"The Firm in Economic Geography" : zu einer integrierten Konzeption der Unternehmung

Kurzfassung/Abstract

"The Firm in Economic Geography" – towards an integrated conceptualisation of the firm. With regard to the alleged absence in economic geography of a istinct conceptualisation of the firm and the significant need for a microtheoretical foundation, the paper discusses selected theories of the firm generally developed in neighbouring fields of the discipline.
Using a selection mechanism based on concrete criteria referring to the necessary functionalities required by the specific spatial perspective demonstrates that the so-called competence-based view of the firm has to be considered a primarily relevant concept. Furthermore, it is argued that recent studies in economic geography in which social and institutional aspects of economic activities and spatial processes are particularly taken into account might change the negative balance of intellectual trade between the field and its neighboured disciplines. To what extent economic geography may contribute to an integrated theory of the firm open to and at least in part conceptualised by spatial sciences is drafted in the concluding remarks.