Abstract
In neoclassical economics, the firm is seen as a ‘black box’, i.e. an entity receiving flows of raw materials and turning out flows of processed or finished products. The purpose of such an entity is to maximize its profit, being limited only by its resources. However, since the 1960s, this restrictive vision of the firm’s goals has been largely questioned and has been commonly replaced by a more complex spectrum of objectives.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aghion, P. and P. Howitt, Endogeous Growth Theory (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998).
Andreff, W., Les multinationales globales (Paris: La Découverte, 2003).
Antonelli, C., ‘Models of Knowledge and Systems of Governance’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 1 (2005), 51–73.
Archibugi, D. and S. Iammarino, ‘The Globalisation of Technological Innovation: Definition and Evidence’, Review of International Political Economy, 9 (2002), 98–122.
Arrow, K. J., ‘Economics Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention’, in R. R. Nelson (ed.), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press of NBER, 1962), pp. 609–25.
Bartlett, C. A., Y. Doz and G. Hedlund (eds), Managing the Global Firm (London: Routledge, 1990).
Berle, A. A. and C. G Means, The Modern Corporation and the Private Property (New York: Macmillan, 1932).
Besen, S. and J. Farrell, ‘Choosing how to Compete: Strategies and Tactics in Standardization’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8 (1994), 117–31.
Carnoy, M., M. Castells and C. Benner, ‘Les marchés de l’emploi et les pratiques en matière d’emploi à l’ère de la flexibilité: étude de cas de la Silicon Valley’, Revue internationale du travail, 136 (1997), 29–54.
Chamberlin, E. H., The Theory of Monopolistic Competition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1933).
Chesnais, F., La mondialisation du capital (Paris: Syros, 1994).
Chesnais, E (ed.), La finance mondialisée (Paris: La découverte, 2004).
Choi, J. P., ‘Patent Pools and Cross-Licensing in the Shadow of Patent Litigation’ (Michigan State University, http://www.msu.edu, 2003).
Clark, J., J. Piccolo, B. Stanton and K. Tyson, Patentpools: a Solution to the Problem of Access in Biotech Patents? (USPTO, http://www.uspto.gov, 2000).
Cohen, W. and D. Levinthal, ‘Absorptive Capacity: a New Perspective on Learning and Innovation’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 35 (1990), 128–52.
Cohen, W. M., R. R. Nelson and J. P. Walsh, ‘Protecting their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability onditions and why US Manufacturing Firms Patent (or Not)?’ (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 7552, 2000).
Courvisanos, J., ‘Galbraith and the Political Economy of Technological Innovation: Critical Perspectives and a Heterodox Synthesis’, in B. Laperche, J. K. Galbraith and D. Uzunidis (eds), Innovation, Evolution and Economic Change. New Ideas in the Tradition of Galbraith (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006), pp. 205–28.
Dietrich, M. and A. Sharma, ‘The Corrupt Corporation: a Galbraith-inspired Analysis’, in B. Laperche, J.K. Galbraith and D. Uzunidis (eds), Innovation, Evolution and Economic Change. New Ideas in the Tradition of Galbraith (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006), pp. 162–84.
Dosi, G., ‘Sources, Procedures and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation’, Journal of Economic Literature, 26 (1988), 1120–71.
Dosi, G., R. R. Nelson and S. Winter, The Nature and Dynamics of Organizational Capabilities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Durkheim, E., De la division du travail social (1930) (Paris: PUF, 1996).
Etzkowitz, H., ‘Research Groups as Quasi-Firms’: the Invention of the Entrepreneurial University’, Research Policy, 32 (2003), 109–21.
Florida, R., ‘The Globalization of R&D: Result of a Survey of Foreign Affiliated Laboratories in the USA’, Research Policy, 26 (1997), 85–103.
Foray, D., ‘Exploitation des externalités de réseau versus évolution des normes’, Revue d’économie industrielle, No. 51 (1990), 113–40.
Foray, D., The Economics of Knowledge (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2004).
Freeman, C., Technology and Economic Performance: Lessons from Japan (London: Pinter Publishers, 1987).
