bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Property Rights Approach
Authors: Hart Oliver 
Published: October 2003

AbstractThe neoclassical, principal‐agent and transaction costs theories cannot by themselves explain firm boundaries. This chapter describes a theory—the incomplete contracting or property rights approach—based on the idea that power and control matter when contracts are incomplete. If the terms of a transaction can always be renegotiated, the incentives of a party to undertake relationship‐specific investments will depend crucially on the ability to control the use of productive assets when renegotiation takes place (the hold‐up problem). In this context, asset ownership becomes an essential source of power and different ownership structures will affect the severity of the hold‐up problem. The author presents a model that illustrates the benefits and costs of integration. In the absence of wealth constraints, firm boundaries are chosen to allocate power optimally among the parties to a transaction. An implication of the theory is that, ceteris paribus, a party is more likely to own an asset if he or she has an important investment decision. The theory also predicts that complementarities make integration more likely and, conversely, that independent assets should be owned separately. Finally, the author considers whether the theory's predictions actually match up with observed organizational arrangements.
A Discussion of the Foundations of the Incomplete Contracting Model
Authors: Hart Oliver 
Published: October 2003

AbstractDiscusses the foundations of the incomplete contracting model used in the previous chapters. The first part of the chapter examines the hold‐up problem in more detail. The author considers some natural ways of getting around contractual incompleteness in this set‐up, such as the existence of long‐term contracts, profit‐ and cost‐sharing arrangements, and more sophisticated forms of ownership. It is argued that if parties are unable to provide a detailed contractual description of the various contingencies that may arise and renegotiation is possible, these alternatives do not eliminate the hold‐up problem. The chapter concludes by pointing out that the hold‐up problem is a useful vehicle but not essential for the theory of property rights. What is required for a theory of asset ownership is that there is some inefficiency in the economic relationship, which the allocation of residual rights of control can influence.
Theories of Financial Contracting and Debt
Authors: Hart Oliver 
Published: October 2003

AbstractStudies the optimal financial contract written by a wealth‐constrained entrepreneur who raises funds from an outside investor to purchase an asset. The models presented assume that the entrepreneur obtains significant (private) benefits from managing a firm and analyse how control rights should be allocated between the parties when contracts are incomplete. The chapter begins with a discussion of the Aghion–Bolton model, which explains shifts in control but not the use of a standard debt contract. Next, a model by Hart and Moore is analysed, which comes closer to explaining the use of a standard debt contract. In these models, debt forces the entrepreneur to pay out funds to investors rather than to himself. Furthermore, the dynamic version of the model sheds light on the maturity structure of debt repayment and the role of collateral in determining whether a project is financed. The Appendix to the chapter reviews an alternative approach to debt contracting, the costly state verification model.
Capital Structure Decisions of a Public Company
Authors: Hart Oliver 
Published: October 2003

AbstractIn a public company, ownership is dispersed among numerous small shareholders. In this context, day‐to‐day control is delegated to managers, and individual shareholders have little or no incentives to monitor management (the free‐rider problem). The chapter uses two simple models to illustrate the role of debt and seniority in constraining the behaviour of management when there is a separation between ownership and control. The basic idea is that debt is associated with a hard budget constraint, which can compel (self‐interested) managers to give up unprofitable but power enhancing decisions in order to avoid bankruptcy. The agency approach presented in this chapter is contrasted with the empirical evidence and other theories of capital structure.
Bankruptcy Procedure
Authors: Hart Oliver 
Published: October 2003

AbstractThere are circumstances, arising perhaps from an unexpected shock, in which companies default on their debt. This chapter discusses the need for, and goals of, a formal bankruptcy procedure. A bankruptcy procedure should aim to achieve an ex‐post efficient outcome, preserve the bonding role of debt and the absolute priority of claims. The author describes the existing procedures in the West with particular emphasis in the US and the UK and point out some of their flaws. He presents the Aghion–Hart–Moore (AHM) bankruptcy procedure, in which debt claims are converted into equity (respecting absolute priority) and the decision about whether to liquidate or reorganize is then put to vote by the new shareholders. It is argued that AHM combines desirable features of existing procedures and at the same time overcomes some of the major shortcomings of these procedures.
The Structure of Voting Rights in a Public Company
Authors: Hart Oliver 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
In a public company, ownership is dispersed among small shareholders, causing a separation between ownership and control. This chapter discusses the role of takeovers and voting rights in limiting the ability of a management team to pursue its own goals rather than maximizing the company's public value. Using a general model of the effects of security‐voting structure on control transactions, it is shown that, under a reasonable set of assumptions, the optimal structure is a single class of shares with votes attached (‘one share‐one vote’). The author also discusses situations in which departures from ‘one share‐one vote’ may be optimal and relates the results to the empirical evidence.
