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markets, and sequences of bilateral contracts are weakly more efficient than all other mechanisms in a big class. Echoing the management literature, the firm grows as long as it can use specialized employees to perform the new tasks. The scope of the firm is determined by the point at which this no longer is possible.
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The paper portrays the most efficient labor market mechanism as a function of the advantages of specialization, workers’ costs of switching between entrepreneurs, and the frequency with which entrepreneurs’ needs change. Under the assumptions of the model, there exist three regions in which firms,
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As part of this stream, Wernerfelt has written several papers on the nature and incidence of bargaining costs. In other works, he has developed implications of the theory to show that the employer should own most of the productive assets, that incentives are weaker inside firms, and that more
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In the book, “Adaptation, Specialization, and the Theory of the Firm: Foundations of the
Resource-Based View” (2016), Wernerfelt starts with his economic theory of the firm and derives the Resource-Based View, thus showing that the two perspectives are consistent.
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In the last several years, Wernerfelt has been working on an economic theory of the firm. A fairly comprehensive statement of the theory can be found in “The
Comparative Advantages of Firms, Markets, and Contracts: A Unified Theory” (2015).
222:, the article characterizes sustainable differences (resources), suggests that optimal competitive strategies are based on leveraging excess capacity of these resources, and describes how current resources can be used to develop new ones.
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Wernerfelt has done foundational and often iconoclastic work in economics, management strategy, and marketing. He is best known for “A Resource-based View of the Firm” (1984), which is one of the most cited papers in the
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Wernerfelt's works has influenced a significant amount of scholarship in his own and adjacent fields. Some economists whose work has been directly influenced by
Wernerfelt include
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Wernerfelt started his academic career at the
University of Copenhagen. In the early 1980s he was faculty member of the Graduate School of Business Administration at the
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19:(born 1951) is a Danish economist and management theorist, and JC Penney Professor of Management at the
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Determinants of firm performance: The relative importance of economic and organizational factors
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A Rational
Reconstruction of the Compromise Effect: Using Market Data to Infer Utilities
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in
Managerial Economics in 1977. In 2012 he obtained an honorary doctoral degree by the
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Defensive marketing strategy by customer complaint management: a theoretical analysis
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The
Comparative Advantages of Firms, Markets, and Contracts: A Unified Theory
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The link between resources and type of diversification: Theory and evidence
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General
Equilibrium with Real Time Search in Labor and Product Markets
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Born in
Denmark, Wernerfelt obtained his BA in Philosophy from the
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Determinants of Asset
Ownership: A Study of the Carpentry Trade
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Tobin's q and the Importance of Focus in Firm Performance
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information is communicated within than between firms.
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He is married to Harvard Professor Cynthia Montgomery.
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The resource-based view of the firm: Ten years after
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at Northwestern University. In 1989 he moved to the
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328:Wernerfelt, Birger, and Cynthia A. Montgomery. "
494:Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen
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361:Chatterjee, Sayan, and Birger Wernerfelt. "
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350:Hansen, Gary S., and Birger Wernerfelt. "
339:Fornell, Claes, and Birger Wernerfelt. "
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514:MIT Sloan School of Management faculty
218:. Based on the premise that firms are
124:(Doctorate of Business Administration
87:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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312:Review of Economics and Statistics
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275:A resource-based view of the firm
504:Northwestern University faculty
484:University of Copenhagen alumni
499:University of Michigan faculty
489:Harvard Business School alumni
200:MIT Sloan School of Management
21:MIT Sloan School of Management
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428:Harvard Business Press, 2013.
345:Journal of Marketing research
378:Strategic Management Journal
367:Strategic management journal
356:Strategic Management Journal
323:Journal of Consumer Research
301:Journal of Political Economy
279:Strategic Management Journal
196:Kellogg School of Management
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185:Copenhagen Business School
479:Danish business theorists
426:Competing for the Future.
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147:Resource based view (RBV)
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334:American Economic Review
179:, where he obtained his
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108:University of Copenhagen
92:University of Copenhagen
269:Articles, a selection:
82:Northwestern University
438:Google Scholar profile
422:Coimbatore K. Prahalad
292:82.236 (2015): 350-67.
192:University of Michigan
77:University of Michigan
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372:Wernerfelt, Birger. "
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317:Wernerfelt, Birger. "
295:Wernerfelt, Birger. "
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273:Wernerfelt, Birger. "
265:Selected publications
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406:Organization science
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325:21.4 (1995): 627-33.
303:96.3 (1988): 821-31.
281:5.2 (1984): 171-180.
152:Strategic management
56:Managerial economics
369:12.1 (1991): 33-48.
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261:and many others.
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142:Marketing Strategy
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469:1951 births
418:Hamel, Gary
259:David Teece
463:Categories
402:Udo Zander
385:References
243:Jay Barney
290:Economica
167:Biography
453:homepage
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