Local industrial systems and externalities: an essay in typology

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Abstract
At the very source of economic theory, Adam Smith showed that the main feature of economic growth was the division of labour. With his example of the pin factory, he insisted on the division of labour within each enterprise, thus giving a foretaste of the Tayloristic model. Adam Smith, however, also leaves open the possibility of a division of labour between enterprises. Later, Alfred Marshall would recognize the importance of mutual exchanges of information between enterprises within ‘industrial districts’. At the present time, we can see a great number of small enterprise systems, whose structure represents an advantage for each enterprise in their attempt to adapt to the trends on the world market. This paper intends to highlight the existence of more or less dense business communities of which all these enterprises are a part. An attempt will also be made to define the institutional and informal networks which make up each of these communities, in order to elaborate a typology of enterprise systems.

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