Visions of Innovation
Authors: Fransman Martin 
Published: October 2003

AbstractInnovation is the most important force driving economic change. But what drives innovation? In this book, it is argued that the beliefs that shape the way in which people, correctly or incorrectly, ‘see’ their world––i.e. their ‘visions’ of the world––are an important determinant of the innovation process. Visions are particularly important in those cases in which the decision‐making context is ‘fuzzy’––referred to here as situations of interpretive ambiguity––so that the decision‐taker is not certain what to infer. The book begins with an acclaimed critical survey of theories of the firm by some of the most important economists, organization theorists, and business strategists, paying particular attention to the ways in which concepts of information and knowledge are used. The evolution of leading Japanese computer and communications companies––such as NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Hitachi––is then examined by applying the author's approach to the evolution of firms and industry. The next set of chapters is devoted to an analysis of some of the key decisions relating to innovation made in several of the world's most important firms, such as IBM, AT&T, BT, NTT, and NEC. Finally, attention is turned to Japan, where government policies in biotechnology and other high‐tech fields are designed to strengthen Japanese firms and institutions within the context of a globalizing world economy.
Introduction
Authors: Fransman Martin 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Vision is the main theme of this book, and the introduction starts by discussing this concept, which is given a far more restricted meaning than that in general use: rather than using ‘vision’ to indicate creative foresight, which leads to getting things done correctly, the book conceptualizes it in terms of belief, which may lead to getting things done incorrectly (here referred to as vision failure). The further sections of the introduction discuss visions of the firm (addressed in Ch. 1), vision and the evolution of firms (addressed in Chs. 2–4), and vision and public policy‐making (addressed in Chs. 5–7). Within each section, an outline is given of the material covered in each chapter.
AT&T, BT, and NTT: A Comparison of Vision, Strategy, Competence, Path‐Dependency, and R&D
Authors: Fransman Martin 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
AT&T, BT, and NTT are the largest telecommunications service providers in the USA, UK, and Japan, respectively, and until the mid‐1980s, the three companies were monopoly suppliers of telecommunications services in their own national markets. But then all three companies were confronted by similar changes in their environments: more specifically, as a result of changing beliefs on the part of their governments and regulatory authorities, they all faced competition from vigorous new entrants. At the same time, their legal status was changed, with AT&T being divested of and separated from the regional Bell operating companies, and BT and NTT being partly privatized. Simultaneously, the companies had to deal with the maturation of the market for telephone services––the growing importance of new telecommunications services, and the rapid globalization of both service and equipment markets. This chapter looks at: how the three companies have responded to these similar changes in their environment; whether they have constructed similar visions in order to deal with the threats and opportunities resulting from the changes; what differences there are in the strategies developed and in their beliefs regarding the necessary in‐house competences to take advantage of their changing circumstances; and what role should be played by research and development (R&D), and how this should be organized within the company.
Visions of Corporate Organisation: From the Multidivisional to the Segmented Form of Organisation in AT&T, IBM, and NEC
Authors: Fransman Martin 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The chapter begins by analysing the tendency for the modern large industrial corporation to decentralize by examining the transition from the unitary form of organization (or U‐Form) to the multidivisional form (or M‐Form). The discussion then moves on to consider the difficulties arising in IBM and AT&T (both US companies) that led to major reorganizations of both these companies around 1990; it is shown that in order to deal with these difficulties, IBM and AT&T have come to believe that their activities need to be further decentralized, and it is this vision of organization that led them to construct what is referred to in this chapter as a segmented form of organization (or S‐Form). The characteristics of the S‐Form are then analysed by comparing it with the U‐Form and the M‐Form. The case of NEC (Japan) is then examined, and it is shown that it was in 1965, when the company underwent its most significant organizational change since the war, that NEC adopted an S‐Form of organization; they then underwent further major reorganization in 1991–2. The final part of the chapter deals with the different ways in which AT&T, IBM, and NEC, in the light of their different visions of organization, have attempted to coordinate their activities in order to realize synergies and economies of scope within the context of their decentralized S‐Forms of organization; these modes of coordination are categorized and their strengths and weaknesses analysed.
