Late and Early Industisation

By Corine Marie

How useful are the concepts of ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization in explaining differences in national institutions and business organization?

The concept of industrialization has been used among different nations and regions, while many countries have carried out their own industrialization progress during the past several decades, which stimulates the development of organizations and better corporate performance. There are different kinds of national business systems with their distinctive characteristics varying among countries. Then ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization is applied to describe two main types of national businesses that existing in developed and developing countries, which explains the key institutional and organizational differences among countries in particular to some extent. According to Gerschenkrons theory of economics backwardness each country has followed different pathway and carried out their industrialization in different period. Rostow also mentions that the early and late industrialization concept explain the differences in the national institutions and business organization. He also states that backward economy meaning the late industrialized nations do not wait for preconditioned factors but they usually find alternatives and institutional and also organizational means to speed up lengthy establishment of markets, investments or social capital which in turn explain why national institution and business organization differ. It is known that the UK is the first country that achieved early industrialization revolution, which was followed by the US. And then in the late twentieth century, Germany, Japan and China implemented their industrialization process.

The purpose of this essay is to use the conception of ‘early’ and ‘late’ industrialization to explain the key institutional and organizational characteristics of national business systems by comparative perspective. And examine how useful the concept is in...