Economic Organization #1

The book The Philosophy and Economics of Market Socialism lists the following business roles.

1. laborers

2. capital providers

3. other input suppliers, such as raw materials and intermediate goods

4. monitors, who decide on the deployment of inputs and evaluate performance

5. central contracting agents, those in charge of negotiating contracts with all input suppliers

6. directors of the firm’s output, those in charge of deciding what is produced, its characteristics, and price

7. ultimate decision makers, those with authority about deployment of the firm’s assets

8. residual claimants, those with a claim on the residual income of the firm, what is left over after other claims have been satisfied.  (p. 98)

It goes on to describe who has these roles in different kinds of organizations – the classical capitalist firm, an open corporation, and a cooperative. In the classical capitalist firm the same individual, the boss, occupies all but #1 and #3. The “open corporation” is what would more typically be called a publicly-traded corporation, a large firm in which management and ownership are mostly separate.

Marketing is included in #6 a bit later. Some finance fits #2, #5, and #7. Maybe accounting and legal are considered auxiliary; they would be less so in a large firm.