Finance, corporate governance and the new techno-economic paradigm

This paper assumes, with Perez (1983, 2002), that technological development follows a long wave'rhythm, in which new 'techno-economic paradigms'succeed one another at long intervals; the latest being the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) paradigm. When the new paradigm appears a tension develops between it and the existing socio-institutional framework. We argue that the financial and corporate governance system (FCGS), is a key element of that framework which is unusually resistant to change. The focus is on the UK FCGS, an outsider-dominated/stockexchange-based system, though with comparisons with the US and with 'insider-dominated' economies. Based on fieldwork conducted between 1999 and 2005, we find that Britain is still a long way from witnessing a new creative partnership of financial and industrial capital in most of the economy, needed to fully release the potential of the new paradigm. We discuss what form that might take. JEL Codes - O16, O33, P16.