Uncertainty, strategic decision-making and the essence of the modern corporation: Extending Cowling and Sugden

This paper makes a positive contribution to Cowling and Sugden's recent wor k on the theory of the firm. We focus on their novel definition of the firm as a 'means of coordinating production from one centre of strategic decisi on-making'. We extend this definition to account for the fact that strategi c decision-makers engaged in the coordination of production operate under c onditions of 'fundamental uncertainty'. The significance of such an extensi on is that it avoids many of the problems associated with Cowling and Sugde n's framework while reinforcing their main conclusions and providing a tech nical definition of the concept of strategy.