Innovation and the evolution of the U.S. auto industry, 1900-1975

The U.S. automobile industry from its inception until 1975 evolved through a process resembling the punctuated equilibrium model of biological evolution. Alternating periods of flux and stability culminated in the convergence of a small number of producers on a common model of manufacture. It was a process during which two disruptive architectural innovations, which concentrated in their turn on scale and scope economies, were melded into a dominant method of automobile design and manufacture. Exogenous shocks hastened the process and incremental elaboration brought it to its logical conclusion. Exceptional efficiency ensued, attended by it concomitants: rigidity and vulnerability.