The boundaries of the firm : critiques, strategies, and policies

What is the nature of the firm? Why do firms adopt certain strategies in preference to others? What are the competitive implications of large firm mergers and alliances for government policy? These are extremely important and highly topical questions which tend to be treated separately in most contemporary analysis. However, in this new book based on his original research, Neil Kay shows how these questions are closely inter-related and explores the implications this has for the formulation of corporate strategy and public policy. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Overview....Pages 1-14 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 Industrial Structure, Rivalry and Innovation....Pages 17-51 How Economists Can Accept Shackle’s Critique of Economic Doctrines Without Arguing Themselves Out of Their Jobs....Pages 53-72 Markets, False Hierarchies and the Evolution of the Modern Corporation....Pages 73-92 The Economics of Trust....Pages 93-109 Front Matter....Pages 111-111 The R&D Function....Pages 113-127 Boeing, Corporate Strategy and Technological Change....Pages 129-158 Towards a Theory of Multinational Enterprise....Pages 159-175 Collaborative Strategies of Firms....Pages 177-198 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Industrial Collaborative Activity and the Completion of the Internal Market....Pages 201-217 Mergers, Acquisitions and the Completion of the Internal Market....Pages 219-239 Industrial Collaboration and the European Internal Market....Pages 241-251 Back Matter....Pages 253-276

Explains how the nature of the firm, strategies adopted by the firm, and policies formulated by the government to cope with competitive threat posed by the growth of the modern corporation are all closely inter-related.

Booknews

A dozen papers written 1985-96 continues Kay's (business economics, U. of Strathclyde, Scotland) efforts to look at problems in the theory of the firm from a systems perspective, which he has pursued in three previous books. Here he considers where and how a firm begins and ends in light of diversification, multinational enterprise, mergers, joint ventures, collaborative strategies, and other forms and practices now proliferating. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)