The Community Context of Evolving Industry Architecture

The transformation of industries and industry architectures is approached through a community evolution analysis of two closely related value chains. A longitudinal multilevel data set on the consumer food value chains in Britain and Ireland is analyzed. The analysis highlights the central role of coevolution between members of the value-chain communities, including the related institutional context. Commensalism is explored through its constituent processes of competition and cooperation. Both are seen to act powerfully in shaping change and transformation. The divergence between the two value chains studied bears out the basic evolutionary premise that evolution is constructed, not determined by generic processes.