The governance of American manufacturing sectors : the logic of coordination and control

In recent years, scholars in a variety of disciplines have become interested in why there is variation in the institutional arrangements for coordination and control of economic activities in capitalist economies. Some have attempted to explain why transactions occur among actors within a market, a firm, or some form of network. Another body of scholarship has attempted to understand why there are collective forms of behavior among economic actors. This paper attempts to integrate these two traditions by developing a typology of two forms of coordination and control: coordination for coping with transactions among various actors and forms of coordinating collective behavior. Focusing on the economy- of the United States since the late nineteenth century, this paper offers suggestions of why one form of coordination rather than another emerges, how various forms of coordination are related to one another, and how specific forms of coordination might influence the economic performance of various industries.