A Vision of the Japanese Innovation System and How It Works
Authors: Fransman Martin 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The chapter begins with a summary of the innovation process in Japanese companies, paying particular attention to several distinctive Japanese forms of organization, such as the lifetime employment system (referred to in the Japanese context as the assumption of no exit) and the importance of committed shareholders; the effects of these forms of organization on the innovation process are examined. The influence of the Japanese government on the innovation process is then analysed, and it is argued that while the ‘engine’ of innovation is located in Japanese companies, organs of the Japanese government have played an important supportive role in facilitating the innovation process. Attention is then turned to the part played by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). While it has often been argued that MITI is the most important organ of the Japanese government in terms of impact on the process of industrial innovation, MITI's expenditure on research and development (R&D) is dwarfed by that of the Ministry of Education and the Science and Technology Agency; this paradox is explained in terms of MITI's location at the centre of a vast information processing network. Finally, attention is turned briefly to the role of universities in the Japanese Innovation System, and it is argued that although Japanese universities are often weaker than their leading counterparts in the other major industrialized countries (in terms of their contribution to frontier research), the Japanese university system nevertheless makes an important contribution to the innovation process.
Visions of Future Technologies: Government, Globalisation, and Universities in Japanese Biotechnology
Authors: Fransman Martin 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
An outline is first given of several influential views regarding the role of the Japanese government and universities in the area of biotechnology. The role of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in biotechnology is then examined in detail, focusing attention on some of the major cooperative research programmes initiated by MITI in the field of biotechnology and the outcomes of these programmes; some of the biotechnology projects undertaken under the auspices of the Science and Technology Agency (STA) are then analysed and evaluated. Questions of policy‐making and influences on this are tackled next through an examination of the relationships between business, bureaucrats, and politicians in Japan, and the role of some of the other Japanese ministries involved in biotechnology is then discussed, including conflicts between ministries that have arisen in this area. The role of Japanese universities in biotechnology is analysed, including evidence from a study on the importance of research in Japanese universities for some of the leading Japanese biotechnology companies, as well as a case study of a leading biotechnology research laboratory at Tokyo University. The next question examined, on the basis of a study of patents in biotechnology‐related pharmaceuticals, is how advanced research in biotechnology in Japan is distributed between company laboratories and universities, and whether this pattern of distribution differs from that in the major Western countries. The chapter ends with a summary of some of the main features of the Japanese system in biotechnology.
A Matter of Survival: Women's Right to Employment in India and Bangladesh
Authors: Chen Martha 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Chen's paper focuses on women's right to work in rural Bangladesh and India to illustrate the symbolism of independence and the practical necessity for women in the developing world to break from the constraints of custom to forge their own way to economic security. Chen's fieldwork in Bangladesh shows that local traditions and local policies can change in response to the contingencies of human development, while her data in India supports the conclusion that local tradition varies across castes, regions, and time. Chen ends with a four‐dimensional analysis of women's right to gainful employment as a matter of (1) immediate survival for women and their dependents; (2) female mortality rates; (3) women's status; and (4) human justice.
Martha C. Nussbaum: Human Capabilities, Female Human Beings
Authors: Wolf Susan 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Wolf endorses Martha Nussbaum's stance and offers constructive criticism of some of its ambiguities and complications. Wolf's caveats point out that (1) Nussbaum's discussion of ‘human beings’ (as opposed to ‘persons’) unnecessarily risks biology‐linked issues of speciesism and sexism; (2) Nussbaum's list of essential human capabilities needs clarification in its application to avoid misdirected objections; (3) Nussbaum's development ethic require further elaboration to meet questions of how to set priorities and make trade‐offs among people or goods; and (4) Nussbaum's one‐humanity‐fits‐all claim does not capture the historical and cultural contingency and inevitability of gender differentiation.
The Research Programme of Development Ethics
Authors: Glover Jonathan 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Glover explores the salience and viability of the development of a shared framework for analysing and assessing cultural restraints of women's equality in developing countries by weighing contentions for and against the view that removing such restraints is a good thing. Glover concludes with his belief that some moral values are common and indispensable for all of humanity across all cultural boundaries.
Justice, Capabilities, and Vulnerabilities
Authors: O'Neill Onora 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
O’Neill investigates the relationship between capability and vulnerability in forms of dependence and victimization, arguing that the satisfaction of preferences ought not to be taken as a normative criterion in political economy. Defending the capabilities approach by connecting it to a strand of Kantianism, O’Neill contends that Kant's categorical imperative continues to be a valuable test in social policy and supplies a powerful safeguard against the exploitation of vulnerability.