Galbraith, J. K., The Affluent Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958).
Galbraith, J. K., The New Industrial State (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967).
Gallini, N. T., ‘The Economics of Patents: Lessons from Recent US Patent Reform’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16 (2002), 131–54.
Hagedoorn, J., ‘Inter-Firm R&D Partnerships: an Overview of Major Trends and Patterns since I960’, Research Policy, 31 (2002), 477–92.
Harabi, N., ‘Les facteurs déterminants de la R&D’, Revue Française de Gestion, 114 (1997), 39–51.
Jaffe, B., ‘The US Patent System in Transition: Policy Innovation and the Innovation Process’, Research Policy, 29 (2000), 531–7.
Kline, S. J. and N. Rosenberg, ‘An Overview of Innovation, National Academy of Engineering’, The Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth (Washington, DC: The National Academy Press, 1986).
Laperche, B., La firme et l’information (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1998).
Laperche, B., ‘Les ressorts du monopole, essai sur l’hérésie de Joan Robinson’, Innovations, Cahiers d’économie de l’Innovation, 14 (2001a), 33–54.
Laperche, B., ‘Brevets et normes techniques. De l’incitation à l’invention au contrôle de l’innovation’, in B. Laperche (ed.), Propriété industrielle et innovation (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2001b), pp. 81–98.
Laperche, B., ‘The Four Key Factors for Commercialising Research’, Higher Education and Management Policy, OECD, 14 (2002), 149–75.
Laperche, B., ‘Patentability: Questions about the Control of Strategic Technology’, in C. A. Shoniregun, I. P. Chochliouros, B. Laperche, O. Logvynovskiy and A. Spiliopoulou-Chochliourou, Questioning the Boundary Issues of Internet Security (London: E. Centre for Economics, 2004), pp. 117–40.
Laperche, B., ‘Large Corporations and Technostructures in Competition’, in B. Laperche, J. Galbraith and D. Uzunidis (eds), Innovation, Evolution and Economic Change: New Ideas in the Tradition of Galbraith (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006), pp. 142–61.
Laperche, B. and R. Bellais, ‘Entrepreneurs, capital-risque et croissance des grandes entreprises’, Problèmes économiques, 2704–2705 (2001), 14–21.
Lévêque, F. and Y. Meniere, Economie de la propriété industrielle (Paris: La découverte, 2003).
Levin, R., R. Klevorick, R. Nelson and S. Winter, ‘Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development: a Review of Evidence’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 3 (1987), 783–831.
Lundvall, B. A., National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning (London: Pinter Publishers, 1992).
Madeuf, B. and G. Lefebvre, ‘Innovation mondiale et recherche localisée. Stratégies “technoglobales” des groupes. Le cas français’, Innovations, Cahiers d’économie de l’innovation, 16 (2002), 9–27.
Madeuf, B., G. Lefebvre and A. Savoy, ‘De l’internationalisation à la globalisation de la R&D industrielle: l’exemple de la France’, Innovations, Cahiers d’économie de l’innovation, 5 (1997), 55–92.
Malerba, F., ‘Innovation and the Evolution of Industry’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 16 (2006), 3–23.
Marx, K., Grundrisse (1857), vol. II (Paris: Anthropos, 1977).
Marx, K., Le Capital (1867) (Moscow: Editions du Progrès, 1982).
Maskus, K. E. and J. H. Reichman, ‘The Globalization of Private Knowledge Goods and the Privatization of Global Public Goods’, Journal of International Economic Law, 7(2) (2004), 279–320.
Michie, J. (ed.), The Handbook of Globalisation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003).
Milward, B. Globalization? Internationalization and Monopoly Capitalism (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003).
Mowery, D. C., R. Nelson, B. N. Sampat and A. Ziedonis, ‘The Growth of Patenting and Licensing by US Universities: an Assessment of the Effects of the Bayh Dole Act of 1980’, Research Policy, 30 (2001), 99–119.
Nelson, R. R. ‘The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research’, Journal of Political Economy, 67 (1959), 297–306.
