https://www.sfu.ca/~wainwrig/Econ400/jensen-meckling.pdf

Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure

Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage

Building Theories From Case Study Research - This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.

Building theories from case study research

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

/pdf/the-iron-cage-revisited-institutional-isomorphism-and-xas5qn5nhy.pdf

The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields

The dynamic capabilities framework analyzes the sources and methods of wealth creation and capture by private enterprise firms operating in environments of rapid technological change. The competitive advantage of firms is seen as resting on distinctive processes (ways of coordinating and combining), shaped by the firm's (specific) asset positions (such as the firm's portfolio of difftcult-to- trade knowledge assets and complementary assets), and the evolution path(s) it has aflopted or inherited. The importance of path dependencies is amplified where conditions of increasing retums exist. Whether and how a firm's competitive advantage is eroded depends on the stability of market demand, and the ease of replicability (expanding intemally) and imitatability (replication by competitors). If correct, the framework suggests that private wealth creation in regimes of rapid technological change depends in large measure on honing intemal technological, organizational, and managerial processes inside the firm. In short, identifying new opportunities and organizing effectively and efficiently to embrace them are generally more fundamental to private wealth creation than is strategizing, if by strategizing one means engaging in business conduct that keeps competitors off balance, raises rival's costs, and excludes new entrants. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

/pdf/dynamic-capabilities-and-strategic-management-4iyi34iyh6.pdf

Dynamic capabilities and strategic management

Die Texte und der Kommentar des vorangegangenen Kapitels sollten zeigen, wie die Pramisse der Rationalitat mit schrittweiser Annaherung an die Entscheidungsrealitat abgebaut wird. Dabei blieb jedoch eine Problemverengung noch aufrecht erhalten: die Beschrankung auf Individualentscheidungen. Der Entschlus wurde als geistige Einzelleistung einer Entscheidungsperson, d.h. unter Ausklammerung aller organisatorischen Fragestellungen behandelt. Gerade durch die Betonung der subjektiven Voraussicht und des individuellen Zielanspruchs muste die Psychologie des Individiums und nicht die der Gruppe in das Zentrum des Interesses rucken.

Entscheidung als interaktiver Prozeß

Mathematics and Organization Theory

Organizations: An Executive's View@@@Organizations

Im letzten Kapitel fanden wir es zweckmasig, das Konzept der Rationalitat, das in der Okonomie und in der Statistik verwendet wird, einer Theorie der Rationalitat gegenuberzustellen, die die Grenzen der Macht, der Geschwindigkeit und der Kapazitat der menschlichen kognitiven Fahigkeiten berucksichtigt. Diese Gegenuberstellung trug zum Verstandnis des Mosaiks von Programmen bei, das den Grosteil des menschlichen Verhaltens in Organisationen ausmacht.

James G. March

Papers

Entscheidung als interaktiver Prozeß

Mathematics and Organization Theory

Organizations: An Executive's View@@@Organizations

Planung und Innovation in Organisationen

Forord til 2. udgave