Development Of The Management Theory Under The Evolution Of The Firm Property Rights Structure

The ordinary reading books concerning management are usually organized according to management functions—planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Those books that introduce the evolution of management theory seldom connect the development of management theory with the evolution of the firm property rights structure.The author considers that the management should not be analysed separately, it is a series of continuous dynamic process. Every management theory has its complex background, and the firm property rights structure is one of this. In some sense, management is the extension of property rights. To get a better understand of the form and development of management theory, the evolution of firm property rights structure should be taken into consideration.According to the important residual rights of control, the firm property rights structure (or the firm governance structure) has many forms, which are described by LI Jiande as entrepreneurial firm owned by the owner of capital; joint-stock firm owned by both shareholders, mainly capital owners, and managers; managerial firm jointly owned by managers, shareholders and other knowledge owners; post-managerial in the style of knowledge industries owned by managers, mainly the managers owning the knowledge of production, shareholders and other knowledge owners. The process is the transition of scarce factor from capital to knowledge. The evolution of the firm property rights structure and the development of the management theory are a process of synergistic evolution. We are trying to study the development of the management theory under the background of the evolution of the firm property rights, analyze the inner reason of the emergence of a series of management theory, especially how the evolution of the property rights structure influence the management theory.It is undoubtedly meaningful to analyze the development of the management theory under the evolution of property rights structure, which is also of some help to the management practice.