Economic Organizations and Business Groups

Field of Research

Another prominent subject at the IMPRS-SPCE is the institutional foundation and operation of economic organizations, their relationship to political regulation, and their role in constituting and reproducing markets. Over the last twenty years, changes in the organizational structures and preferences of firms, as well as different types and sources of business power, have become major research themes in political economy and economic sociology.

Institutional constructions of “rationality” in business strategies and structures have been investigated by scholars operating in an institutionalist tradition. Research on regional economies shows the importance of the embeddedness of firms in social relations of trust that are in turn partly dependent on political conditions. The institutional embeddedness approach also contributes to a better understanding of the organizational structure and strategies of economic organizations beyond the firm, such as unions, employers’ associations, and international organizations.