Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance
Posted: 11 Nov 2009
Date Written: 1999
Abstract
Very few researchers have tackled the problem ofcorporate governance (i.e. financial capital owners' attempts to preventrecipients from misusing the capital) from an Austrian perspective. In thisstudy, an analysis of the financial-market entrepreneur is used to outline somefeatures of an Austrian theory of corporate governance. First, the traditional, production-function theory of the firm is reviewed,and two alternative perspectives—that of the entrepreneur and that of thecapitalist—are proposed. Next, the contractual approach to the firm isdiscussed, and it is argued that such an approach provides a useful organizingframework for Austrian research on the firm. Entrepreneurship and economiccalculation are proposed as building blocks for an Austrian theory of thefirm. The following four areas for further research in corporate governance fromthe Austrian economic perspective are outlined: firms as investments, internalcapital markets, comparative corporate governance, and financiers asentrepreneurs. (SAA)
Keywords: Austrian economics, Financiers, Capitalists, Production function, Firm theory, Financial markets, Mises, Ludwig von, Economic research, Firm governance
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