The Ownership of Enterprise

Based on property right arrangements, Henry Hansmann proposed in his 1996 book an organizational classification covering most of organizations under the system of private property. With the postulate of cost minimization, he demonstrates convincingly how various kinds of organizations can be placed into the analytical framework of economics. In my opinion, this organizational theory needs only some slight extension to become a comprehensive one that includes all organizations under the private property system. With this extended viewpoint, all seemingly complicated issues of organizations can be placed into a unified and systematic framework of analysis. This is the power and beauty of his organizational theory. My opinion is that Henry Hansmann has made path-breaking contribution in the study of this filed, following R. Coase, A. Alchian, and S. Cheung.