Technological Revolutions and the Evolution of Industrial Structures. Assessing the Impact of New Technologies upon Size, Pattern of Growthand Boundaries of the Firms

In this work we discuss the impact of the new ICT techno-economic paradigm upon thevertical and horizontal boundaries of the firm and ask whether the change in the sources ofcompetitive advantage has resulted in changes in the size distribution of firms and also in thedegree of concentration of industries. Drawing both on firm-level and national statistical datawe assess the evolution of the overall balances between the activities which are integratedwithin organizations and those which occur through market interactions.While the new paradigm entails “revolutionary” changes in the domain of technology, themodification in industrial structures has been somewhat more incremental.....