Ronald H. Coase and Frank H. Knight are usually considered by scholars to be the most influential and pioneering authors of the modern theory of the firm. However, it is less well known that both of them argue, in a different but often complementary way, that employment relationships and...

In the past half century, the theory of the firm has become a specific and prolific research field. However, the social ontology of this central institution of capitalism has never truly been the subject of investigation. I consider this negligence harmful for organizational economics and...

This paper aims to analyze the impact of recent industrial changes on the governance structure of power relationships. To achieve this goal, three insights are discussed. First, the definition of what a firm is in both economic theory and in corporate law is clarified. Second, the four core...

This conceptual paper starts with a question regarding the nature of the firm: is the firm a nexus of contracts or a real entity? To answer this question, the article departs from a critique of firm contract theory that usually focuses on moral personification to propose some theoretical...

The institutional and industrial evolution of the 1980s and 1990s considerably transformed the governance structures of production through globalization, financialization and the accentuation of competitive pressures. The governance structures of inter-firm relationships have changed greatly;...