Democracy and Rationality: A Dialogue With Hilary Putnam
Authors: Alcoff Linda 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Alcoff, accepting Hilary Putnam's conclusion that rationality and democratic values are intrinsically connected, investigates the implications of his claim. Alcoff urges Putnam to devote more thought to the criticisms advanced against traditional conceptions of inquiry and to follow Foucault in recognizing the various ways in which power and desire may affect even the most apparently neutral and democratic procedure.
Cultural Complexity, Moral Interdependence, and the Global Dialogical Community
Authors: Benhabib Seyla 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Benhabib reconsiders aspects of the cultural relativism–universalism debate via sociological hypotheses regarding the reproduction and interdependence of cultures. After taking issue with relativist views that have neglected the existence of debate and opposition within traditional cultures, Benhabib builds on Richard Rorty's ethnocentric liberalism to argue that cultural views are not radically incommensurable with one another and that there is sufficient common ground among cultures to create a global dialogical community that transcends ethnocentric particularism.
Why not a Feminist Theory of Justice?
Authors: Putnam Ruth Anna 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Putnam first considers and critiques Rawls's theory of justice from a feminist perspective, then endeavours to address the problem of how to preserve the universality of justice without repressing the multiplicity of voices of distress by employing both a Rawlsian stance and a pragmatist approach. Finally, Putnam defends Rawls's conception of justice against Sen's concern regarding its limited scope and Glover's worry of its culturally imperialist appropriation in the Third World. Putnam's conclusion is that a universalist theory is necessary and that any such theory ought to draw from Rawls's work.
Gender, Caste, and Law
Authors: Sunstein Cass R. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Sunstein explores the issue of law and its impact on women's quality of life, scrutinizing how law sustains and supports discrimination against women and how it might embody a commitment to sex equality. Sunstein proposes what he coins an ‘anticaste principle’ which forbids law from turning a morally irrelevant characteristic such as sex into a systematic source of social disadvantage. Focusing on the situation in which women's sexual and reproductive capacities are turned into objects for the use and control of others, Sunstein critiques American sex discrimination law, makes proposals for national and international legal change, and comments on the limitations of market mechanisms in ending discrimination.
Emotions and Women's Capabilities
Authors: Nussbaum Martha C. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Nussbaum takes on the Western and non‐Western claim that women are too emotional to be fully rational, arguing that when an adequate conception of emotion is developed, the opposition between emotion and reason will be recognized as incoherent and emotions will be seen as Adam Smith saw them—as essential ingredients in rational ethical judgement. Nussbaum contends that emotions are best understood as forms of recognition of neediness and dependency regarding the most important things in life, and are therefore as appropriate and rational as are those recognitions and the beliefs that support them.
Martha C. Nussbaum: Emotions and Women's Capabilities
Authors: Lutz Catherine 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Lutz, from an anthropological perspective, offers three points of discussion in Nussbaum's argument: (1) the role of individualism in Nussbaum's scheme of relationship between emotion, rationality, and gender; (2) emotionality as an ideological symptom of women's powerlessness, not a cause of their social position; and (3) extension of case studies from the field of development to the arena of public policy formation.
A Note on the Value of Gender‐Identification
Authors: Korsgaard Christine M. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Engaging with Susan Wolf's question of what role the concept of gender ought to play in an ideal world, Korsgaard argues that gender does not and should not be a deep fact about the identity of human beings. Presumption of shared attributes, shared history, and shared fate, according to Korsgaard, regards where we, as human beings, stand in history, not about our nature. While it is especially difficult to not identify as women and men in a time when feminism is a central part of recent history, Korsgaard believes that with the achievement of equality, human beings will move on and share in non‐gender‐identified tasks.
Recovering Igbo Traditions: A Case for Indigenous Women's Organizations in Development
Authors: Nzegwu Nkiru 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Nzegwu examines the status of women in Igbo political structure to determine the reasons for the apathy of modern Igbo women to political activity. Nzegwu then describes the internal structure of one such organization and explores how the utilization of literacy as the criterion of cultural adulthood leads to designing ineffectual programmes for women. Finally, Nzegwu investigates the history of development in Nigeria and discusses the positive contributions that indigenous women's organizations can bring to development.
The Theory of the Growth of the Firm
Authors: Penrose Edith 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
This book discusses the development of a theory on the growth of the firm. It is shown that the resources with which a particular firm is accustomed to working will shape the productive services its management is capable of rendering. The experience of management will affect the productive services that all its other resources are capable of rendering. As management tries to make the best use of the resources available, a ‘dynamic’ interacting process occurs which encourages growth but limits the rate of growth.