Lean and mean: the changing landscape of corporate power in the age of flexibility

Abstract

Foreword, Robert Kuttner I. Overview 1. Big Firms, Small Firms, Network Firms II. Reassessing the Idea that Small Firms Are the Economic Development Drivers 2. The Myth of Small Firms as Job Generators 3. Are Small Firms the Technology Leaders? 4. The Evolution (and Devolution?) of the Italian Industrial Districts 5. Is Silicon Valley an Industrial District? III. The Emerging System of Globally Networked Production 6. The Emergence of Large Firm-Led Production Networks 7. Large Firm-Centered Networked Production Systems in Japan and Europe 8. Interfirm Production Networks in the United States 9. The Dark Side of Flexible Production IV. Rethinking Economic Development Policy 10. Economic Development Policy in a World of Lean and Mean Production 11. Postscript: Reassessing Lean and Mean on the Eve of the New Millennium