Giovanni Dosi Research Articles

Routines and Other Recurring Action Patterns of Organizations: Contemporary Research Issues

This paper reports and extends discussions carried out during a workshop held at the Santa Fe Institute in August 1995 by the authors. It treats eight major topics: (i) the importance of carefully examining research on routine, (ii) the concept of 'action patterns' in general and in terms of routine, (iii) the useful categorization of routines and other recurring patterns, (iv) the research implications of recent cognitive results, (v) the relation of evolution to action patterns, (vi) the contributions of simulation modeling for theory in this area, (vii) examples of various approaches to empirical research that reveal key problems, and (viii) a possible definition of 'routine'. An extended appendix by Massimo Egidi provides a lexicon of synonyms and opposites covering use of the word 'routine' in such areas as economics, organization theory and artificial intelligence. Coauthors are Roger Burkhart, Giovanni Dosi, Massimo Egidi, Suigi Marengo, Massimo Warglien, and Sidney Winter. Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.

Country Competitiveness: Technology and the Organization of Work.

This is a book of contributed chapters, including detailed case studies, which demonstrates that competition, whether among countries or firms, is driven by advantages that cannot easily be imitated or diffused. Cheap labour can be imitated but is not desirable; capital moves easily across borders; new products are copied within a few years. What is difficult to imitate are the organizing practices of work, as applied to the factory, to the firm, and to the relations among firms and other institutions. The chapters are by an international group of scholars from the US, France, Germany, the UK, and Japan. Contributors: Giovanni Dosi, Bruce Kogut, Mark Fruin, Toshi Nishiguchi, John Dunning, David Parkinson, Christopher Midler, Florence Charue, Juliet Webster, D. Hugh Whittaker, Ulrich Juergens, Horst Kern, Michael Schumann, Arndt Sorge, Marc Maurice, James R. Lincoln, Eleanor D. Westney, Gary Herrigel

BOOK REVIEWS

Macroeconomic Theories and Policies for the 1990s. Edited by Bruno Amoroso and Jesper Jespersen. Economic Convergence and Monetary Union in Europe. Edited by Ray Barrell. Counting the Cost of Global Warming. By John Broome.Equity, Efficiency, and Social Choice. By Donald E. Campbell. Establishing a Central Bank: Issues in Europe and Lessons from the US. Edited by Matthew B. Canzoneri, Vittorio Grilli and Paul R. Masson. Income, Inequality and the Life Cycle. By John Creedy. Applied Econometric Techniques. By Keith Cuthbertson, Stephen G. Hall and Mark P. Taylor. The Economics of Monetary Integration. By Paul de Grauwe. Technology and Enterprise in a Historical Perspective. Edited by Giovanni Dosi, Renato Giannetti and Pier Angelo Toninelli. Keynes, Coordination and Beyond: The Development of Macroeconomic and Monetary Theory Since 1945. By Harry Garretsen. The Philosophy and Economics of J. M. Keynes. Edited by Bill Gerrard and John Hillard. The Fading Miracle: Four Decades of Market Economy in Germany. By Herbert Giersch, Karl‐Heinz Paqué and Holger Schmieding. Beyond the Steady State: A Revival of Growth Theory. Edited by Joseph Halevi, David Laibman and Edward J. Nell. Modelling Seasonality. Edited by Svend Hylleberg. Geography and Trade. By Paul Krugman. The Economics of Oligopolistic Competition: Price and Nonprice Rivalry. By Robert E. Kuenne. New Directions in Economic Psychology. Edited by Stephen E. G. Lea, Paul Webley and Brian M. Young. The Economic Legacy 1979‐1992. Edited by Jonathan Michie. Market and Non‐Market Hierarchies: Theory of Institutional Failure. By Christos Pitelis. Income Distribution, Inflation, and Growth. By Lance Taylor. Optimal Regulation: The Economic Theory of Natural Monopoly. By Kenneth E. Train. On the Dynamics of Growth and Debt. By Casper van Ewijk.

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

Innovation, Technology, and Finance

Technical and financial innovation, Arnold Heertje industrial structure and technical change, Giovanni Dosi and Luigi Orsenigo diffusion - the spread of new technology to firms, sectors and nations, Chris Freeman the financing of technical innovation, Frits Prakke the process of financial innovation - causes, forms and consequences, Patrick Artus and Christian de Boissieu financial market structure and regulatory change, Helmut Mayer and John Kneeshaw financial innovation and capital formation, Jose Vinals and Angel Berges.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in this ArticleThe Innovative Choice. By Mario Amendola and Jean‐Luc Gaffard.Soviet Industry from Stalin to Gorbachev. By Joseph S. Berliner.Do Socialist Economies Work? By Michael Bleaney.Ownership, Control, and the Firm. By Harold Demsetz.Technical Change and Economic Theory. Edited by Giovanni Dosi, Christopher Freeman, Richard Nelson, Gerald Silverberg and Luc Soete.War, Prosperity and Depression: The U.S. Economy 1917–45. By Peter Fearon.Keynes's Vision: A New Political Economy. By Athol Fitzgibbons.The World Shipping Industry. By Ernst Gabriel Frankel.Keynes and Public Policy After Fifty Years. Volume II: Theories and Method. Edited by Omar F. Hamouda and John N. Smithin.Innovation, Technology, and Finance. Edited by Arnold Heertje.Regional Economic Development: Essays in Honour of François Perroux. Edited by Benjamin Higgins and Donald J. Savoie.Before Adam Smith: The Emergence of Political Economy, 1662–1776. By Terence Hutchison.The Fight Against Unemployment. Edited by Richard Layard and Lars Calmfors.Applied Behavioural Economics. Volumes I and II. Edited by Shlomo Maital.The Economy under Mrs. Thatcher. By Geoffrey Maynard.Spatial Price Theory of Imperfect Competition. By Hiroshi Ohta.Privatization: Theory, Practice and Choice. By Madsen Pirie.The State of Development Economics: Progress and Perspectives. Edited by Gustav Ranis and T. Paul Schultz.Alfred Marshall: Progress and Politics. By David Reisman.American “Reparations” to Germany, 1919–33: Implications for the Third‐World Debt Crisis.Keynesian Economics: The Permanent Revolution. By G. K. Shaw.Markets or Governments: Choosing Between Imperfect Alternatives. By Charles Wolf, Jr.

The Determinants of Industrial Research and Development: A Study of the Chemical, Drug, and Petroleum Industries

Economists have recently grown interested in doing research on research or R & D, as it is called in industrial circles. Several studies have tested Schumpeter's hoary hypothesis that large firms are responsible for most industrial inventive activity.1 Few of these studies, however, suggest why this hypothesis is apparently valid for some industries and not for others. And statistical studies going beyond this question, to try to relate R & D expenditures to firm profit expectations and the availability of funds as in other investment decisions, are rare (Mansfield, 1964; Mueller, 1967). This paper reports the results of an empirical investigation into the determinants of research expenditures in three industries-drugs, chemicals, and petroleum refining. These industries have three advantages for such a study: (1) they are among the leaders in total R & D expenditures; (2) most activity is concentrated in an appreciable number of large or moderately large firms; and (3) government support of research work is relatively small, so that decisions are more closely analogous to ordinary

Firm Size and Rate of Growth

Firm Size and Rate of Growth