Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Towards a dynamic theory of transactions

  • Published:
Journal of Evolutionary Economics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Standard transaction cost economics (TCE) considers transactions from the perspective of static efficiency. Increasingly, attention is required to dynamic efficiency; to capabilities to exploit transaction relations for innovation. Since innovation is dependent on knowledge and learning, the step from the statics to the dynamics of exchange requires and understanding of the development and acquisition of knowledge, preferences, and meaning, and the role in that of interaction between transaction partners. As a step towards this, the article provides an exploration of theories of knowledge and knowledge development, the relation to language, the role of intersubjective relations, the connection with evolutionary theory and the implications for transaction cost theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amin A (1989) Flexible specialisation and small firms in Italy: Myths and realities, Antipode 21: 13–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachelard G (1974) Epistémologie, textes choisis par Dominique Lecourt, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachelard G (1975) La philosophie du non, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachelard G (1980) La formation de l'esprit scientifique, Librarie Philosophique J. Vrin, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger J, Noorderhaven NG, Nooteboom B, Pennink BJ (1991) Understanding the subcontracting relationship: The limitations of transaction cost economics. Paper presented at the EGOS colloquium, Vienna, July

  • Berger PL, Gluckmann T (1966) The social construction of reality. Doubleday, Garden City NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresson de (1987) The evolutionary paradigm and the economics of technological change. Journal of Economic Issues 21:751–761

    Google Scholar 

  • Coase RH (1937) The nature of the firm. Economica NS 4:386–405

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuff EC, Sharrock WW, Francis DW (1979) Perspectives in Sociology. Unwin Hyman, London

    Google Scholar 

  • David PA (1985) CLIO and the Economics of QWERTY. American Economic Review, pp. 332–337

  • Dosi G (1988) Sources, procedures and microeconomic effects of innovation. Journal of Economic LIterature 26:1120–1171

    Google Scholar 

  • Elster J (1979) Ulysses and the sirens. Cambridge University Press

  • Etzioni A (1988) The moral dimension: Towards a new economics. The Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Flavell JH (1967) The developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. Van Nostrand, Princeton N.J.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gouldner AW (1959) Reciprocity and autonomy in functional theory. Harper and Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter M (1982) The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. In: Marsden and Lin (eds) Social structure and network analysis. Sage, Beverly Hills, pp. 105–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Groenewegen J (1989) De transaktiekosten nader bezien. Tijdschrift voor Politieke Economie 12: 51–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas J (1982) Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns, Teil I & II. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas J (1984) Vorstudien und Ergänzungen zur Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt

    Google Scholar 

  • Heiner RA (1983) The origin of predictable behaviour. American Economic Review 73: 560–590

    Google Scholar 

  • Hippel E von (1988) The sources of invention. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson GM (1988) Economics and institutions Polity Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn TS (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago.

  • Langlois RN, Robertson PL (1990) Innovation in a modular system: Lessons from the microcomputer and stereo component industry. Paper at the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society, Airlie House, Virginia, June 1990

  • Lecourt D (1978) L'épistémologie historique de Gaston Bachelard. Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Mischel T (ed.) (1971) Cognitive development and epistemology. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr J (1990) The lever of riches. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson RR, Winter SG (1982) An evolutionary theory of economic change, Belknap Press, Harvard

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1985) Plausibility in economics. Economics & Philosophy 2: 197–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1989) Paradox, identity and change in management. Human Systems Management 8: 291–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1990a) An analysis of specificity in transaction cost economics. Research Report 90-09, School of Management and Organisation, Groningen University, Groningen, The Netherlands. A revised version has been accepted for publication in Organization Studies, forthcoming in 1993

  • Nooteboom B (1990b) The Popperian legacy in economics: confusion and beyond. De Economist 138: 256–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1990c) Effects of scale in transaction costs. Research Report 90-12, School of Management and Organisation, Groningen University, Groningen, The Netherlands (a revised version will be published in Small Business Economics, 1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1991a) Cross-firm economy of learning. Research Report 91-10, School of Management and Organisation, Groningen University, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1991b) Information technology, transaction costs and the decision to “make or buy“. Working paper, School of Management and Organisation, Groningen University, The Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Nooteboom B (1992) Agent, context and innovation: a Saussurian view of markets. Blaas W (ed.), Proceedings EAEPE conference, Vienna, 1991 (in press)

  • Nooteboom B, Coehoorn C, van der Zwaan AH (1992) The purpose and effectiveness of technology transfer to small business. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management (in press)

  • Nooteboom B, Zwart PS, Bijmolt T (1992) Transaction costs and standardisation in professional services to small business. Small Business Economics 4: 141–151

    Google Scholar 

  • North DC (1990) Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge Universith Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Ouchi WG (1980) Markets, bureaucracies and clans. Administrative Science Quarterly 25: 129–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaget J (1970) Psychologie et epistémologie. Denoël, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Piaget J (1974) Introduction a l'épistémologie génétique. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Piore M, Sabel C (1983) Italian small business development: Lessons for US industrial policy. In: Zysman J, Tyson L (eds) American industry in international competition: Government policies and corporate strategies. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfeffer J, Salancik GR (1978) The external control of organisations: A resource dependence perspective. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi M (1962) Personal knowledge. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi M (1966) The tacit dimension. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi M (1969) Knowing and being. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter ME (1985) Competitive advantage. The Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers EM (1983) Diffusion of innovations. MacMillan, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Saussure F de (1979) Cours de linguistique générale. Lectures given between 1906 and 1911, first published in 1915, Payot, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Schelling TC (1960) The strategy of conflict. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Semlinger K (1991a) New developments in subcontracting-mixing market and hierarchy. In: Amin A, Dietrich M (eds.) Towards a new Europe: Structural change in the European economy Edward Elgar, Aldershot

    Google Scholar 

  • Semlinger K (1991b) Innovation cooperation and strategic contracting. Paper presented at the international colloquium on “Management of Technology: Implications of enterprise management and Public Policy”, Paris, May 27–28

  • Simon HA (1983) Reason in human affairs. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Vrba E, Gould SJ (1986) The hierarchical expansion of sorting and selection. Paleobiology 12: 217–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson OE (1975) Markets and hierarchies: Analysis and antitrust implications. The Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Williamson OE (1985) The economic institutions of capitalism: Firms markets, relational contracting. The Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Organisation, Groningen University, P.O. Box 800, NL-9700 AV, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Bart Nooteboom

Authors
  1. Bart Nooteboom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nooteboom, B. Towards a dynamic theory of transactions. J Evol Econ 2, 281–299 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01200127

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01200127

Key words

JEL-classification

Search

Navigation