Administrative coordination, allocation and monitoring: A comparative analysis of the emergence of accounting and organization in the U.S.A. and Europe

Abstract

In modern advanced market economics, markets, firms and interagency arrangements are used jointly and alternatively as instruments for allocating, monitoring and coordinating. The paper focuses on the way in which the modern hierarchical firm emerged to play such roles in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. After exploring the basic concepts in further detail, consideration is given to the emergence of accounting and organizational innovations in the U.S.A. and Europe. Finally the differences between management instruments on the two sides of the Atlantic are explored and some reasons for these are offered.