Are companies, churches, and states genuine agents? Or are they just collections of
individual agents that give a misleading impression of unity? This question is important …

Abstract Moderate holists like French (Collective and corporate responsibility, 1984), Copp
(J Soc Philos, 38 (3): 369–388, 2007), Hess (The Background of Social Reality–A Survey …

An account of the ontological nature of collectives would be useful for several reasons. A
successful theory would help to show us a route through the thicket of views known as …

Joint action and group agency have emerged as focuses of attention in recent social theory
and philosophy but they have rarely been connected with one another. The argument of this …

In an agency relationship, one party acts on behalf of another. It is curious that a concept that
could not be more profoundly sociological does not have a niche in the sociological …

This book develops an original theory of group and organizational behavior that cuts across
disciplinary lines and illustrates the theory with empirical and historical studies of particular …

Human beings form many sorts of groups but only some of those groups are candidates for
the name of agent. These are groups that operate in a manner that parallels the way that …

Agency and institutions are essential concepts within institutional theory. In this Perspectives
issue, we draw on a select group of Organization Studie s articles to provide an overview of …

Kirk Ludwig presents a philosophical account of institutional action, such as action by
corporations and nation states, arguing that it can be understood exhaustively in terms of the …

This paper distinguishes three overlapping literatures in agency theory, that focused on the
theory of the firm or the positive theory of agency approach, that labeled as the risk and …