Why do organisations exist?

What is the relationship between markets and organisations?

When does one perform better than the other?

Find the answers in Economic Approaches to Organisations!

Now in its fifth edition, this text remains one of the few texts to emphasize the importance of economic issues and developments in the study of organisations and management.

It explains in a non-technical way different economic approaches such as behavioural theory of the firm, game theory, agency theory, transaction cost economics, economics of strategy and evolutionary approaches. This latest edition is packed with practical examples from real-world companies, helping you to understand how the concepts relate to economic and organisational problems happening in the world today.

New to this edition:

• New chapters on business strategy and corporate strategy

• Updated with new developments in practice, including new coverage on behavioural finance, financial crisis and private equity.

• Over 50 new examples, showing how different economic approaches are applied in business and organisational practice

This is an ideal textbook for a course on Organisation and Management from an economic perspective. The text can also be used as a supplement to a larger text on Organisation and Management or Strategic Management. Economics students will benefit from a concise introduction to a field that is related, but all too often unexplored.

Sytse Douma is professor of Business Administration at Tilburg University. 

Hein Schreuder was Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Acquisitions at Royal DSM N.V. until 2012. He is a honorary professor of Business Economics at Maastricht University and Board member of the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.