Leading international theorists explore the most significant developments in debates on the theory of the firm - in particular the contributions of the two major perspectives: transaction costs economics (governance structures) on the one hand, and competence perspectives (resource-based approaches) on the other. Contributors include Oliver Williamson, Giovanni Dosi, Sidney Winter, Sumantra Ghoshal, Mark Casson, Neil Kay, and Ron Sanchez, amongst others.

This volume brings together prominent voices on competence, governance, and entrepreneurship to advance and stimulate economic strategy research. By pooling and mobilizing intellectual resources of both competence and governance perspectives, the contributions show that an innovative joint venture between these two main perspectives can lead to a new avenue of future research on strategic issues such as 'corporate growth', 'interfirm cooperation', and 'corporate entrepreneurship.'

The objective of this special issue is to contribute to the understanding of Knowledge Governance in the Mulitnational Corporation. Like the traditional literature on corporate governance the authors are concerned with the attraction of crucial capital, its efficient allocation, as well as the mechanism used to achieve capital accumulation and optimal utilization. Knowledge as a particular sort of capital is seen as increasingly crucial to the existence, boundaries, and economic organization of modern Multinational Corporation.