Business organizations

At the time Coase posed this question, it was a stark one. The Russian Revolution was not yet twenty years into the past, and communism presented itself as an alternative to the capitalist systems of the western countries. One of communism’s most distinguishing characteristics remains the government’s central planning of economic activity. Paradoxically, much central planning happens within a capitalist system. Managers dictate which projects within a firm get funded, which products to make, how much to pay workers, and so forth. If markets are so superior, why does so much central planning happen within a capitalist system?