The notion of industry and knowledge bases: the evidence of steel and mini-mills

Drawing on the evidence of the steel sector, this essay suggests a notion of industry in terms of sets of firms sharing the same knowledge base. Industry segments are partitions of an industry corresponding to given pieces of the sectoral knowledge and each group of firms is defined in terms of the common domain of competence. The trajectory of competence development of the mini-mills group is described and the paradigm of flexibility, which characterizes their organizational pattern, is discussed.