Nicolai Foss
Copenhagen Business School

Foss

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(Friday, 5th April 2002)

Title : Knowledge-based and Governance Approaches to Economic Organization.

During the last ten years or so, contract economics and the transaction cost approach to economic organization have been strongly critizied by a body of theory that is called "the knowledge-based approach". Writers within this approach argues that it is possible to build a theory of economic organization that makes no use of the notion of opportunism (or related concepts). This lecture discusses the knowledge-based approach, compares it to the more traditional approaches to economic organization, and argues in favor of a synthetic approach.

Bibliographical references :

Nicolai J Foss, Herbert Simon's Grand Theme in the Economics of Organization: "Much Cited and Little Used" mimeo, March 2002.

Nicolai J Foss (2002) "The Strategy and Transaction Costs Nexus: Past Debates, Central Questions, and Future Research Possibilities", (mimeo)