Abstract

This study assesses the practical utility of seven major theoretical perspectives of the firm, using a survey of 204 top executives in major South Korean firms administered five years after the 1997 economic crisis. Top executives were asked to identify the three most important business practices and policies that their firms adopted after the 1997 economic crisis. Executives were further asked to indicate whether the three business practices adopted were successful or resulted in negative organizational consequences. Survey responses of the top executives were content analyzed and the different business practices and policies that were implemented were mapped with the different theories. Results of our study indicate that generally the important business practices adopted by the Korean firms clearly reflected the approaches suggested by the different theoretical approaches.