1. Introduction
In the field of economics much has been said on the nature of commerce organizations and their role in the economy, but most mainstream approaches fall short in their attempts to form a realistic model of the economy. The standard view of business is that of the firm, a homogeneous entity that produces homogeneous widgets with the use of perfectly substitutable homogeneous capital and labor; occasionally discussions will mention “The Entrepreneur”, an all-knowing master coordinator. (Kasper et al., 2012) In The Theory of Business Enterprise, Thorstein Veblen provides an alternative approach using his intuitionalist-based analysis, most famously developed in The Theory of the Leisure Class, to the structure of business and industry of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Veblen’s analysis reveals that the interests of businessmen and industry do not always align with and can be detrimental to the community or society as a whole. (Veblen, 1899, 1904)
This paper will review Veblen’s history, theory, and analysis and attempt to offer appraisals and critiques of Veblen’s view of the relationship between businessmen, industry, and society as a whole. In an attempt to accomplish this, this paper will be organized into 3 parts:
1. Veblen's general view of businesses in the Industrial Age
2. The machine process & Veblen's view of the end
3. A final conclusion
2. Veblen v. mainstream economic theory
(1) Veblen’s general view of businesses in the Industrial Age
In contrast to the standard view of the firm, Veblen recognized that the industrial age brought with it a new type economic organization much different from the single owner businesses and small partnerships that are closer to the standard idea of the firm. Hi...
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...cs – Property, Competition, Policies. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar
Veblen, Thorstein. 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Veblen, Thorstein. 1904 The Theory of Business Enterprise. 4th ed. Clifton, New Jersey: Augustus M. Kelley Publishers (also available from: https://pilot.wright.edu/d2l/le/content/237767/viewContent/776495/View; accessed on March 28, 2014)
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During the nineteenth and twentieth century monopolizing corporations reigned over territories, natural resources, and material goods. They dominated banks, railroads, factories, mills, steel, and politics. With companies and industrial giants like Andrew Carnegies’ Steel Company, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company and J.P. Morgan in which he reigned over banks and financing. Carnegie and Rockefeller both used vertical integration meaning they owned everything from the natural resources (mines/oil rigs), transportation of those goods (railroads), making of those goods (factories/mills), and the selling of those goods (stores). This ultimately led to monopolizing of corporations. Although provided vast amount of jobs and goods, also provided ba...
Poole, Keith. “Entrepreneurs and American Economic Growth: Cornelius Vanderbilt.” VoteView.com. Accessed December 7, 2011. Last modified 1997. http://voteview.com/.htm.
In chapter “The Other Civil War” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn described the underlying class tensions caused by industrialization during the nineteenth century. He claimed that these tensions would have led to radical labor reforms if the working class’s anger had not been directed towards other issues. Zinn used The Age of Enterprise by Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller to show the upper class’s indifference towards the problems of the lower class and to prove that the rich manipulated the poor to promote their own interests. He also used Class and Community by Alan Dawley to offer examples of working class resistance, government oppression, and the effects of the Civil War. While Zinn’s use of Class and Community accurately represents Dawley’s arguments, he misuses some of his evidence from The Age of Enterprise.
Biernacki, Richard, and Ellen Meiksins Wood. “The Origin of Capitalism.” Contemporary Sociology 2000 : 638. Print.
Derek Aldcroft` s article, `The Entrepreneur and the British economy, 1870-1914 published in 1964 spearheaded the broad indictment of the British entrepreneur...(2).......
Robert Heilbroner (1996, 11-13), in Teachings, drew upon the insights of Thomas Aquinas who had attempted to provide room for capital accumulation and economic activity beyond the “stringent” moral requirements of Aristotle. In what was known as “the commercial revolution,” an economic ideology known as “mercantilism” dominated the minds of the foremost economic thinkers. According to Heilbroner (1996, 17-18) the system of serfdom and feudalism had eroded behooving society to come up with a new way to structure its economic activity around a labor force that now had more opportunity than in the past. This new market, and with it a newly kindled desire for accumulation, ran in opposition to the Christian values of the time, something that Aquinas (Heilbroner, 1996, 12-13) attempted to address in the Summa Theoligica [1485]. This began a long and rich tradition of economic thinkers attempting to “make peace” with the seemingly amoral activities of an emerging merchant class and the inequities that occur as a result of an evolving market based system; furthermore, this debate continues into the 21st century, and could be seen as the most integral question that faces
Firstly, Wood starts off her argument by rejecting the Commercialization model of Capitalism, which is that markets had always existed—the transition to the capitalist market is a change in quantity rather than quality. She disputes the idea that Capitalism is a kind of natural human progress. The distinctive characteristic of the c...
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This report comprises of the explanation of two different companies working in different market fields, the two companies I’ve chosen are Primark and Samsung I am going to write about the influence of the 4vs which are the volume of output, variation in demand for output, visibility of production, and variety of output. I am also going to look at the performance objectives in each of the companies. Example, for a given year and how they are able to reach their objectives, and also the effect on the cost efficiency of the operations.
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Business anthropology is a practice or inquiry within the business field that is based on substantive knowledge or methodology, anthropological epistemology, or a blend of these (Jordan, 89). In the beginning of the twentieth century, as a discipline, business anthropology was reinvigorated and fully supported by the business interests in America to build up as an experientially founded social science that could offer a scientific source for social welfare (Kuklick, 134). To some extent, because of this inspiration, the problem-solving and research interests of the American anthropologists in the business field concentrated predominantly on manufacturing efficiency, and they were formed by the customs and conducts of other disciplines, for instance industrial psychology, by means of the Human Relations school. Moreover, following the Second World War, anthropological exploration of industries turned out to be more intellectually independent and split into more than a few literary streams, together with neo-Marxian methods and industria...
Veblen argues that technology and the industrial arts serve as motors of economic production but that people purposely waste them based on their self-interest. He also argues that the living style of those individuals who carelessly spend money on luxury goods are imitated by those in lower classes doing more harm to those in lower classes, rather than those in the leisure class because they sacrifice their own resources just to achieve a “better” look from society. His argumentation also extends from suggesting economists to look how people change throughout history to saying how technological advances requires adaptation from people in order for them to achieve a better social status and the collection of
The wealth that was accumulated through this lifestyle was reinvested into the work process in order to create more wealth. This continual reinvestment of wealth provided the necessary capital and conditions that allowed for the development of modern capitalism. Weber starts out his essay with a few questions that he proposes to try and answer. He notes that European business leaders are overwhelmingly Protestant instead of Catholic. He also notices that the most developed areas of Europe in his time were those that had embraced Protestantism (Weber, 4).
...ee scope to his own natural and acquired powers” (414). Consequently, even though machines do dominate over the wage labour by allowing him to be exploited, they also lead to the development of social wealth. Additionally, modern industry revolutionizes the family and social structures. Machines allow for all members of the family and of all ages to participate in the workforce. This change leads to an equalization in the sexes and to and independence of the youth from their parents. Machines open up the work market for “individuals of both sexes and all ages” which “under suitable conditions become source of human development” (415). The process of capitalism, therefore, will produce individuals who are able to adapt to different situations, who have a wide range of skill, and who will add to the growth of human experience through the revolution of social wealth.