In neoclassical economics, an ordered, autonomous, rational independent unit which utilizes the factors of production to produce goods and services. Revenue is kept high enough to cover costs and to generate profit. In Marxist analysis, a firm is a complex organization embodied in a logic of accumulation, driven to increase profits by avoiding the costs of community or environmental degradation, exploiting labour, and manipulating interactions with governments and unions (see Susman and Schutz (1983) Econ. Geog. 59, 2).
Economic geographers are interested in the nature of a firm: its dimensions of gender, sexuality, corporate culture, and cultural embeddedness, and its locating factors, including institutional thickness. See Taylor and Asheim (2001) Econ. Geog. 77, 4 on the concept of the firm in economic geography, and Pollard (2003) Econ. Geog. 3, 4 on firm finance.