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Capabilities and Coherence in Firms and Markets

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Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm: Towards a Synthesis

Abstract

This volume seeks to open a dialogue between the evolutionary approach to economics and the resource-based approach to strategy. Despite their differences in intellectual origin and explanatory purpose, these two intellectual strands intertwine for a considerable distance. Rather than attempt a detailed comparison, however, this chapter tries to illuminate the overlap by examining one particular issue of common interest: the nature of “coherence” in economic organization. As Foss, Knudsen, and Montgomery noted in their introductory chapter, coherence has to do with whatever it is “that fundamentally distinguishes the viable firm as a historical entity, rather than just an arbitrary collection of businesses held together by the thin glue of transaction-cost minimization” (p. 13).

This paper benefited from the discussion at the Conference on Evolutionary and Resource-based Approaches to Strategy, August 27‐29, 1993, Scanticon Conference Center, Denmark. The author would also like to thank Dominique Foray, Pierre Garrouste, Paul Hallwood. Steven Klepper, Brian Loasby, Claude Menard Lanse Minkler, Cynthia Montgomery, Paul Robertson, Richard Rumelt, Louis Putterman, And Wright for helpful comments and discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, The University of Connecticut, USA

    Richard N. Langlois

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  1. Richard N. Langlois
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Business School, USA

    Cynthia A. Montgomery

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Langlois, R.N. (1995). Capabilities and Coherence in Firms and Markets. In: Montgomery, C.A. (eds) Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm: Towards a Synthesis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2201-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2201-0_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5923-4

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