Neil Fligstein
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231423
- eISBN:
- 9780191710865
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231423.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter aims to supplement the understanding of entrepreneurship and competition by demonstrating that they cannot occur without governments and stable social structures to support them. It ...
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This chapter aims to supplement the understanding of entrepreneurship and competition by demonstrating that they cannot occur without governments and stable social structures to support them. It considers two major developments in the American economy that have been typically hailed as emblematic of the working out of free markets: the emergence of the ‘shareholder value’ conception of the firm and the rise and growth of Silicon Valley. It is shown that these phenomena were not just caused by entrepreneurial activity, but were embedded in pre-existing social relations. In both cases, the government played a pivotal role in pushing forward the conditions for ‘entrepreneurial activity’. The chapter discusses why governments sometimes do not figure in either economic or some economic sociological arguments about markets and economic growth, and suggests how an economic sociology with a view of embeddedness that includes governments, law, and supporting institutions offers a more complete picture of market evolution.Less
This chapter aims to supplement the understanding of entrepreneurship and competition by demonstrating that they cannot occur without governments and stable social structures to support them. It considers two major developments in the American economy that have been typically hailed as emblematic of the working out of free markets: the emergence of the ‘shareholder value’ conception of the firm and the rise and growth of Silicon Valley. It is shown that these phenomena were not just caused by entrepreneurial activity, but were embedded in pre-existing social relations. In both cases, the government played a pivotal role in pushing forward the conditions for ‘entrepreneurial activity’. The chapter discusses why governments sometimes do not figure in either economic or some economic sociological arguments about markets and economic growth, and suggests how an economic sociology with a view of embeddedness that includes governments, law, and supporting institutions offers a more complete picture of market evolution.
