In this section, the focus shifts from a tentative theorizing about institutional arrangements for coordinating economic activity to an analysis of the contemporary transformations in social systems of production. In the previous chapters, we have touched on the following issues. Boyer has argued that societies with more market oriented firms have not enhanced their structural competitiveness (i.e., the ability to innovate and obtain market shares), contrary to the expectations of the early 1980s (Chapter 2). Similarly, networking, joint ventures, and alliances have increased to unprecedented levels, and this is not unrelated to the complexity and uncertainty associated with innovation and restructuring of production methods (Chapter 3). Furthermore, states as well as business associations may deploy contrasted strategies when facing the internationalization of economic activity: One of the most promising avenues is no longer to rely on the demand-type strategies reflected in Keynesian economics but to anticipate the challenge for national competitiveness and to develop policies on the production side of the economy (Chapter 4).

Obviously, how production is organized is an important issue for social scientists to address. Is not the long-run performance of capitalist economies largely shaped by their varying abilities to use, direct, or foster organizational and technical change? Did not Soviet-type economies collapse in large part due to their inability to raise standards of living and to promote a minimum democratic order? Since most observers probably respond positively to all these questions, the challenge is to make some progress in comprehending at a theoretical level the sources of success in production and innovativeness.