The modern firm

In The Modern Firm: Towards A New Paradigm the author introduces central components crucial for a novel understanding of the theory and practice of the firm. He argues that established approaches are rooted in the malfunctioning amalgam of methodological individualism in combination with its core organizational template, the principal-agent hierarchy (why is the firm a dictatorship and not a market?) The hierarchy, in turn, presupposes that the human condition is sufficiently captured by exclusively natural selfishness as well as the extrinsicness of both creativity and the motivation to be productive. In contrast, the author suggests a naturalistic, biomimicry-inspired imagination of the firm that utilizes process philosophy as well as the self-organization format of natural multi-agent systems. The author further reasons that the conditio humana is characterized by a spectrum of genetically manifested traits including self-interest as well as, importantly, altruistic helping, cooperation, collaboration, together with a sense of fairness. This is completed by evidence that strongly suggests that human agents are intrinsically creative as well as motivated. In combination, these and other features such as treating the firm as an open system, have the potential to contribute to a paradigmatic shift in both the theory and practice of the firm.