Publisher Description

An increasing number of studies in the last decade or so have emphasized the viability and persistence of distinctive systems of economic coordination and control in developed market economies. Over more or less the same period, the revival of institutional economics and evolutionary approaches to understanding the firm has focused attention on how firms create distinctive capabilities through establishing routines that coordinate complementary activities andskills for particular strategic purposes. For much of the 1990s these two strands of research remained distinct. Those focusing on the institutional frameworks of market economies were primarily concernedwith identifying complementarities between institutional arrangements that explained coherence and continuity. On the other hand, those focusing on the dynamics of firm behaviour studied how firms develop new capacities and are able to learn new ways of doing things. This book aims to bring together these approaches. It consists of a set of theoretically motivated and empirically informed chapters from a range of internationally known contributors to these debates. Intheir chapters, the authors show how institutions and firms evolve. Ideas of path dependency and complementarity of institutions are subjected to critical scrutiny both by reference to their own internallogic and to empirical examples. Varieties of institutional integration, the surprising maintenance of 'deviant' or alternative traditions and processes, and the existence of unpredictable yet consequential policy options that can lead to breaks in path dependency are scrutinized with particular reference to how national and international firms may relate to institutions at various levels as a diverse arena of potential resources rather than as a singular and determinant constraining force.The book provides a set of theoretical and empirical challenges for researchers concerned with the relationship between national institutional contexts and firm dynamics. For thoseinvolved in teaching or studying at doctoral, Masters and higher level undergraduate courses, the book provides a structured entry into the debates about how institutions and firms are changing in the contemporary era.

Author Biography

Glenn Morgan is at Professor, Warwick Business School. Richard Whitley is at Professor of Organizatonal Sociology in the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester and Professor of Comparative Business Systems at Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

Table of Contents

Introduction1: Glenn Morgan: Changing Capitalisms? Internationalization, Institutionalization, and Systems of Economic OrganizationSection I: Institutional Complementarity, Contradiction, and Change in Business Systems2: Richard Deeg: Path Dependency, Institutional Complementarity, and Change in National Business Systems3: Bob Hancke and Michael Goyer: Degrees of Freedom: Rethinking the Institutional Analysis of Economic Change4: Christel Lane: Institutional Transformation and System Change: Changes the Corporate Governance of German Corporations5: Arndt Sorge: Systemic Perspectives on Business Practices and Institutions: A Plea Beyond Comparative Statics6: Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack: Rethinking Path Dependency: The Crooked Path of Institutional Change in Postwar Germany7: Colin Crouch: Complementarity and Fit in the Study of Comparative Capitalisms8: Richard Whitley: How National are Business Systems? The Role of Different State Types and Complemntary Institutions in Constructing Homogeneous Systems of Economic Coordination and ControlSection 2: Changing Firm Capabilities Within and Across Institutional Frameworks9: Richard Whitley: The Limited Development of Transnational Organizational Capabilities in Multinational Companies: Institutional Constraints on International Authority Sharing and Careers10: Glenn Morgan and Sigrid Quack: Internationalization and Capability Development in Regulated Professional Service Firms11: Gary Herrigel and Volker Wittke: Emerging Strategies and Forms of Governance in the Components Industry in High Wage Areas12: Eli Moen and Kari Lilja: Change in Coordinated Market Economies: The Case of Finland and NokiaAfterword13: Peer Hull Kristensen: Modelling National Business Systesm and the Civilizing Process14: Glenn Morgan: Institutional Complementarities, Path Dependency, and the Dynamics of Firms

Review

The authors construct theoretical and empirical accounts of how institutions emerge and change and consider how firms use and reconstitute institutional settings, especially in the context of multinational firms operating across different international concepts. * Book News *
The authors construct theoretical and empirical accounts of how institutions emerge and change and consider how firms use and reconstitute institutional settings, especially in the context of multinational firms operating across different international concepts. * Book News *

