Dr. William Brown

Professor

The Nature of the Firm: Origins, Evolution, and Development by Oliver E. Williamson and Sidney Winter (Editors)

There are far too many books that have special meaning for me to pick one. Instead I have chosen a collection of articles and this is a collection of articles about another article "The Nature of the Firm" by Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase. The original article was developed while Coase was an undergraduate doing field work as part of what we would now consider study abroad. The article provides a great example to students of what they can accomplish. In addition, much of the book is Coase commenting on how he came up with the idea, what he really meant as opposed to the meanings that have been given to his work by others, and how believes his ideas have influenced subsequent work. The book also contains a selection of articles by others that discuss the impact of the original work in a wide variety of areas. Taken as a whole, the book provides an outstanding example of academic research. It also provides an example of how a new approach or discovery can have long lasting impacts in a variety of areas.