How does a firm emerge as ‘leader of the pack’? Why do most of the small firms so common in the early years of new industries disappear? This unit looks at how and why change occurs through the industry life cycle, at the role of innnovation and at how production costs, demand and technology interact to shape industrial structure. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources from The Open University. Published in ePub 2.0.1 format, some feature such as audio, video and linked PDF are not supported by all ePub readers.