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Understanding the Bicycle as a Product

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A Business History of the Bicycle Industry

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A bicycle is an artefact, a product made from a complex set of activities based on various technologies and materials. A bicycle encompasses a long list of pieces that can be arranged to form a product architecture, which helps to understand how a bicycle is fabricated and how the bicycle industry evolved over time. The manufacturing of a bicycle is rooted in the context of other metal-using industries and can be better understood through the hypothesis of technological convergence. The history of bicycle fabrication is also intertwined with the principle of interchangeable parts and the influence exercised on the automobile industry. The chapter expands its focus from how a bicycle is manufactured to the key categories of firms participating in the business system adopted within the bicycle industry.

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  1. Department of Economics, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy

    Carlo Mari

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Mari, C. (2021). Understanding the Bicycle as a Product. In: A Business History of the Bicycle Industry. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50563-9_1

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