Small cooperatives and economic work partnerships in the computing industries: Exceptions that prove the rule

Abstract

Research into the second economy, and in particular, the new forms of labour organization that developed in the 1980s, has suggested that as a general rule these have severe limitations. They are unable to mount an effective entrepreneurial challenge to the domination of large enterprises. This body of research provides a yardstick against which to assess the computer industries, which show some significant deviation from the rule, though it is also possible to identify underlying patterns of conformity. Both the exceptional and the common features of the computer industries can extend our general understanding of the second economy and its role in socialist systems. Research into Hungary's new small undertakings in the industrial and service sectors, when compared with earlier researches into the agricultural sector, has suffered from a rather narrow focus.