Long Description

An increasing number of studies in the last decade or so have emphasized the viability and persistence of distinctive systems of economic coordination and control in developed market economies. Over more or less the same period, the revival of institutional economics and evolutionary approaches to understanding the firm has focused attention on how firms create distinctive capabilities through establishing routines that coordinate complementary activities and
skills for particular strategic purposes. For much of the 1990s these two strands of research remained distinct. Those focusing on the institutional frameworks of market economies were primarily concerned with identifying complementarities between institutional arrangements that explained coherence and
continuity. On the other hand, those focusing on the dynamics of firm behaviour studied how firms develop new capacities and are able to learn new ways of doing things. This book aims to bring together these approaches. It consists of a set of theoretically motivated and empirically informed chapters from a range of internationally known contributors to these debates. In their chapters, the authors show how institutions and firms evolve. Ideas of path dependency and
complementarity of institutions are subjected to critical scrutiny both by reference to their own internal logic and to empirical examples. Varieties of institutional integration, the surprising maintenance of 'deviant' or alternative traditions and processes, and the existence of unpredictable yet
consequential policy options that can lead to breaks in path dependency are scrutinized with particular reference to how national and international firms may relate to institutions at various levels as a diverse arena of potential resources rather than as a singular and determinant constraining force. The book provides a set of theoretical and empirical challenges for researchers concerned with the relationship between national institutional contexts and firm dynamics. For
those involved in teaching or studying at doctoral, Masters and higher level undergraduate courses, the book provides a structured entry into the debates about how institutions and firms are changing in the contemporary era.

Review Quote

"[The] authors construct theoretical and empirical accounts of how institutions emerge and change and consider how firms use and reconstitute institutional settings, especially in the context of multinational firms operating across different international concepts."--Book News

Promotional "Headline"

Introduction 1. Glenn Morgan: Changing Capitalisms? Internationalization, Institutionalization, and Systems of Economic Organization Section I: Institutional Complementarity, Contradiction, and Change in Business Systems 2. Richard Deeg: Path Dependency, Institutional Complementarity, and Change in National Business Systems 3. Bob Hancke and Michael Goyer: Degrees of Freedom: Rethinking the Institutional Analysis of Economic Change 4. Christel Lane: Institutional Transformation and System Change: Changes the Corporate Governance of German Corporations 5. Arndt Sorge: Systemic Perspectives on Business Practices and Institutions: A Plea Beyond Comparative Statics 6. Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack: Rethinking Path Dependency: The Crooked Path of Institutional Change in Postwar Germany 7. Colin Crouch: Complementarity and Fit in the Study of Comparative Capitalisms 8. Richard Whitley: How National are Business Systems? The Role of Different State Types and Complemntary Institutions in Constructing Homogeneous Systems of Economic Coordination and Control Section 2: Changing Firm Capabilities Within and Across Institutional Frameworks 9. Richard Whitley: The Limited Development of Transnational Organizational Capabilities in Multinational Companies: Institutional Constraints on International Authority Sharing and Careers 10. Glenn Morgan and Sigrid Quack: Internationalization and Capability Development in Regulated Professional Service Firms 11. Gary Herrigel and Volker Wittke: Emerging Strategies and Forms of Governance in the Components Industry in High Wage Areas 12. Eli Moen and Kari Lilja: Change in Coordinated Market Economies: The Case of Finland and Nokia Afterword 13. Peer Hull Kristensen: Modelling National Business Systesm and the Civilizing Process 14. Glenn Morgan: Institutional Complementarities, Path Dependency, and the Dynamics of Firms

Feature

Shows how institutions shape firm behaviour and economic performance
Looks at the causes and directions of change within national institutional settings and at the level of firm behaviour
Includes theoretical and empirical contributions from a range of disciplines
Brings together the key authors in debates surrounding the relationship of firms and institutional settings
Will appeal to researchers, teachers, and students across the social sciences

Details