Entrepreneurship Centrism: A Study on Ownership Institutional Arrangements of Small and Medium Enterprises

Author: Zhu Weiping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Based on a review of existing literature on corporate theory, this book examines the existence of enterprises, the determination of their scale boundaries, and ownership institutional arrangements from the perspective of entrepreneurs. It explicitly proposes the "entrepreneur-centric theory" to counter the "state-centric theory" in traditional planned economy theory and the "enterprise-centric theory" proposed during the reform and opening-up process. It argues that "enterprises are fundamentally the enterprises of entrepreneurs," constructs an ownership contract model centered on entrepreneurs as the contracting party, and applies this theory to analyze the restructuring of state-owned small and medium enterprises and township collective enterprises in China, as well as the ownership institutional arrangements of private family-owned enterprises and technology-based small and medium enterprises. The book not only proposes and rigorously argues for two interrelated propositions—the weak tradability of entrepreneurial talent and that enterprises are fundamentally the enterprises of entrepreneurs—but also places the theoretical analysis of the existence of enterprises, the determination of their scale boundaries, and ownership institutional arrangements on a unified logical foundation of the weak tradability of entrepreneurial talent, making theoretical innovations. Additionally, the book applies the proposed theoretical framework to analyze the ownership institutional arrangements and evolution of various types of small and medium enterprises in China, and the policy suggestions it offers are insightful.