The 2008-9 financial crisis demands we look anew at the role of corporations, and the working of financial markets around the world. In this book, Masahiko Aoki provides a compelling new analysis of the corporate firm; the role of shareholders, managers and workers; and institutional governance structures.

• 1: Introduction: What Do Corporations Do?


• 2: Frames of Corporate Cognition and Governance


• 3: Societal Games that Corporations Play


• 4: How do Institutions Evolve?


• 5: The Evolving Diversity of the Corporate Landscape: "Convergence to Diversity"?

Masahiko Aoki was the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Professor Emeritus of Japanese Studies in the Department of Economics, and a senior fellow of the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He was a theoretical and applied economist with a strong interest in institutional and comparative issues. He specialized in the theory of institutions, corporate architecture and governance, and the Japanese and Chinese economies.