An original institutionalist approach to the structure, conduct, and performance of the pharmaceutical industry: The importance of intangible assets
This dissertation presents an examination of the pharmaceutical industry with a primary focus on the importance of intangible assets from the original institutional economics perspective. This is done in three main chapters. The first main chapter examines the importance of intangible assets within the context of the heterodox theory of the business enterprise. It is argued that in the early stage of the going concern where production is separate from consumption intangible assets necessitate the creation of monetary bargaining transactions. In industrial capitalism with the internal separation of the enterprise into industrial and pecuniary divisions intangible assets take the form of rationing transactions, limiting the number of sellers of a particular product. As the enterprise then evolves into its modern joint stock form in money manager capitalism, intangible assets become the basis for capitalization, upon which incorporeal property may be issued, increasing the return to shareholders. The second main chapter discusses the structure and performance of the pharmaceutical industry. Based on the concept of centralized private sector planning