Fostering a capacity for compromise: business, government, and the stages of innovation in American computing

Surveys firms' behaviors and competitive structures in American computing during the past 50 years and places the industry within the context of American political economy. It argues that leading firms such as IBM, Apple and Microsoft have exhibited a capacity to strike compromises between innovation and stability. Through selective enforcement of the antitrust laws, government has tolerated and even encouraged such behavior. The computer industry has thus followed patterns established in other endeavors such as electric power and telephony.