How Business Organizes Collectively

Hervé Dumez Institut Interdisciplinaire de l’Innovation (i3), CRG-École polytechnique, CNRS, IP-Paris and Sandra Renou, Université Paris-Est Créteil - IUT de Créteil-Vitry, France

• Contents: Part 1 Firms collective action: A synoptic view 1. The emergence and evolution of business meta-organizations 2. On political and economic problems raised by business meta-organizations Part 2 Within trade associations and other meta-organizations 3. FCADs as a mix of heterarchy and hierarchy 4. Dynamic Analysis of a business meta-organization 5. The ways of acting of business meta-organizations 6. Other types FCADs Conclusion References Index

'This study is an important contribution to our knowledge of meta-organizations. Trade associations are more dynamic and important than is usually assumed. Dumez and Renou clearly show why trade associations are a theoretical and empirically fruitful area of research with great political significance, not least in global contexts. The theoretical analysis of trade associations as meta-organizations provides important new insights that are tested in an analysis of multi-stakeholder organizations.'--Göran Ahrne, Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research, Sweden'In times when a small number of powerful corporations rule the global economy, it is easy to overlook the fact that firms act collectively through large organizations to protect their interests or define the rules of the game. What are the historical roots of these collective action organizations? What are the political and economic implications of their operations? How do they operate internally? How can we analyze them? Dumez and Renou systematically answer these questions in this groundbreaking study.'--Marcelo Bucheli, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US