The authors propose to endogenize industrial diversity by beginning with the product, defined in terms of its qualities for the user: specialized, standardized, dedicated, generic. For each type of product, there is a coherent possible combination of product dualities, production technologies...

There is increasing evidence that mass-production methods are losing their dominance in the advanced industrial economies and that various forms of flexible production organization are on the rise. The transition from mass-production organization to flexible specialization is analyzed in detail...