Firm and industrial organization frontiers: An empirical model of inter-firm network in the winter sports industry

Abstract

This paper explores a model of inter-firm network in the case of the winter sports industry. It discusses the problem of skiing resort frontiers and the nature of the inter-firms arrangements to produce the final product i.e. spending holidays in a mountain resort. Two network archetypes are defined. They ensue from two approaches in economics: the Transaction Cost Economics and the French Theory of Conventions. In conclusion, we show that these two networks are complementary. Thus, skiing resorts can no longer be seen as autonomous organizations with spatial boundaries. Their frontiers are extended to the contractual or conventional arrangements which characterize the new winter sports industrial organization.