The Chandlerian corporation and the theory of innovative enterprise

Through the synthesis of business history into a coherent and powerful analytical framework, Alfred Chandler made an enduring intellectual contribution to the social sciences. This essay outlines the implications of Chandler's perspective for the theory of innovative enterprise, embeds that theory in the "social conditions of innovative enterprise" analytical framework, demonstrates the illogic of the neoclassical "monopoly model", and contends that the analysis of the dynamics and performance of industrial capitalism requires a methodology that integrates theory and history.