3. Business Strategy, Economic Crisis and the Theory of the Firm

Business organisation and strategy has permitted the introduction of a range of more heterodox theories linking economic history and business history. Coase’s ‘Theory of the Firm’ and Williamson’s ‘Transaction Cost Analysis’ broaden into an approach which identifies imperfect competition from within a traditional and familiar neo-classical framework. When placed within a business history context, and utilising contrasting debates over the managerial revolution and explanations of relative economic decline, business strategy begins to be open to more complex explanations for economic transitions and crisis. This complexity permits both a wider set of theories of crisis and a wider political economy, including post-Keynesian theories of market regulation and industrial policy and Marx’s ‘Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall’ to be developed.