The Ownership of Enterprise or Lessons in Learning e Learning and Training

The Ownership of Enterprise

Author: Henry Hansmann

The investor-owned corporation is the conventional form for structuring large-scale enterprise in market economies. But it is not the only one. Even in the United States, noncapitalist firms play a vital role in many sectors. Employee-owned firms have long been prominent in the service professions—law, accounting, investment banking, medicine—and are becoming increasingly important in other industries. The buyout of United Airlines by its employees is the most conspicuous recent instance. Farmer-owned produce cooperatives dominate the market for most basic agricultural commodities. Consumer-owned utilities provide electricity to one out of eight households. Key firms such as MasterCard, Associated Press, and Ace Hardware are service and supply cooperatives owned by local businesses. Occupant-owned condominiums and cooperatives are rapidly displacing investor-owned rental housing. Mutual companies owned by their policyholders sell half of all life insurance and one-quarter of all property and liability insurance. And nonprofit firms, which have no owners at all, account for 90 percent of all nongovernmental schools and colleges, two-thirds of all hospitals, half of all day-care centers, and one-quarter of all nursing homes.

Henry Hansmann explores the reasons for this diverse pattern of ownership. He explains why different industries and different national economies exhibit different distributions of ownership forms. The key to the success of a particular form, he shows, depends on the balance between the costs of contracting in the market and the costs of ownership. And he examines how this balance is affected by history and by the legal and regulatory frameworkwithin which firms are organized.

With noncapitalist firms now playing an expanding role in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia as well as in the developed market economies of the West, The Ownership of Enterprise will be an important book for business people, policymakers, and scholars.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Introduction	1
1	An Analytic Framework	11
2	The Costs of Contracting	24
3	The Costs of Ownership	35
4	Investor-Owned Firms	53
5	The Benefits and Costs of Employee Ownership	66
6	Governing Employee-Owned Firms	89
7	Agricultural and Other Producer Cooperatives	120
8	Retail, Wholesale, and Supply Firms	149
9	Utilities	168
10	Clubs and Other Associative Organizations	182
11	Housing	195
12	Nonprofit Firms	227
13	Banks	246
14	Insurance Companies	265
	Conclusion	287
	Notes	299
	Sources	363
	Index	365

New interesting textbook: Princess Sultanas Circle or How to Rig an Election

Lessons in Learning, e-Learning, and Training: Perspectives and Guidance for the Enlightened Trainer

Author: Roger C Schank

From Roger C. Schank—one of the most highly respected thinkers, writers, and speakers in the training, learning, and e-learning community—comes a compelling book of essays that explore the myriad issues related to challenges faced by today’s instructional designers and trainers. The essays offer a much-needed perspective on what trainers do, why they do it, and how they do it. Lessons in Learning, e-Learning, and Training serves as a barometer to the issues that often perplex trainers and helps to illuminate three main points: what can and cannot be taught; how people think and learn; and what technology can really effectively provide. In addition, each essay is filled with practical guidance and includes a summary of ideas, tips and techniques, things to think about, checklists, and other job aids.