Chapter I - Perspectives on Commercial Positioning in the Deregulated European Electricity Markets

Abstract

This chapter focuses on some of the underlying theoretical issues of economic organization as a prelude to national case studies and the final comparative analysis. Theoretically formulated, the convergence perspective argues that, on facing a common competitive market, companies will tend to scale up and converge in function and organizational structure. Against the convergence perspective and the national business systems literature argues that industrial development is highly shaped by national styles and national institutions. Modern commercial dynamics which are being unleashed by present European electricity market deregulation, pushes companies to spread across borders in a new way, tapping into global or European markets for technology, investment and consumers. The general argument is developed under several labels: business systems, social systems of production, and modes of capitalist organization. The essence of this literature is again that industrial development proceeds differently in different countries, as national industrial ‘milieus' draws on specific traditions and competence in their national surroundings.