INTRODUCTION

In the last fifteen years, there have been many theoretical efforts to explain the breaking down of the old Fordist model of accumulation. Thus, it is not our intent to review the many causes which explain the erosion of this model. In this paper, we choose to focus on new social institutions that are emerging from the breakdown of the Fordist model, and to focus on the “transition” towards new institutional configurations of “post-Fordism.” We are concerned with new patterns and industrial routines at the level of both intra- and interfirm relationships. By doing this, we hope to contribute to the understanding of the embeddedness of institutions in modern capitalism.

In our judgment, there are two determinants of crucial importance to understand the transitory period in which we are living. These two determinants, largely interdependent and interrelated, are, on the one hand, the process of “globalization” and, on the other, an ongoing technological and organizational revolution. These two determinants are crucial, for they contribute to eroding and destroying the classical forms of production and principles of efficiency of the old Fordist model, and as they push societies toward the adaptation of new institutional configurations. In this sense, these two determinants contribute to the new “post-Fordist” regime(s) of accumulation.

To explore these aspects of the transitory regime towards post-Fordism, we concentrate on several interrelated issues.