Lean and mean

Is big business on the way out? Are small firms better at generating new jobs and spurring technological innovation? This myth-shattering book contends that long-term economic growth and technological innovation lie where they always have: with the largest, most resourceful global companies.

But while the biggest businesses still create the lion's share of jobs, these jobs are changing. A rise in part-time and temporary jobs is making the "permanent" workforce an endangered species.

Instead of romanticizing the small firm, Bennett Harrison argues, government, business, and labor must confront more significant issues, such as encouraging innovative management behavior - without adding to underemployment and working poverty - and regulating businesses whose organizational boundaries are increasingly fuzzy.