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008 090128s2009 xx ||||gr |0|| 0 eng d
100 1 _aNICKERSON, Jack A.
_936112
245 1 0 _aEnvy, comparison costs, and the economic theory of the firm
260 _aChichester, UK :
_bWiley-Blackwell,
_cDecember 2008
520 3 _aAn economic theory of the firm must explain both when firms supplant markets and when markets supplant firms. While theories of when markets fail are well developed, the extant literature provides a less than adequate explanation of why and when hierarchies fail and of actions managers take to mitigate such failure. In this article, we seek to develop a more complete theory of the firm by theorizing about the causes and consequences of organizational failure. Our theory focuses on the concept of social comparison costs that arise through social comparison processes and envy. While transaction costs in the market provide an impetus to move activities inside the boundaries of the firm, we argue that envy and resulting social comparison costs motivate moving activities outside the boundary of the firm. More specifically, our theory provides an explanation for managerial diseconomies of both scale and scope - arguments that are independent from traditional measurement, rent seeking, and competency arguments - that provides new insights into the theory of the firm. In our theory, hierarchies fail as they expand in scale because social comparison costs imposed on firms escalate and hinder the capacity of managers to optimally structure incentives and production. Further, hierarchy fails as a firm expands in scope for the simple reason that the costs of differentially structuring compensation within the firm to match the increasing diversity of activities also rises with increasing scope. In addition, we explore how social comparison costs influence the design of the firm through selection of production technologies and compensation structures within the firm
700 1 _aZENGER, Todd R
_936113
773 0 8 _tStrategic management journal
_g29, 13, p. 1429-1449
_dChichester, UK : Wiley-Blackwell, December 2008
_xISSN 01432095
_w
942 _cS
998 _a20090128
_b1830^b
_cTiago
999 _aConvertido do Formato PHL
_bPHL2MARC21 1.1
_c28136
_d28136
041 _aeng