The Rise of the Modern Firm

By: Geoffrey Jones and Walter A. Friedman

Format:Print

Abstract

This authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth. Alongside an original introduction, Professors Jones and Friedman have selected work by scholars who have used corporate archives to explore the fine details of how firms actually operated. It also includes work by those who have been influenced by evolutionary, transaction cost and resource-based theories of the firm. The book will be an essential source of reference for industrial economists, management scholars and business historians.