Aim of the course

To introduce key theories of the firm and economic organization that have been strongly influential in management research, and to train students to use on these theories in their thesis work.

Course content, structure and teaching

The course discusses the role of the firm in management research; covers basic economic concepts that are fundamental to the theory of the firm such as incentives, transaction costs, and property rights, jointly with resource-based view and evolutionary theory; discuss about the role of the theory of the firm in the changed nature of the firm. Then the course discusses main theories, comparing differences, similarities and potentiality, and analyzing to organizational design, governance, finance, and related issues to provide to a young researcher the tools to manage the first part of a paper that has to be eligible for publication.

Program:

·       The theory of the firm: general overview, economic background and chronological evolution (1/2)

·       The theory of the firm: general overview, economic background and chronological evolution (2/2)

·       Boundaries of the firm and contracting view of the firm

·       Behavioral theory of the firm

·       Organizational theory

·       Resource-based theory, capabilities view and the knowledge-based theory of the firm  

·       Evolutionary theory

·       Changing nature of the firm: organization, power and theory of the firm

·       Theory of the firm and its applications in empirical research

·       What Determines Firm Size?

·       Firm’s objective and theory of economic value

·       Value’s constraints:  Corporate Governance and Sustainability

Course literature

A general literature is provided below, and it has to be part of the basic knowledge before the first class of the course.

·       Maurizio La Rocca, “Sul concetto di impresa: teorie, evoluzione storica e prospettive future”, L’Industria. Rivista di Economia e Politica Industriale, (Edizione Il Mulino) XLIV, n.2, 2023. (English version here)

·       Joseph Mahoney, 2005, Economic Foundations of Strategy, London: Sage.

·       David Kreps, 1997, “Economics: The Current Position,” Daedalus 126: 59-86