Understanding the Firm: Spatial and Organizational Dimensions

Firms are at the very heart of modern day life. They come in a seemingly infinite variety - from transnationals to small firm, from corporations to branch plants, to subsidiaries and joint ventures, from subcontractors to franchisees, from sole proprietorships to partnerships, from manufacturers to service providers and retailers. For the most part we view them as the creators, destroyers, and repositories of jobs - the creators and destroyers of people's livelihoods, lives, and dreams. But, deciding just what a firm is is neither a simple nor a straightforward task. Against a background of the dynamic complexity and plurality that business forms (and firms) can assume, there is a constant search within academic research for the processes that create and maintain both enterprise and enterprises in capitalist societies: a search for a theory of the firm. This book addresses some of the gaps in the current state of the theory of the firm from an economic geography perspective: issues around the boundaries of the firm; the collective agency of the firm; the political firm, financial markets, and the state; and the firm in place. Contributors to this volume - Professor Bjorn T. Asheim, Department of Social and Economic Geography, University of Lund, Sweden, and Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Norway, Professor John Bryson, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK, Dr Mia Gray, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, Professor Ray Hudson, Department of Geography, University of Durham, Durham, UK, Professor Ann Markusen, Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, The Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, USA, Dr Paivi Oinas, Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Professor Phillip O'Neill, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia, Professor Michael Taylor, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK