The role of the large firm in industrial dynamics: notes on a post-Keynesian-evolutionary synthesis
Abstract
This paper aims to study the contribution of the investment decisions of large capitalist firms to the dynamics of the emergence and evolution of industries, through the cross-fertilization between three different approaches: the notion of uncertainty and its relationship with decisions to invest in Keynes and the Post-Keynesian literature, Steindl's analysis of firm growth and its relationship with industrial dynamics, and the evolutionary approach on technical change. Based on the literature surveyed, the paper reveals that these strategies – overlapping at times - will essentially depend upon the degree of liquidity preference; the gap between the rate of internal accumulation of large firms and the rate of market demand growth (i.e., the maturity of the industry); and the economic dimensions of technology (i.e., technological opportunities, cumulativeness and appropriability).
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