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The Ownership of Enterprise / Henry Hansmann.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2009]Copyright date: 2000Description: 1 online resource (384 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674038301
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 338.70973
LOC classification:
  • HD2785 ǂb H32 1996eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART I A Theory of Enterprise Ownership -- 1 An Analytic Framework -- 2 The Costs of Contracting -- 3 The Costs of Ownership -- PART II Producer-Owned Enterprise -- 4 Investor-Owned Firms -- 5 The Benefits and Costs of Employee Ownership -- 6 Governing Employee-Owned Firms -- 7 Agricultural and Other Producer Cooperatives -- PART III Customer-Owned Enterprise -- 8 Retail, Wholesale, and Supply Firms -- 9 Utilities -- 10 Clubs and Other Associative Organizations -- 11 Housing -- PART IV Nonprofit and Mutual Enterprise -- 12 Nonprofit Firms -- 13 Banks -- 14 Insurance Companies -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Sources -- Index
Summary: The investor-owned corporation is the conventional form for structuring large-scale enterprise in market economies. But it is not the only one. Even in the United States, noncapitalist firms play a vital role in many sectors. Employee-owned firms have long been prominent in the service professions--law, accounting, investment banking, medicine--and are becoming increasingly important in other industries. The buyout of United Airlines by its employees is the most conspicuous recent instance. Farmer-owned produce cooperatives dominate the market for most basic agricultural commodities. Consumer-owned utilities provide electricity to one out of eight households. Key firms such as MasterCard, Associated Press, and Ace Hardware are service and supply cooperatives owned by local businesses. Occupant-owned condominiums and cooperatives are rapidly displacing investor-owned rental housing. Mutual companies owned by their policyholders sell half of all life insurance and one-quarter of all property and liability insurance. And nonprofit firms, which have no owners at all, account for 90 percent of all nongovernmental schools and colleges, two-thirds of all hospitals, half of all day-care centers, and one-quarter of all nursing homes.Henry Hansmann explores the reasons for this diverse pattern of ownership. He explains why different industries and different national economies exhibit different distributions of ownership forms. The key to the success of a particular form, he shows, depends on the balance between the costs of contracting in the market and the costs of ownership. And he examines how this balance is affected by history and by the legal and regulatory framework within which firms are organized.With noncapitalist firms now playing an expanding role in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia as well as in the developed market economies of the West, The Ownership of Enterprise will be an important book for business people, policymakers, and scholars.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674038301

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART I A Theory of Enterprise Ownership -- 1 An Analytic Framework -- 2 The Costs of Contracting -- 3 The Costs of Ownership -- PART II Producer-Owned Enterprise -- 4 Investor-Owned Firms -- 5 The Benefits and Costs of Employee Ownership -- 6 Governing Employee-Owned Firms -- 7 Agricultural and Other Producer Cooperatives -- PART III Customer-Owned Enterprise -- 8 Retail, Wholesale, and Supply Firms -- 9 Utilities -- 10 Clubs and Other Associative Organizations -- 11 Housing -- PART IV Nonprofit and Mutual Enterprise -- 12 Nonprofit Firms -- 13 Banks -- 14 Insurance Companies -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Sources -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The investor-owned corporation is the conventional form for structuring large-scale enterprise in market economies. But it is not the only one. Even in the United States, noncapitalist firms play a vital role in many sectors. Employee-owned firms have long been prominent in the service professions--law, accounting, investment banking, medicine--and are becoming increasingly important in other industries. The buyout of United Airlines by its employees is the most conspicuous recent instance. Farmer-owned produce cooperatives dominate the market for most basic agricultural commodities. Consumer-owned utilities provide electricity to one out of eight households. Key firms such as MasterCard, Associated Press, and Ace Hardware are service and supply cooperatives owned by local businesses. Occupant-owned condominiums and cooperatives are rapidly displacing investor-owned rental housing. Mutual companies owned by their policyholders sell half of all life insurance and one-quarter of all property and liability insurance. And nonprofit firms, which have no owners at all, account for 90 percent of all nongovernmental schools and colleges, two-thirds of all hospitals, half of all day-care centers, and one-quarter of all nursing homes.Henry Hansmann explores the reasons for this diverse pattern of ownership. He explains why different industries and different national economies exhibit different distributions of ownership forms. The key to the success of a particular form, he shows, depends on the balance between the costs of contracting in the market and the costs of ownership. And he examines how this balance is affected by history and by the legal and regulatory framework within which firms are organized.With noncapitalist firms now playing an expanding role in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia as well as in the developed market economies of the West, The Ownership of Enterprise will be an important book for business people, policymakers, and scholars.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Aug 2024)