The ambiguity contained in the title of this book ("The Changing Firm"), given the two possible interpretations of the verb "to change" in a transitive rather than an intransitive sense, is intentional. The firm is, in fact, a place where changes occur, but also a subject which continually introduces innovations and reflects them in its economic and social environment. The analysis of the internal organisation of the firm and of the latter as a subject promoting innovation has been at the centre of economic thought right from the beginning. Starting from Cantillon, Beccaria and Smith, until recent times, the firm has been the heart of research on technological, organisational and institutional change, taking place both within it and in connection with the outside world.

The subjects forming the firm, and the production and organisational mechanisms that typify it have been traced as the sources of development, whether progress is seen as endogenous in the firm or, conversely, when this latter is seen as the terminal of processes that originated outside. The subtitle of the book ("Contributions from the history of economic thought") alludes to the conviction that the study of past contributions to the theory of the firm, innovation and technological change may be useful to present-day theorising in economics. This is revealed, inter alia , by the Smith studies, the Marshall studies, and the research on Schumpeter, Institutional economics and the theories of growth.

The book collects the keynote addresses - by Giuseppe Bonazzi, Gianfranco Dioguardi, Arnold Heertje, Enzo Pontarollo, Nathan Rosenberg and Malcolm Rutherford - and the selected papers of the Seventh Conference of Aispe (Italian Association for the History of Economic Thought), which was held in Brescia on 20th-22th February 2003.