IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aal/abbswp/02-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization

Author

Listed:
  • Kirsten Foss
  • Nicolai J. Foss
  • Peter G. Klein
  • Sandra K. Klein

Abstract

We outline an Austrian approach to economic organization based on the entrepreneur and the Austrian idea of capital as heterogeneous and time-dimensioned, tow themes associated with Israel Kirzner's contributions. We provide a novel interpretation of capital heterogeneity based on the notion of attributes, argue that attributes are costly to measure and that this links directly to the theory of economic organization. In particular, we develop insights in economic organization based on the notion that entrepreneurs will often have to experiment with capital assets to gauge the value of these assets when deployed in production.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirsten Foss & Nicolai J. Foss & Peter G. Klein & Sandra K. Klein, 2002. "Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization," DRUID Working Papers 02-01, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:aal:abbswp:02-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www3.druid.dk/wp/20020001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barzel, Yoram, 1994. "The capture of wealth by monopolists and the protection of property rights," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 393-409, December.
    2. Hart, Oliver & Moore, John, 1990. "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1119-1158, December.
    3. Barzel, Y., 1994. "The Capture of Wealth by monopolists and the Protection of Property Rights," Discussion Papers in Economics at the University of Washington 94-3, Department of Economics at the University of Washington.
    4. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    5. Hart, Oliver, 1995. "Firms, Contracts, and Financial Structure," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288817.
    6. Israel M. Kirzner, 1997. "Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 60-85, March.
    7. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "Multitask Principal-Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design," Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(0), pages 24-52, Special I.
    8. Langlois, Richard N & Foss, Nicolai J, 1999. "Capabilities and Governance: The Rebirth of Production in the Theory of Economic Organization," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 201-218.
    9. Matsusaka, John G, 2001. "Corporate Diversification, Value Maximization, and Organizational Capabilities," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(3), pages 409-431, July.
    10. Nicolai J. Foss, 1996. "Firms, Incomplete Contracts and Organizational Learning," DRUID Working Papers 96-2, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    11. Ulrich Witt, 1999. "Do Entrepreneurs Need Firms? A Contribution to a Missing Chapter in Austrian Economics," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 99-109, January.
    12. Barzel,Yoram, 1997. "Economic Analysis of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521597135, May.
    13. H. B. Malmgren, 1961. "Information, Expectations and the Theory of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(3), pages 399-421.
    14. Laurence Moss, 1991. "The Chicago Intellectual Property Rights Tradition and the Reconciliation of Coase and Hayek," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 145-156, Apr-Jun.
    15. Jarrell, Gregg A & Brickley, James A & Netter, Jeffry M, 1988. "The Market for Corporate Control: The Empirical Evidence Since 1980," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 49-68, Winter.
    16. Barzel, Y., 1994. "The Capture of Wealth by monopolists and the Protection of Property Rights," Working Papers 94-3, University of Washington, Department of Economics.
    17. Kirsten Foss & Nicolai Foss, 2001. "Assets, Attributes and Ownership," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 19-37.
    18. Minkler, Alanson P, 1993. "The Problem with Dispersed Knowledge: Firms in Theory and Practice," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 569-587.
    19. Milbourn, Todd T. & Boot, Arnoud W. A. & Thakor, Anjan V., 1999. "Megamergers and expanded scope: Theories of bank size and activity diversity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(2-4), pages 195-214, February.
    20. repec:mes:jeciss:v:30:y:1996:i:4:p:1212-1216 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Foss, Nicolai Juul, 1994. "The Theory of the Firm: The Austrians as Precursors and Critics of Contemporary Theory," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 31-65.
    22. Klein, Peter G, 1996. "Economic Calculation and the Limits of Organization," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 3-28.
    23. Peter Maskell, 1996. "Localised Low-tech Learning in the Furniture Industry," DRUID Working Papers 96-11, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan W. Schmitz, 2004. "Uncertainty in the Austrian Theory of Capital," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 67-85, March.
    2. Nicolai J. Foss & Peter G. Klein, 2004. "Entrepreneurshoip and the Economic Theory of the Firm Any Gains from Trade?," DRUID Working Papers 04-12, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Austrian Economics; capital; knowledge;

    JEL classification:

    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aal:abbswp:02-01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Keld Laursen). General contact details of provider: http://www.druid.dk/ .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.