The present global economic crisis demands we look anew at the role of corporations, and the working of financial markets around the world. In this challenging and insightful book, one of our most eminent economists provides a compelling new analysis of the corporate firm; the role of shareholders, managers and workers; and institutional governance structures. In recent decades the firm has predominantly been seen as an organization run and governed in the interests of shareholders, where management act as the agent of shareholders, and the workers simply as instruments for share-value maximization. This book reverses this viewpoint. It sees corporations as cognitive systems where 'cognitive actions' are distributed amongst managers and workers, with shareholders in effect supplying 'cognitive tools' to them. Aoki analyses the different relationships that can exist between shareholders, managers, and workers from this perspective, and identifies a range of different models of organizational architecture and associated governance structures. He also discusses ways in which corporations act as players in social, political, and organizational games, as well as global economic games; how these inter-related social dynamics may change particular, distinctive national structures into the diversity incorporated in the global corporate landscape; and how they now call for new roles for financial markets.

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 "Masahiko Aoki uses the social mathematics of game theory to reveal the deep structure of corporate governance systems, in the process explaining the persistence of diversity under conditions of globalization. His profound and highly original analysis speaks directly to the issue of corporate governance reform in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008-9."--Simon Deakin, Professor of Law,University of Cambridge

"The recent wave of fraud, corruption, and fiscal irresponsibility at the highest corporate levels dramatizes the need for a model of the modern corporation that is at the same time deeply economic in the recognition of the centrality of incentives, and deeply sociological in the recognition of the centrality of social norms and a culture of corporate morality. Professor Aoki has combined his magisterial knowledge of business organization with a foundational study of the role of culture in epistemic game theory to produce, for the first time, a truly transdisciplinary model of the corporation."--Herbert Gintis, Santa Fe Institute

"This is a path breaking book that provides a rigorous analysis of the cognitive underpinnings of corporations. It gives fundamental insights into the diversity of organizational forms that exist and the association of these with the historical, political, social, and technological contexts within which they operate. As with so much of Professor Aoki's work, it will radically alter the way in which we view the corporation."--Colin Mayer, Peter Moores, Dean, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

"A pioneering contribution which formalizes in game theoretic language complex institutional structure and environment of the corporation both at a moment of time and over time."--Douglass C. North, Nobel Laureate in Economics 1993, Spencer, T. Olin Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis

→　詳細（英文）

本書は、中世後期(11世紀~14世紀)の地中海イスラーム世界とジェノヴァなどのヨーロッパ世界の貿易・慣習・社会制度について、ゲーム理論をツールとする比較制度分析を試みている。商人同士の取引、ギルド、政治制度などを数理的にモデル化して、経済史と経済理論の統合を目指している。また本書は、制度とはなにか、それはなぜ存続し、どのようにして変化するか、また制度を理論的・実証的に分析する方法はなにか、という壮大な問いにも答えようとする斬新な試みでもある。「比較歴史制度分析」の創始者であるアブナー・グライフの主著にして初めての邦訳つきになる。

→解説へ
→叢書《制度を考える》のページへ

第二次大戦後の世界は、かつてない急激な変化を経験した。この六〇年を考える際、民主制と市場経済が重要なキーワードとなることは誰もが認めるところであ ろう。本書では、「市場化」を軸にこの半世紀を概観する。経済の政治化、グローバリゼーションの進行、所得分配の変容、世界的な統治機構の関与、そして 「自由」と「平等」の相剋―市場システムがもたらした歴史的変化の本質とは何かを明らかにする。

命を懸けたサムライの真実とは? 赤穂四十七士、葉隠武士、維新の志士たちを駆りたてた情念の秘密を解き明かす、衝撃の日本社会論。

「市場か政府か」あるいは「市場友好的見解か開発指向国家的見解か」の二者択一ではなく、政府の役割に関する第三の見解「市場拡張的見解」を提示。日本をはじめ、世界のあらゆる国・地域の経済発展・構造改革、経済システム論争への豊富な含意を備えた革新的な理論・歴史研究。

企業を中心とする日本経済のミクロ構造を統一的・包括的に分析し、日本経済の基本的な制度構造の特性を明らかにした画期的な研究成果。1990年日本学士院賞。全米大学出版局連合第1回有沢広巳記念賞。イタリア・イグレシアス経済科学賞各賞受賞。

戦略経営論の基本的な考え方を解説。
さらに、際立つ個人や際立つ企業を知るために、「浜崎あゆみ」「中村邦夫」「グーグル」「ヴィロン」の4つのケースについて紹介する。

「実学としての戦略経営論は、すぐに役立つノウハウ、カネモウケのコツ、あるいはヒルズ族になる(六本木ヒルズだけでなく、ビバリーヒルズも含む)になる秘訣を教えてくれないとしても、企業の環境や資源を分析し、経営の質を高めるための参考にはなる(あとがき 成功は失敗の素より)」

経営者、ビジネス・パーソン、企業や戦略経営の研究にかかわっている研究者や大学院生、経営学に関心のある高校生など、必読の書。

理論と現実の相互作用という「実学の精神」とは何か、について本書をつうじて理解し、賢く戦う知恵を身につけてほしい。

The transition of the former Eastern European countries from a planned to a market economy coincided with the eastward enlargement of the EU when they entered it in 2004 and 2007. Alongside the enlargement process, the EU moved to deepen integration by introducing a common currency and promoting labor mobility in the single market. The process of institutional transformation occurred both at the informal level and the formal level, both as an intended process and as an evolutionary process. Further, though the enlargement diminished the importance of the inner border of EU member countries, it created a new regional border against non-member countries. This book intends to combine the knowledge of actual situation of the EU enlargement with the task of elaborating on institutional transformation in the modern economy and developing a theoretical framework for its analysis.