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This paper relates the origins and evolution of industrial organization, a field of investigation devoted to the study of productive activities, components, and actors. The “new” industrial economics results from reviewing the notions of firm and competition and from the adoption of a structuralist hypothesis and then of the structure-conduct-performance trilogy. Today, it gives a leading role to firm strategies. New concepts (including contracts theory, transaction costs, and contestable markets) and inescapable methodological repositioning (including the adoption of a multidisciplinary approach) contribute to the building of a more fine-grained analysis of market regulations and industrial strategic behaviors.