Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond: Why and How?

   • John Groenewegen

   Pages 1-9

3. Efficiency, Power, Authority and Economic Organization

   • Oliver E. Williamson

   Pages 11-42

4. Empirical Research in Transaction Cost Economics: Challenges, Progress, Directions

   • Scott E. Masten

   Pages 43-64

5. Transaction Cost Analysis and Marketing

   • Erin Anderson

   Pages 65-83

6. Regulatory Issues with Vertically Disintegrated Public Utilities: A Transaction Cost Analysis

   • Keith J. Crocker

   Pages 85-103

7. Opportunism and Trust in Transaction Cost Economics

   • Niels G. Noorderhaven

   Pages 105-128

8. Short-Term Prevalence, Social Approval, and the Governance of Employment Relations

   • Siegwart M. Lindenberg

   Pages 129-147

9. Inside the Black Box: The Variety of Hierarchical Forms

   • Claude Ménard

   Pages 149-170

10. Authority Relations in the Firm: Review and Agenda for Research

    • Gregory K. Dow

    Pages 171-188

11. The Core of the Firm: The Issue of the Employer-Employee Relationship

    • Margherita Turvani

    Pages 189-207

12. Transaction Cost Analysis — Is it Being Used out of Context?

    • Keith J. Blois

    Pages 209-223

13. Opportunism, Learning, and Organizational Evolution

    • Michael Dietrich

    Pages 225-247

14. Corporate Culture and the Nature of the Firm

    • Geoffrey M. Hodgson

    Pages 249-269

15. Seven Reasons why “Beyond” Transaction Cost Economics to Thesmoeconomics

    • Christos Pitelis

    Pages 271-287

16. After the Special Nature of the Firm: Beyond the Critics of Orthodox Neoclassical Economics

    • Elias L. Khalil

    Pages 289-307

17. Transaction Costs and Technological Learning

    • Paul R. Beije

    Pages 309-326

18. Towards a Learning Based Model of Transactions

    • Bart Nooteboom

    Pages 327-349

19. Transaction Costs and Institutional Change

    • Lars Magnusson, Jan Ottosson

    Pages 351-364

20. A Case for Theoretical Pluralism

    • John Groenewegen, Jack J. Vromen

    Pages 365-380

This book contains the papers that were presented in 1994 at the conference "Transaction Cost Economics and Beyond" organized by GRASP at the Tinbergen Institute in Rotterdam. It is generally recognized that transaction cost economics (TCE) is at the heart of the new theory of the firm. It is a well established research program with a well developed theoretical framework and good results in empirical testing. However, critics consider the approach too limited to understand the essential characteristics of such complex organizations like firms. Critics plea convincingly for the need to go beyond the original TCE framework and to develop a more pluralistic approach towards issues of economic organization. The new theory of the firm can only be further developed when scholars are willing to debate the issues in an open-minded, academic way. I thank the participants of the conference very much for putting so much effort in writing their papers and for their contribution to an open and stimulating discussion. It is my wish that this book contributes to the further deve­ lopment of the theory of the firm and that it helps us to a better understan­ ding of the complexities of economic organization. I would like to thank the following organizations for their support: the Tinbergen Institute, the "Vereniging Trust Fonds" of the Erasmus University, the Faculty of Economics of the Erasmus University, and GRASP (Group for Research and Advice in Strategic management and Industrial Policy).

• Governance
• Institution
• economics
• efficiency
• employment
• theory of the firm

• Department of Economics, GRASP / Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

  John Groenewegen

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