%0 Journal Article
%T ON THE ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF ORGANIZATIONS: TOWARD A SOLUTION OF THE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE PARADOX
%A Robert E. Wright
%J Essays in Economic & Business History
%D 2007
%I The Economic & Business History Society
%X The modern widely-held joint-stock corporation appears to epitomize the economically efficient large-scale organization. Some scholars observe, however, that other types of organizations, including government-owned enterprises, have also achieved high degrees of efficiency and that some joint stock corporations have been inefficient. It is here argued that the economic efficiency of organizations is largely a function of two major variables¡ªmarkets tructure and incentives within the organization¡ªand not organizational form or ownership structure per se. Case studies of two business firms: a mutual life insurer and a family-controlled publisher, and two industries: higher education and custom construction, demonstrate the importance of internal incentives and market structures to organizational economic efficiency.
%U http://www.ebhsoc.org/journal/index.php/journal/article/view/224