ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the concept of “personal capitalism” (PC). It provides a clearer definition than is given in the current literature, and discusses how this peculiar, controversial and allegedly inefficient way to run and own a business is probably the most common managerial form in both developing and developed countries. Common sense and much of the available research on corporate governance and control tend to agree that PC should be considered as a temporary and transitory stage in the dynamics of corporate evolution. It includes a vast array of corporate ownership and organizational forms ranging from artisanal workshops to more sophisticated structures. A better-structured and historically better-grounded definition of PC emerges from the research of business history’s “founding father”, Alfred Chandler. The idea of PC as a status quo rather than a stage in an evolutionary process is fascinating, but does not fully resolve the problem of giving it a precise definition.