Nelson, R. R., ‘The Market Economy, and the Scientific Commons’, Research Policy, 33 (2004), 455–71.
Nelson R. R. and S. G. Winter, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982).
Nonaka, I. and H. Takeuchi, The Knowledge Creating Company (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
O’Donoghue, T., S. Scotchmer and J.-F. Thisse, ‘Patent Breadth, Patent Life and the Pace of Technological Progress’, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 2(1) (1998), 1–32.
OECD, Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2003 (Paris: OECD, 2003).
Patel, P. and K. Pavitt, ‘Large Firms in the Production of the World’s Technology: an Important Case of “Non Globalisation”’, Journal of International Business Studies, First Quarter, 22(1) (1991), 1–21.
Penrose, E.T., The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (Oxford: Blackwell, 1959).
Plihon, D., Le nouveau capitalisme (Paris: Dominos, Flammarion, 2002).
Polanyi, M., Personal Knowledge, Towards a Post Critical Philosophy (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958).
Porter, M. E., The Competitive Advantage of Nations (London: Macmillan, 1990).
Pyka, A. and G. Küppers, Innovation Networks: Theory and Practice (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002).
Research Policy, ‘The Internationalization of the Industrial R&D’, Special Issue, 28(2, 3), (1999).
Revue d’économie industrielle, ‘Les droits de propriété intellectuelle, nouveaux domaines, nouveaux enjeux’, Special Issue, 99 (2002).
Robinson, J., The Economics of Imperfect Competition (London: Macmillan, 1933).
Rosenberg, N., ‘Why do Firms do Basic Research (with Their Own Money)?’, Research Policy, 19 (1990), 165–74.
Say, J.-B., Catéchisme d’économie politique, in Cours d’économie politique et autres essais (1815) (Paris: GF Flammarion, 1996).
Schumpeter, J. A., Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942) (New York: Harper and Row, 1950).
Schumpeter, J. A., The Theory of Economic Development (1911) (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1983).
Scotchmer, S., ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Cumulative Research and the Patent Law’, Journal of Economic Perspective, 5 (1991), 29–41.
Scotchmer, S., Innovation and Incentives (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004).
Sell, S. K., Private Power, Public Law. The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Shapiro, C., ‘Navigating the Patent Thicket: Cross Licensing Patent Pools, and Standard Setting’, in A. Jaffe, J. Lerner and S. Stern (eds), Innovation Policy and the Economy, vol. I (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001).
Shapiro, C. and H. Varian, Information Rules: a Strategic Guide to the Network Economy (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1998).
Smith, A., An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) (Paris: Coll. Folio essais, Gallimard, 1976).
Solow, R., ‘Technical Change and the Aggregate Production function’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 39 (1957), 313–20.
Stiglitz, J. E., The Roaring Nineties (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003).
Tidd, J., J. Bessant and K. Pavitt, Managing Innovation. Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change (Chichester: J. Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2005).
UNCTAD, World Investment Report ‘Transnational Corporations and the Internationalization of R&D’ (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 2005).
USPTO, Trilateral Statistical Report (various editions: 1996, 2000, 2003), http://www.uspto.gov
Uzunidis, D., ‘Les facteurs actuels qui font de la science une force productive du capital. Le quatrième moment de l’organisation de la production’, Innovations, Cahiers d’économie de l’Innovation, 17 (2003), 51–78.
Uzunidis, D., L’innovation et l’économie contemporaine (Brussels: De Boeck, 2004).
Uzunidis, D., S. Boutillier and B. Laperche, Le travail bradé (Paris: Economie et Innovation, L’Harmattan, 1997).
Von Hippel, E., ‘Trading Trade Secrets’, Technology Review, 61 (1988), 58–64.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2008 Blandine Laperche
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Laperche, B. (2008). Innovation and the Profitability Imperative: Consequences on the Formation of the Firm’s Knowledge Capital. In: Laperche, B., Uzunidis, D. (eds) Powerful Finance and Innovation Trends in a High-Risk Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584099_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584099_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-36341-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-58409-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)