Transient and Permanent Variety. From Management of Uncertainty to Management of Complexity

Having analyzed the emergence of variety (intra-material and inter-materials) in the previous chapters and discussed the various aspects of the management of both forms, the time has come to analyze the choice available to firms by distinguishing the transient from the permanent. Facets of emergent variety genuinely constituting the basis of a new technological system should be distinguished from those which merely represent a cyclical adaptation. Any period of change is characterized by a search for wide variety; in a sense this is a technological projection of a general behaviour pattern in response to uncertainty which entails the diversification of portfolios and in financing circles, is termed a “preference for liquidity”. We shall firstly isolate this cyclical trend for specific analysis and in a subsequent section go on to deal with the variety phenomenon as a new structural factor. Before doing so, however, let us look briefly at the peculiarities of each of these two adaptations.