Erich Gutenberg und die Theorie der Unternehmung

One might easily gain the impression that the academic work of Professor Erich Guten-berg, whose centenary provides the occasion for this lecture, is outdated and has lost touch with contemporary economic theories of the firm. However, this impression would be wrong, as this paper demonstrates with reference to the most recent research into the theory of the firm. Professor Gutenberg was the first and the most influential German researcher in his field, the theory of the business enterprise ("Betriebswirtschaftslehre"), to show how closely the various functions and departments of an enterprise are interde-pendent. Thus, as the first coherent economic conception of an enterprise as a system, Professor Gutenbergs work provides a suitable frame of reference for assessing recent developments and putting them into perspective. When Professor Gutenberg wrote his seminal "Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre" in the 1950s, his work was firmly rooted in the theory of the firm as it stood at the time. In the 1970s and 80s, this close relationship largely disappeared as a consequence of the profound changes which the microeconomic theory of the firm underwent under the influence of the new institutional economics. However, in the last few years, the pendulum has swung back. This is mainly due to the introduction of the new concept of complementarity into the theory of the firm. Generally speaking, complementarity is present if the elements of a system are compatible with each other and reinforce each other in fulfilling the function of that system. Successful enterprises can be understood as systems composed of the complementary elements of organisational design, production techno-logy, marketing strategy and financing; and they should be designed and managed in such a way that the complementarity between these elements is exploited as much as possible. The introduction of an economic concept of complementarity into the theory of the firm not only shows that Erich Gutenbergs view of the firm is still relevant. It also