Economic Approaches to Organizations

Now in its third edition, "Economic Approaches to Organizations" is one of the few texts to place any emphasis on the importance of economic issues and developments in the study of organizations and management. It explains in a non-technical way the behavioural theory of the firm, game theory, agency theory, transaction cost economics, economic contributions to strategic management, and evolutionary approaches. No prior knowledge of economics is assumed and explanations to the economic background needed to understand the arguments are provided in the text itself. This third edition starts by building a step-by-step conceptual framework to explain the fundamental economic approach to organizations. Building on the fundamentals, six further chapters discuss the different economic approaches, it contains a broad range of pedagogical features such as real-life examples, end-of-chapter questions, quotations, diagrams and suggestions for further reading and study. An Instructor's Manual is available containing answers to the questions in the text, supplementary questions and overheads. This text is suitable for students of Organization, Management and Economics alike.;It makes the ideal supplement to a larger text on Organizations or Strategic Management as well providing a concise introduction for economic students to the analysis of organizations from an economic perspective. Sytse Douma is professor of Business Administration at Tilburg University. Hein Schreuder is Vice President of Corporate Planning and Development at DSM N.V. and professor of Business Administration at Maastricht University.