The dynamic limits of specialization: Vertical integration reconsidered

Existing studies, largely based in transaction cost economics, approach the issue of vertical scope as the decision of the individual firm about whether to make or buy, given the set of existing markets and well defined vertical segments. However, recent research has shown that the ability to make or buy should not be taken for granted. We argue that this applies not only to dis-integration, but also to re-integration, which often demands new 'all-in-one' markets. Drawing on the British building industry, we develop an inductive framework to explain why, after long periods of vertical specialization, industries shift to vertical reintegration. We observe that various groups, including professionals, play an active role in shaping the nature and the boundaries of the industry, facilitating the onset of vertical specialization, which, in turn, shapes a number of increasingly distinct knowledge bases in the industry, defining the trajectories along which capabilities evolve over time. As specialization in scope begets specialization in knowledge, difficulties in managing technical and organizational interdependencies arise, especially in the face of changing environmental conditions. The gap between what the vertically specialized system can produce, and what a changing environment demands, sets in motion a process of experimentation with integrated service provision, which is strengthened by broader social forces such as the deinstitutionalization of professions, or changes in demand structure. Reintegration is advanced by firms seeking to protect their position; enter new, related markets; or find new ways of leveraging their capabilities: Firms strategize to change their institutional environment, helping to create new all-in-one, integrated markets

Evolution toward an open value system for smart mobility services

The markets around transport and mobility are undergoing significant changes. One of the central drivers for these changes is the deployment of information and communications technology throughout the transport system, which in turn enables a wide range of smart mobility services. At the moment, however, smart mobility services are rather fragmented and work in isolated silos. A key issue in future development is how these isolated systems will become interconnected and in general more open. In this article, we apply the framework introduced by Ali-Vehmas and Casey (2012) to model how the evolution toward an open value system for smart mobility services could occur in Finland. In particular, we apply analogies from the emergence of GSM-based mobile networks and the Internet where the former has followed a more centralized path and the latter a more decentralized path

Innovation in a productive chain perspective: competences to innovate in Brazilian plastic packaging and petrochemical industries

This paper explores the notion of competences to innovate taking a productive chain perspective. This notion has been applied to study innovation in a very large perspective as in the case of French industrial studies or in a sectoral perspective. The originality of this paper is to deal with the concept of competences to innovate looking not only at a singular economic segment, but examining the interrelation that exists between actors that are in the same productive chain. In this way, it tries to contribute to the understanding of innovative capacity looking at the firm's internal attributes and extending those attributes to analyze the way innovation occurs in a productive chain. This paper analyses the innovation capability of the plastic productive chain studying the plastic packaging and the petrochemical in Brazil

Modern corporate changes: reinstating the link between the nature, boundaries and governance of the firm

The theory of the firm and corporate governance are two fields of analysis traditionally tackled separately in the economic literature. This paper seeks to rediscover the link between the nature, boundaries and governance of the firm on the basis of changes in corporate industrial firms. We advance the argument that, to understand the human capital‐intensive firm, this analytical interconnection should be restored. On the basis of critical resource theory, we present an innovative vision of the nature, boundaries and governance of firms whose productive activity is built around its key partners’ human capital. The organisational mode of governance has changed, linked to a renewed conception of the firm. What we term the ‘multi‐resources’ model of governance of the firm depends on an original representation of the structure, organisation and power relationships of modern firms, whose value arises from the accumulation of specific human capital. Consequently, the multi‐resources model involves hybrid governance instrument in order to protect the integrity of the human capital‐intensive firm.human capital, nature and boundaries of the firm, corporate governance, critical resource theory, J24, J41, L22, L23,