The major attempt of the special issue following this introduction is to give an overview of what we know today about industrial dynamics, what are the main outcomes and challenges that come to the surface in this new field. The special issue will thus be aimed at characterizing advances in...

The theme of industry life cycle (ILC) is today one of the central fields of research in industrial dynamics. ILC shows that industries behave like biological organisms, and proceed through different phases of development, from emergence to decline. Although this approach constitutes one of the...

Uniformity in modes of regulation and governance is now widely debated. The predominant thesis is that there should be a superior model promoting optimality by disclosure of information and transparency. But today, this thesis is greatly contested, since the adoption of a unique and universal...

This paper argues that an adequate approach to the firm should be able to accommodate the complexities of actual firm development. The latter is conceptualized in terms of three general stages: prime movers or drivers of change, change processes, and change attractors. Furthermore, any...

Corporate governance has been in the recent years one of the most debated issues in conventional economic approaches. Agency theory combined with financial indicators has particularly contributed to the development of shareholder value as a key concept in companies' governance both at a...

The innovative broadband Internet industry is characterised by inertia phenomena in terms of technology choice, as well as selection of Internet service providers (ISPs). Within the set of firms providing Internet, very often in Europe the incumbent operator has the lion's share of end-customers...

The process by which knowledge is created, accumulated and eventually destroyed appears crucial to many industrial dynamics patterns, since it shapes the profile of evolution of industries by favouring the entry of new companies, the co-existence of incumbents and new entrants and, eventually,...

Cet article présente les développements récents de la new business history sur l'un de ses thèmes privilégiés qui est l'évolution des frontières de la firme et de l'industrie. Les connexions avec l'économie industrielle, et surtout avec les analyses néo-institutionnelles, se sont...

The existence of costs to consumers to switch between products is central to the process by which firms set prices. Their effect on the introduction and diffusion of innovative technologies is not by now well understood, however. This paper aims to study this effect based on evidence in the...

L'article fournit une revue de la littérature qui explique, tout d'abord, comment les fondements analytiques de la gouvernance d'entreprise ont été traduits en critères opérationnels, puis comment la généralisation de l'utilisation de ces critères a progressivement donné lieu à leur...