The economics of a company or a group within a company determine a LOT of the behavior, funding of fun projects in that company. So if you're going to be working on a product in a capacity or another, you should want to know how the company makes money and what does it do with that money, and how different it is from what people say the business is. This paper gives example of companies and what life looks like in them as a consequence of their economics. It also touches on the other top factors to look at (yes, leader == culture too)
The paper is in progress and will be ready mid July