Industrial and Corporate Change - Advance Access

Scaling heuristics shape technology! Should economic theory take notice?

Winter, S. G. — 2008-05-07

In some economics textbooks production theory is developed axiomatically. The "divisibility axiom" presents a bold affront to realism. It distorts the static theory and forecloses some potential encounters with technological change. The article reviews propositions about geometrical scaling that have long been recognized as relevant to the realities studied in many fields, including industrial organization economics. The article concludes by sketching a program of reform for production theory that would make connections to Dosi's concepts of technological paradigms and trajectories (Dosi, 1982).

The Italian connection: the origins of Giovanni Dosi's thinking and a note on some lost, or never written, manuscripts

Marengo, L., Orsenigo, L. — 2008-05-07

This article provides an overview of the Italian side of Giovanni Dosi in terms of his career and works. It brings up two unpublished papers by Dosi showing in part his wider interests in philosophical themes. The article concludes by noting that by recognizing that many of the problems the world faces are not natural or optimal outcomes but are instead the result of human institutions, choices, and path dependencies, Dosi's work also has a very policy-oriented focus.

Factors affecting the power of technological paradigms

Nelson, R. R — 2008-05-02

It is clear that the power of "technological paradigms" proposed by Dosi (1982) varies greatly across fields of practice, in the sense that in certain field's progress has been much more rapid than in others where comparable resources have been applied to the effort. This essay explores the factors behind these differences. It proposes that one important factor is the extent to which the technology in a field is controllable and replicable. Another factor is the strength of the supporting sciences. It is argued that these factors are strongly intertwined with the causal arrows going both ways.

A capability-based view of competitive heterogeneity

Hoopes, D. G., Madsen, T. L. — 2008-04-25

The question of how firms differ is paramount to strategy scholars. This question has motivated empirical research on the factors influencing performance differences among close competitors. It also has motivated work on factors that increase or decrease the mean performance of firms in an industry. Theories about resources and capabilities tend to dominate discussions of heterogeneity in performance and superior performance. Yet, the strategy field lacks a cumulative body of empirical work showing how firms differ. This article derives conclusions and questions from empirical work on capabilities. We then discuss work that complements but lies beyond the boundaries of traditional capabilities research. We conclude by suggesting approaches to and areas of future work.

Organizational risk taking: adaptation versus variable risk preferences

Denrell, J. — 2008-04-25

The observed association between performance and organizational risk taking has usually been attributed to the influence of performance on risk preferences. Here I show how a simple model of adaptation, which only assumes that organizations avoid activities with poor past performance, can explain the empirically observed U-shaped association between risk and return. The model also makes novel predictions, which are shown to be consistent with the data. The findings suggest that risk taking may be a by-product of adaptation rather than a deliberate choice motivated by variable risk preferences.

Reply to Dew (2007)'s commentary: "pre-adaptation, exaptation and technology speciation: a comment on Cattani (2006)"

Cattani, G. — 2008-04-21

This article responds to the critique by Nicholas Dew (2007) on an earlier article by Cattani (2006) which suggested that Cattani's use of the term "pre-adaptation" should be replaced by an alternative term "exaptation." The article responds to that suggestion and attempts to redirect discussion toward the evolutionary significance of pre-adaptation within the context of technology, a task central to any evolutionary theory of technological change.

The micro-level dynamics of declining labour share: lessons from the Finnish great leap

Kyyra, T., Maliranta, M. — 2008-04-21

In contrast with the experiences of the United Kingdom and the United States, the distribution of labour and capital income has changed sharply in favour of capital in most Continental European and Nordic countries during the past two decades. We examine forces behind the evolution of the aggregate labour share by analysing the dynamics of labour shares within and between firms/plants in the Finnish business sector. Using a decomposition method applied in labour economics and productivity analysis, we show that much of the decline in the aggregate labour share stems from the reallocation of resources between firms and plants, while labour shares at the firm/plant level have remained relatively stable.

Erratum

2008-04-17