The Transition to Flexible Specialisation in the U.S. Film Industry: External Economies, the Division of Labour, and the Crossing of Industrial Divides

There is increasing evidence that mass-production methods are losing their dominance in the advanced industrial economies and that various forms of flexible production organization are on the rise. The transition from mass-production organization to flexible specialization is analyzed in detail through a case study of the film industry, where it is shown that a system of production once based on product standardization, high levels of vertical integration, and stable oligopolistic market structures has, after a period of vertical disintegration, given way to a production system based on a deep division of labor between firms and high levels of flexibility in both product design and output levels. The transition may be the result of increasing external economies of scale stemming from the development of the industry's social division of labor. Copyright 1989 by Oxford University Press.