The Firm and the Market

This work presents the application of Mark Casson's theory of the multi-national enterprise (MNE) to draw conclusions about the scope of the firm in general. Casson's innovation is to infer from an extensive consideration of the history, development and organization of the MNE that the scope of any firm is determined by the way it resolves the problem of co-ordinating its productive activities - production, research, advertising and promotion. After chapters critically reviewing the literature and detailing his own theoretical insights, the author looks at case studies of topical concern in the shipping, construction and motor industries in order to explain contemporary rationalization and restructuring in manufacturing industry.