ABSTRACT
Economic and business history, the history of economic thought, and popular literature have, in Chapters One through Six, given us a look into the past. In this chapter, focus shifts to ask a different question from a different perspective: Does seeing the firm as M→C→C´→M´ provide a narrative that will give us a better template for addressing current social and economic issues than the more customary C→C´ emphasis? The answer must necessarily be speculative, for it deals with the present, where the trees are always clearer than the forest, and with the future, which is contingent and unknowable. Further, it should be noted that the earlier chapters of this book have offered evidence drawn primarily from two supply chains during two relatively short periods of time: Standard Oil from the late 1860s until the early twentieth century and Wal-Mart from its founding in the 1960s to the first decade of the twenty-first century. The proposition that this is a sufficient sample over sufficient time on which to base predictions about a new and more appropriate metanarrative for explaining and dealing with big business must, therefore, be offered with some caution.
