2007/12 | LEM Working Paper Series | |
Technological revolutions and the evolution of industrial structures. Assessing the impact of new technologies upon size, pattern of growth and boundaries of the firms |
||
Giovanni Dosi, Alfonso Gambardella, Marco Grazzi, Luigi Orsenigo |
||
Keywords | ||
New techno-economic paradigm; Organizational change; Vertical integration; Boundaries of the firm; Visible hand.
|
||
JEL Classifications | ||
O3, L11, L22
|
||
Abstract | ||
In this work we discuss the impact of the new ICT techno-economic
paradigm upon the vertical and horizontal boundaries of the firm and
ask whether the change in the sources of competitive advantage has
resulted in changes in the size distribution of firms and also in
the degree of concentration of industries. Drawing both on
firm-level and national statistical data we assess the evolution of
the overall balances between the activities which are integrated
within organizations and those which occur through market
interactions.
While the new paradigm entails 'revolutionary' changes in the
domain of technology, the modification in industrial structures has
been somewhat more incremental. Certainly, the vertical and
horizontal boundaries of firms have changed and together one is
observing a turnover in the club of biggest world firms accounting
also for a shift in the relative importance of industrial sectors.
Nonetheless, we do not observe an abrupt fading of the Chandlerian
multidivisional corporation in favour of smaller less-integrated
firms.
|
||
Downloads | ||
|
||
Back |