William Roy and Contemporary Corporation

William Roy's conception of the contemporary corporation focuses on the merger wave of the 1890's during which which many large firms turned to public capital markets to facilitate mergers. The change that occurred in corporations was when they went from a public sphere to a private sphere. Two sectors, manufacturing and financial, came together at this time. In this book Roy criticizes the efficiency theory and relies heavily on the power theory. He felt that …

…that there were various paths that the development of the corporation could have taken. These three states also have similar economic development, industrialization, and integration into the national economy. The existence of the market changes how rational people behave. Competitive pressure forces rational people to think more carefully. It also increases the importance of money in these calculations. His is quite relative to the real concerns for the community and the quality of human interactions.