Abstract: In an overview of the theory and historiography of the corporation, this chapter examines contributions to understanding offered by historians, neo-classical economists, evolutionary economists, and organizational sociologists. It critiques existing theories of the corporation for neglecting power and culture and for failing to understand the mutual constitution of the corporation and its environment. This discussion paves the way for a new model that recognizes the ways in which corporations are embedded in their social environment and help to constitute their environment, and how this relationship has evolved over the past 150 years. An overview of the chapters that follow is presented.

Keywords: corporation, social theory, historiography, principal-agent theory, transactions costs, embeddedness, evolutionary economics, organizational theory,