- Type : contribution à ouvrages
- 2003
- Ouvrage : Markets, Information and Communication. Austrian Perspectives on the Internet Economy
- Editeur : Routledge
- p. 169-186
- Référence : A 2003.21
- N.B. : Birner J. Garrouste P. (eds)
The New Economy and the Austrian Theory of the Firm
Auteur(s) : DULBECCO [P] (coauteur(s) avec GARROUSTE [P] )
Abstract / Résumé : The aim of this paper is to make use of the analytical framework provided by the Austrian analyses of production and knowledge in order to propose a theory of the firm which may offer an answer to the question of the coordination of economic activities in a knowledge-based economy. The first section comes back to the main characteristics of the new economy. Our purpose here is to highlight challenges for firms of the emergence and the expansion of the new information and communication technology (ICT) paradigm. We argue that such challenges cannot be reduced to informational aspects. Indeed, any study of the exploitation by the firm of a wider and wider range of information, must include an analysis of the process by which information turns into knowledge in order to innovate. Section 2 evaluates theories of the firm according to their ability to provide instruments for analyzing at the firm level the effects of this new ICT paradigm. We defend the idea that most of firms analyses, by focusing mostly on the informational aspects of the new economy, failed to develop the analytical categories required for appreciating the whole information exploitation process. Section 3 sets out what we agree to call an Austrian theory of the firm. Such a theory offers a detailed analysis of the coordination over time of enterprises plans which articulates the notions of information and capabilities. Section 4 concludes.
