More Critical Comments on Knowledge-Based Theories of the Firm

Nicolai J. Foss
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Nicolai J. Foss: Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy, Copenhagen Business School, Nansensgade 19.6, DK-1366 Copenhagen K, Denmark

Organization Science, 1996, vol. 7, issue 5, 519-523

Abstract: This paper continues the critique of knowledge-based theories of the firm that was undertaken in Foss (Foss, N. J. 1996a. Knowledge-based approaches to the theory of the firm: Some critical comments. Organ. Sci. 7 (5) 470--476.), specifically criticizing the reasoning in Kogut and Zander (Kogut, B., U. Zander. 1996. What firms do? Coordination, identity, and learning. Organ. Sci. 7 (5) 502--518.) and Conner and Prahalad (Conner, K. R., C. K. Prahalad. 1996. A resource-based theory of the firm: Knowledge versus opportunism. Organ. Sci. 7 (5) 477--501.). I argue that Kogut and Zander (Kogut, B., U. Zander. 1996. What firms do? Coordination, identity, and learning. Organ. Sci. 7 (5) 502--518.) attempt to explain firm organization in terms of a preference for such organization---a distinctly non-economic mode of explanation---and that Conner and Prahalad fail to sufficiently characterize the nature of the firm, because they identify firm organization with the employment contract and neglect asset-ownership.

Keywords: the existence of the firm; opportunism; the employment contract; asset-ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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