Corporate Governance and Entrepreneurial Firms

David Audretsch () and Erik Lehmann ()

Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, 2014, vol. 10, issue 1-2, 1-160

Abstract: Although topics in corporate governance have been present in literature for almost a century, most of the theoretical and empirical work has focused on large and public companies, or the " Berle-Means-Corporation " in which fragmented ownership, caused by the separation of ownership and control, shifts power in the firm toward managers. While this research has improved our understanding of how large corporations are governed, corporate governance in small and medium sized enterprises, and in particular in entrepreneurial firms, has rarely been studied. While academia, managers, and policy makers are deeply concerned with how many jobs are created by new ventures, how much they should invest, and how much wealth they generate. In particular they are concerned in their local and national economy, for there is only scarce evidence on how entrepreneurial firms can and should organize their factors of production in a way that promotes success, and how they are governed. With the emergence of the "New Economy" that is step-by-step replacing the "Managed Economy," governance problems in these entrepreneurial firms appear. This essay offers a reflective overview of corporate governance mechanisms in entrepreneurial firms and offers an explanation on how and why they may differ from those mechanisms in large and publicly traded corporations.

Keywords: Corporate governance; Entrepreneurship; Microeconomics; Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G30 L20 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:now:fntent:0300000037

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