How do firms develop? The mutual evolutionary process of physical and social technology

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the firm through an explanation of its evolution, as part of the co-evolution of social and physical technologies. The author argues that since the emergence of the capitalist firm (factory) in the British Industrial Revolution, this co-evolutionary process has brought about two major mutant-firms, namely the M-form which emerged from the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution and the decentralized-disintegrated organization (project-based firm) born in the New Economy. The author analyses the rise of the succeeding mutant-firms in the co-evolutionary process framework and also highlights the nature of the differences between them.