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The Transformation of Corporate Control

The Transformation of Corporate Control

Neil Fligstein

ISBN 9780674903593

Publication date: 01/01/1993

Neil Fligstein challenges prevailing theories of the corporation and proposes a radically new view in which the firm is driven not so much by market forces as by the state and its policies toward business. Fligstein traces the evolution, over the past century, of corporate strategy from an initial emphasis on direct control to one of manufacturing, then sales and marketing, and finally today’s focus on finance.

Praise

  • Neil Fligstein has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the historical development of large American firms. The book fills what had been a vacuum in that understanding by incorporating an explicitly institutional perspective. This perspective sheds particular light on the rise of large conglomerates in the late 1960s and the corresponding finance-driven short term outlook of top managers that has been associated with America’s declining competitiveness.

    —Peter Kreiner, Academy of Management Review

Author

  • Neil Fligstein is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Culture, Organization, and Politics at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. His previous books include The Transformation of Corporate Control, The Architecture of Markets, and Euroclash. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Book Details

  • 408 pages
  • 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
  • Harvard University Press

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