Asks whether and to what effect the widespread adoption of digital technology has led to large-scale or structural economic changes in business.

Introduction Louis Galambos; 1. Technological revolutions and the evolution of industrial structures: assessing the impact of new technologies upon the size, pattern of growth, and boundaries of firms Giovanni Dosi, Alfonso Gambardella, Marco Grazzi and Luigi Orsenigo; 2. The long-run dynamics of big firms: the one hundred largest employers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan, 1907-2002 Howard Gospel and Martin Fiedler; 3. Knowledge and the changing boundaries of firms and industries Pamela Adams, Stefano Brusoni and Franco Malerba; 4. Organizing the electronic century Richard N. Langlois; 5. Aircraft and the third industrial revolution Andrea Prencipe; 6. Aluminium and the third industrial revolution Margaret Graham; 7. The role of the state in the third industrial revolution: continuity and change Andrea Colli and Nicoletta Corrocher; 8. Celebrating youth: the historical origins of the US stock market's appetite for young firms Mary A. O'Sullivan; 9. Labor in the third industrial revolution: a tentative synthesis Stefano Musso; Conclusion.