Evolutionary and competence-based theories of the firm

Abstract

Around the 1980’s the critiques about contract theories of the firm were getting more intense, and consequently the so-called evolutionary and competence-based theories of the firm were born. Although forming less homogeneous groups, these theories focus basically on different questions: they primarily wanted to explain the heterogeneity of firms; they were eager to know why firms differ. In the present work I examine the critical remarks of the contract theories and the newly developed – earlier as well as present-day – theories of the major schools of economic thought.