INTRODUCTION

The aim of this chapter is to examine the main forms which enterprise organization showed through the industrialization process in Argentina, from the nineteenth century to the present. This process started early in comparison with the majority of developing countries, but it had certain aspects and complex rhythms which clearly distinguished it from the path followed by most developed nations. This is why it is difficult to establish the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution on the local industry precisely, because it took place gradually and presented specific characteristics, which in turn affected the way in which enterprise organization developed.

A lineal evolution toward the predominance of capital-intensive industries did not occur in the Argentine case, and during the 1930s growth was led by a labor-intensive sector, the textile industry, which had started to develop in the 1920s. In other industrial sectors classified by Alfred Chandler as increasingly capital-intensive, such as metalworking and electrical appliances, small family-owned firms and workshops predominated until the 1950s. In some cases, such as railroad machinery, only repair workshops existed until the end of World War II. Other capital-intensive sectors, as food production or petroleum refining, were quick to develop, and, in the case of the car industry, assembling plants were installed by multinational companies in the 1920s.

What can be found since the beginning of this century, more than an evolution toward the predominance of large managerial firms is the coexistence of different types of enterprises: small family-owned firms, large enterprises domestically-owned, affiliates of multinational companies, and state-owned firms. From the 1930s to the 1950s a process of dispersion took place, but from 1960 onward industries tended to concentrate again.