Authors: Virgile Chassagnon
Publish Date: 2013/08/20
Volume: 124, Issue: 2, Pages: 197-208
Abstract
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 management and more broadly for the social sciences notably because the first and central question raised by the theory of the firm relates to its nature What is a firm For this reason I propose some novel considerations for a social ontology of the firm by focusing on social emergence reconstitution the twolevel institutional logic of the firm complex organizational dynamics and interacting mechanisms and powerI acknowledge the two anonymous referees and the editors of the Journal of Business Ethics Richard Adelstein Bernard Baudry Olivier Brette Benjamin Dubrion Geoffrey Hodgson Tony Lawson and Claude Parthenay for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this essay
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