Search

This article proposes a simple framework for understanding an emergent diversity of linkages between corporate governance (CG) and organizational architecture (OA). It distinguishes discreet modes of their linkage by different combinatorial patterns between three basic assets: managers' human assets (MHA), workers' human assets (WHA), and non-human assets (NHA). Using the concept of essentiality of human assets proposed by Hart (1995) and distinguished from that of complementarities, we first propose a new characterization of four known modes of CG-OA linkage: three traditional (Anglo-American, German, and Japanese) and one relatively new (Silicon Valley) models. Then we present empirical evidences of emergent diversity of CG-OA linkages in Japan, which is somewhat at odds with the old Japanese model. We interpret its emergent dominant mode as the path-dependent evolution of a new pattern of essentiality between human assets, made viable by lessening of institutional-complementarity-constraints, which surrounded the traditional Japanese model. We argue that this new mode interpreted in terms of essentiality may have broader applicability beyond Japanese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the relationship between the evolution of corporate structure and the structure of the financial systems within the U.S., British, German, French and Japanese economies during the first half of the twentieth century. The financial system of each of these economies exerted an important influence on the development of corporate structure, but did so largely through facilitating, rather then determining, organizational innovation. The financial system of each of these economies influenced the selection environment within which firms developed, but this environment reflected the operation of other factors as well. The relationship between the evolution of corporate and financial structure is an interactive one that exhibits considerable path-dependence; the array of economic and technological opportunities available to one firm or to one economy contrasts with that faced by another firm or economy at a different historical moment.