Coasean Floor is all about counter-revolution. We’re not interested in great big business, we like great small business and we like great ideas on how small business can combine to take on the big guys. We could have called it David versus the Goliaths, but that sounds too much like a B movie from the 50’s.
Send us ideas and examples of small business that you love.
The name derives from Ronald Coase. Back in 1937 he gave us an explanation as to why, if markets were so great, companies exist at all. He got a Nobel Prize in 1991 for explaning that transaction costs were the reason why we buy cars from Renault and Ford, rather than just buying and selling products and services from each other to make our own cars. They have historically generated lower transaction costs and lower prices to the benefit of us all. But of course, as with all trends, things got taken just a bit too far. Been to an American Mall of a British High Street recently? Is it really necessary that every shop be part of a huge chain?
Hence the counter revolution, we think small businesses have an authenticity that’s hard to match and bring a whole bunch of community benefits that you just can’t measure. And they have a secret weapon: as Clay Shirky has pointed out, the Internet has lowered transaction costs for all of us…