IVS Seminar

Theoretical Development in the Theory of the Firm.

Seminar with

Paul Nightingale, Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), University of Sussex.

This presentation presents ongoing work and will explore various theories of the firm and how they relate to one another and to wider assumptions and shifts in the social sciences.  The talk will use two ideal-types, drawn from Klein and Meckling's classic 1958 study, to highlight the very divergent assumptions underpinning current models of firm.  This will be used to highlight a range of very strong structural constraints within the theories that can be used to make predictions about the types of explanations and arguments that can be found in the literature.