 that allow us to distinguish the different sourcing modes. We study...

The political theory of the firm provides the conceptual framework for understanding what firms are doing and what it means for the polities in which they operate. This essay proceeds by explicating each of the three theories – unitary rational actor, nexus of contracts, and behavioral. Within...