Business firms in national and local society: international perspectives for analysis of companies

Abstract

The reflections that this article provides are meant to develop a sociological analysis of businesses through a theory of embeddedness. We reject a mechanistic view of the way need and utility combine in the large Fordist firm, preferring to adopt the perspective that sees this type of organization as a complex historical construction (Granovetter e McGuire 1998, Mingione, 1999). For such purposes, our article reviews contributions of French and Italian literature which, as of the 1980s, has suggested the need to devote profound attention to the relationship between economy and society. In our conclusions, we present elements meant to bring these discussions up-to-date, particularly with regard to the dynamics of business firm and territory. We propose consideration of the limitations and possibilities of this literature, which through the concept of embeddedness has added historical dimensions to our understanding of economic phenomena. Keywords: companies, local development, economics and society, embeddedness.