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Journal ArticleDOI

Transaction Cost Economics: How It Works; Where It is Headed

Oliver E. Williamson
- 01 Apr 1998 - 
- Vol. 146, Iss: 1, pp 23-58
TLDR
The application of transaction cost economics to the study of governance is discussed in this article, where the authors present a sketch of the New Institutional Economics, with special emphasis on the "institutional environment" and "institutions of governance".
Abstract
This paper begins with a sketch of the New Institutional Economics, with special emphasis on the ‘institutional environment’ (North and others) and the ‘institutions of governance’ (Coase and others) Thereafter the paper mainly emphasizes the applications of transaction cost economics to the study of governance, the object being to effect an economizing alignment between transactions, which differ in their attributes, and governance structures (firms, markets, hybrids, bureaus), which differ in their cost and competence I raise a series of issues – phenomena of interest, describing human agents, describing firms, purposes served, scaling up – to which any would-be theory of the firm should be expected to speak and indicate how transaction cost economics responds to each I thereafter describe the mechanisms through which transaction cost economics is implemented and develop some of the core conceptual supports out of which it works Applications to public bureaus, strategic management, and intractable transactions are sketched

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the progressive development of the new institutional economics over the past quarter century, distinguishing four levels of social analysis, with special emphasis on the institutional environment and the institutions of governance.
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Understanding carbon lock-in

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that industrial economies have been locked into fossil fuel-based energy systems through a process of technological and institutional co-evolution driven by path-dependent increasing returns to scale.
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Institutions and the path to the modern economy

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Strategy research: governance and competence perspectives

TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the lenses of governance and competence to the study of strategy, with emphasis on the six key moves through which it has been operationalized and examine the competence perspective in these same six respects.
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The Theory of the Firm as Governance Structure: From Choice to Contract

TL;DR: This article examined economic organization from a science of contract perspective, with special emphasis on the theory of the firm, and found that the lessons of organization theory for economics are both different and more consequential when examined through the lens of contract.
References
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Book

An introduction to the bootstrap

TL;DR: This article presents bootstrap methods for estimation, using simple arguments, with Minitab macros for implementing these methods, as well as some examples of how these methods could be used for estimation purposes.
Book

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

TL;DR: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions as discussed by the authors is a seminal work in the history of science and philosophy of science, and it has been widely cited as a major source of inspiration for the present generation of scientists.
Journal ArticleDOI

Dynamic capabilities and strategic management

TL;DR: The dynamic capabilities framework as mentioned in this paper analyzes the sources and methods of wealth creation and capture by private enterprise firms operating in environments of rapid technological change, and suggests that private wealth creation in regimes of rapid technology change depends in large measure on honing intemal technological, organizational, and managerial processes inside the firm.
Journal ArticleDOI

Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness

TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society, is examined, and it is argued that reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong.