Case studies that examine how firms coordinate economic activity in the
face of asymmetric information--information not equally available to all
parties--are the focus of this volume.
In an ideal world, the market would be the optimal provider of
coordination, but in the real world of incomplete information, some
activities are better coordinated in other ways. Divided into three
parts, this book addresses coordination within firms, at the borders of
firms, and outside firms, providing a picture of the overall incidence
and logic of economic coordination. The case studies--drawn from the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when the modern business
enterprise was evolving, address such issues as the relationship between
coordination mechanisms and production techniques, the logic of
coordination in industrial districts, and the consequences of regulation
for coordination.
Continuing the work on information and organization presented in the
influential Inside the Business Enterprise, this book provides
material for business historians and economists who want to study the
development of the dissemination of information and the coordination of
economic activity within and between firms.