Organised crime has received increased attention in recent years and criminal organisations are involved in a wide range of crimes (Chawla & Pietschmann, 2005). To fight organised crime, there is a need to understand the organisations behind it and organisational theories may be helpful in this process. The purpose of this article is to apply well-known theories such as agency theory, alliance theory, network theory, resource-based theory and other organisational theories in order to shed light on criminal organisations.
AbramovaI. (2007) ‘The Funding of Traditional Organised Crime in Russia’Economic Affairs, Institute of Economic Affairs (March): 18–21.
2.
AfuahA. (2003) ‘Redefining Firm Boundaries in the Face of the Internet: Are Firms Really Shrinking?’Academy of Management Review29(1): 34–53.
3.
AndersonS.W.GlennD.SedatoleK.L. (2000) ‘Sourcing Parts of Complex Products: Evidence on Transaction Costs, High-Powered Incentives and Ex-post Opportunism’Accounting, Organizations and Society25(5): 723–49.
4.
ArtzK.W.BrushT.H. (2000) ‘Asset Specificity, Uncertainty and Relational Norms: An Examination of Coordination Costs in Collaborative Strategic Alliances’Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization41: 337–62.
5.
BeareM. (2000) ‘Structures, Strategies and Tactics of Transnational Criminal Organizations: Critical Issues for Enforcement’, paper presented at the Transnational Crime Conference, Australian Institute of Criminology in association with the Australian Federal Police and Australian Customs Service, Canberra, 9–10 March 2000
6.
BorgersM.J.MoorsJ.A. (2007) ‘Targeting the Proceeds of Crime: Bottlenecks in International Cooperation’European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, 1–22.
7.
ChangJ.J.LuH.C.ChenM. (2005) ‘Organized Crime or Individual Crime? Endogeneous Size of a Criminal Organization and the Optimal Law Enforcement’Economic Inquiry43(3): 661–75.
8.
ChawlaS.PietschmannT. (2005) ‘Drug Trafficking as a Transnational Crime’ in ReichelP. (ed.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice. London: Sage Publications, 160–80.
9.
CoaseR.H. (1937) ‘The Nature of the Firm’Economica4(16): 386–405.
10.
DasT.K.TengB.S. (2002a) ‘Alliance Constellations: A Social Exchange Perspective’Academy of Management Review27(3): 445–56.
11.
DasT.K.TengB.S. (2002b) ‘The Dynamics of Alliance Conditions in the Alliance Development Process’Journal of Management Studies39(5): 725–46.
12.
DasT.K.TengB.S. (2003) ‘Partner Analysis and Alliance Performance’Scandinavian Journal of Management19: 279–308.
13.
EisenhardtK. M. (1985) ‘Control: Organizational and Economic Approaches’Management Science31(2): 134–49.
14.
ElvinsM. (2003) ‘Europe's Response to Transnational Organised Crime in EdwardsA.GillP. (eds), Crime: Perspectives on Global Security. London: Routledge, 29–41.
15.
FinckenauerJames O. (2005) ‘Problems of Definition: What is Organized Crime?’Trends in Organized Crime8(3): 63–83.
16.
GaroupaN. (2007) ‘Optimal Law Enforcement and Criminal Organization’Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization63: 461–74.
17.
GottschalkP. (2007) Knowledge Management Systems in Law Enforcement: Technologies and Techniques. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.
18.
HittM.A.BiermanL.ShumizuK.KochharR. (2001) ‘Direct and Moderating Effects of Human Capital on Strategy and Performance in Professional Service Firms: A Resource-Based Perspective’Academy of Management Journal44(1): 13–28.
19.
JensenM.C.MecklingW.H. (1976) ‘Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structures’Journal of Financial Economics3(4): 305–60.
20.
JoyceE. (2005) ‘Expanding the International Regime on Money Laundering in Response to Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and Corruption’ in ReichelP. (ed.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice. London: Sage Publications, 79–97.
21.
LampeK. (2005) ‘Organized Crime in Europe’ in ReichelP. (ed.), Handbook of Transnational Crime and Justice. London: Sage Publications, 403–17.
22.
LampeK.JohansenP.O. (2003) Criminal Networks and Trust, 3rd annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology, Helsinki, 29 August, Finland.
23.
LemieuxV. (2003) Criminal Networks. Ottawa, Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
LuoY. (2002) ‘Contract, Cooperation, and Performance in International Joint Ventures’Strategic Management Journal23(10): 903–19.
26.
MacneilI.R. (2000) ‘Relational Contract Theory: Challenges and Queries’Northwestern University Law Review94(3): 877–907.
27.
PhillipsR.FreemanR.E.WicksA.C. (2003) ‘What Stakeholder Theory is Not’Business Ethics Quarterly13(4): 479–502.
28.
PorterM.L. (1985) Competitive Strategy. New York: The Free Press.
29.
PrahaladC.K.HamelG. (1990) ‘The Core Competence of the Corporation’Harvard Business Review76(3): 79–91.
30.
SchillingM.A.SteensmaH.K. (2002) ‘Disentangling the Theories of Firm Boundaries: A Path Model and Empirical Test’Organization Science13(4): 387–401.
31.
SheehanN.T. (2005) ‘Why Old Tools Won't Work in the “New” Knowledge Economy’Journal of Business Strategy26(4): 53–60.
32.
StabellC.B.FjeldstadØ.D. (1998) ‘Configuring Value for Competitive Advantage: On Chains, Shops, and Networks’Strategic Management Journal19: 413–37.
33.
Symeonidou-KastanidouE. (2007) ‘Towards a New Definition of Organised Crime in the European Union’European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice15(1): 83–103.
34.
WilliamsonO.E. (1979) ‘Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations’The Journal of Law and Economics22: 233–61.
35.
WilliamsonO.E. (1981) ‘The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes’Journal of Economic Literature (December): 1537–68.
