The Boundaries of the Firm

20 important questions on The Boundaries of the Firm

What is "Transaction Cost Economics"? Where is it used for?

A framework which explains and predicts the boundaries of the firm.

It helps managers decide what activities to do internal and what activities to obtain from the external market.

What are Transaction Costs?

All internal and external cost associated with an economic exchange, within the boundaries of a firm or in markets.

Firms VS Markets: What are the Advantages of Firms?

- Command-and-Control decisions (clear hierarchical lines of authority)
- Coordination of highly complex tasks (specialised division of labor)
- Transaction-specific investments (highly valuable within firm, little/no use in external market)
- Community of knowledge (employees within firms have ongoing relationships, exchange ideas and work closely together to solve problems)
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart

Firms VS Markets: What are the Disadvantages of Firms?

- Administrative costs (bureaucracy)
- Low-powered incentives (wages, salaries are less attractive than entrepreneurial opportunities and rewards)
- The principal-agent problem

What is the Principal-agent problem?

Situation in which an agent is performing activities on behalf of a principal(owner) pursues his or her own interests

Firms VS Markets: What are Advantages of Markets?

- High-powered incentives (liquidity events)
- Increased flexibility (able to compare prices and services along providers)

Firms VS Markets: What are Disadvantages of Markets?

- Search costs (find reliable suppliers)
- Opportunism by other parties (self-interest)
- Incomplete contracting (information asymmetries)
- Enforcement of contracts (difficult, costly, time-consuming to enforce legal contracts)

What is an Information Asymmetry?

A situation in which one party is more informed than another because of the possession of private information.


Can lead to a lemons problem

What are Liquidity Events?


- Exit strategyEvent that allows founders and early investors in a company to cash out some or all of their ownership shares. It converts the ownership equity held by a company's founders and investors into cash.

What is a Lemons problem?

Issues that arise regarding the value of an investment or product due to asymmetric information possessed by the buyer and the seller.


Example: good cars and bad cars (=lemons)
Only the seller knows which car is a lemon

What is Caveat Emptor?

Buyer beware.
Information asymmetries can result in crowding out of desirable goods by inferior ones.

Make-or-Buy: What are Short-term Contracts?

Firms send out request for proposals (RFPs) to several companies, which initiates competitive bidding for contracts to be awarded with a short duration.

Ø Lasts < 1 year
Ø No transaction-specific investments

Make-or-Buy: Short-term Contracting; What is the benefit of this approach?

It allows a longer planning period than individual market transactions. The buying firm can often demand lower prices due to the competitive bidding process.

Make-or-Buy: Short-term Contracting; What is the drawback of this approach?

Firms responding to the RFP have no incentive to make any transaction-specific investments.

Make-or-Buy: What is Licensing?

A form of long-term contracting in the manufacturing sector that enables firms to commercialise intellectual property.

Make-or Buy: What is Franchising?

A long-term contract in which a franchisor grants a franchisee the right to use the franchisor´s trademark and business processes to offer goods and services that carry the franchisor´s brand name.

Make-or-Buy: What is a Credible Commitment?

A long-term strategic decision that is both difficult and costly to reverse.

What are Internal Transaction Costs?

Costs pertaining to organizing an economic exchange within a hierarchy; also called administrative costs

What are External Transaction Costs?

Costs of searching for a firm or an individual with whom to contact, and then negotiating, monitoring and forcing the contract.

What is a Parent-Subsidiary Relationship?

Describes the most-integrated alternative to performing an activity within one's own corporate family.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo