ABSTRACT
It is now somewhat standard to recognise that the firm is one of the fundamental institutions in a market economy. Not, of course, the black-box firm of equilibrium price theory, but real firms that enact strategies, manage the creation and acquisition of information and knowledge, and that have internal organisational structures and processes. In terms of modern economics, these real firms, at the core of a market economy, are analysed by writers as different as, for example, Edith Penrose, Herbert Simon and Oliver Williamson. But the fundamental importance of the firm is not merely a modern observation. It can be traced back into the writing of, for example, Marx and Schumpeter.
