Firms, Markets and Economic Change

Richard N. Langlois is Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. His research interests include the economics of organization, the economics of technology, and economic history. He is the editor of Economics as a Process: Essays in the New Institutional Economics (1986) and the lead author of Microelectronics: An Industry in Transition (1988). Paul L. Robertson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and Management at University College, University of New South Wales. In recent years, he has taught strategic and project management as well as economic history. In addition to many articles, he is the co-author, with Sidney Pollard, of The British Shipbuilding Industry, 1870–1914 (1979).

1 INTRODUCTION 2 CAPABILITIES, STRATEGY AND THE FIRM 3 A DYNAMIC THEORY OF THE BOUNDARIES OF THE FIRM 4 VERTICAL INTEGRATION IN THE EARLY AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY 5 EXTERNAL CAPABILITIES AND MODULAR SYSTEMS 6 INERTIA AND INDUSTRIAL CHANGE 7 INNOVATION, NETWORKS AND VERTICAL INTEGRATION 8 CONCLUSION