Table Of Content

Information acumen Comparative and International Business Series: Modern Histories Edited by Geoffrey Jones and Mira Wilkins Banks as Multinationals Edited by Geoffrey Jones Industrial Training and Technological Innovation Edited by Howard F. Gospel The Rise and Fall of Mass Marketing Edited by Richard Tedlow and Geoffrey Jones The Precision Makers Mari Williams Information acumen The understanding and use of knowledge in modern business Edited by Lisa Bud-Frierman London and New York H-4 33 First published 1994 rs *7 by Routledge * 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1994 Selection and editorial material: Lisa Bud-Frierman; individual chapters: the contributors Typeset in Times by J&L Composition Ltd, Filey, North Yorkshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Information acumen: the understanding and use of knowledge in modern business/edited by Lisa Bud-Frierman. p. cm. - (Comparative and international business. Modern histories series) Papers selected and revised from a meeting entitled ‘Global Perspectives on Business Information’, held at the Department of Economics, University of Reading, in April 1992. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Business information services - Congresses. 2. Management- Information services - Congresses. 3. Business information services - Utilization - Congresses. 4. Information technology - Congresses. I. Bud-Frierman, Lisa, 1952- II. Series. HF54.5.I565 1993 658.4'038 - dc20 93-10558 ISBN-0-415-07788-5 Contents List of figures and tables vii List of contributors viii Preface 1X Introduction 1 Lisa Bud-Frierman Part I Historical context 1 Information acumen 7\f Lisa Bud-Frierman 2 Evolving information use in firms, 1850-1920: ideology and information techniques and technologies 26/ JoAnne Yates , 3 The Railway Clearing House and Victorian data processing 5 Y Martin Campbell-Kelly 4 The development of an informational infrastructure in . Meiji Japan 75v Kaoru Sugihara 5 American historians and the concept of the / communications revolution W Richard R. John Part II Business context 6 Product policies in two French computer firms: SEA and Bull (1948-64) 113^ Pierre-E. Mounier-Kuhn r.Vrrr^ C n rft 3 g ? e f.1 *•; l ' o 11 U n i v c: ra Pimhurgh PA vi Information acumen 1 Economic perspectives on business information Mark Casson 8 Official statistics and business: history, classifications, uses Alain Desrosi&res 9 Knowledge and infrastructure in international information management: problems of classification and coding Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star Part III Knowledge and business 10 Information, power and the view from nowhere Theodore M. Porter 11 Information mythology: the world of/as information Geoffrey Bowker Figures and tables FIGURES 2.1 Factors influencing the adoption and use of information techniques and technologies 37 3.1 Long Office of the Railway Clearing House, 1864 55 3.2 Railway Clearing House Organization, 1876 58 3.3 Standard forms used in the Railway Clearing House, 1876 61 3.4 Railway Clearing House costs, 1864-1914 64 3.5 Coding system used for mileage and demurrage in the Railway Clearing House 67 4.1 Informational infrastructure in Japan around 1910 83 7.1 Changes in the price and quantity of business information 156 TABLES 3.1 Railway Clearing House statistics, 1864-1914 56 7.1 Factors increasing the information-intensity of transactions 145 7.2 Alternative coordination mechanisms available in markets , and organizations 134 9.1 Some conflicting needs of the ICD 198 Contributors Geoffrey Bowker is Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Champaign- Urbana (USA). Lisa Bud-Frierman is Research Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Reading (UK). Martin Campbell-Kelly is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick (UK). Mark Casson is Professor and Head of the Department of Economics, University of Reading (UK). Alain Desrosieres is Research Fellow at the Departement de la Recherche, Republique Fran^aise Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, Paris (France). Richard R. John is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, University of Illinois, Chicago (USA). Pierre-E. Mounier-Kuhn is Research Fellow at the CNRS and Centre de Recherches sur l’Histoire de l’Europe Modeme, Paris IV Sorbonne, Paris (France). Theodore M. Porter is Associate Professor at the Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles (USA). Susan Leigh Star is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (USA). Kaoru Sugihara is Senior Lecturer at the Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (UK). JoAnne Yates is Associate Professor of Management Communication at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). fr~ r* Preface The history of modem business information hardly exists, being as it is a new field crossing many disciplinary boundaries. The meeting entitled ‘Global Perspectives on Business Information’ held at the Department of Economics, University of Reading in April 1992 brought together scholars from a variety of communities. A number of papers given at the conference were selected and revised for inclusion in this volume. My deepest thanks to all who attended for their lively participation. As one of a series of multidisciplinary conferences organized by the Reading Business History Group, on topics ranging from multinational banking to mass marketing and business cultures, I was able to rely on the wealth of knowledge already contained in the Department. It was a truly corporate pursuit. Arranging an international workshop was primarily an exhilarating activity, interspersed with the occasional daunting moment. My colleagues shared both aspects with me. I am particularly indebted to Geoffrey Jones, a veteran conference organizer, for his enduring enthusiasm and wise counsel. I should like to express my gratitude to the Department of Economics for its generous financial and moral support which helped launch and sustain this project. The encourage- ment of Mark Casson, departmental head, has been especially appreciated. It was only possible to orchestrate every detail of the conference with the calm and unfailing assistance and information- management skills of Lynn Cornell. She has also worked hard to prepare parts of the manuscript for publication. Academic communities may form, but do not usually thrive, without face-to-face encounters. This is particularly so in the case of scholars interested in business information, who come from hetero¬ geneous disciplines and are geographically dispersed. These factors did not prove to be an impediment thanks to the magnanimity of our x Information acumen sponsors. The British Council provided three travel grants to foreign participants. A British Academy grant assisted another visitor from abroad with travel and accommodation costs. Last but not least, a grant from the Nuffield Foundation helped cover accommodation and meal expenses for both UK and other conferees. Several individuals from outside the Department also gave me useful advice. I am indebted to Bruno Latour, Sharon MacDonald, Everett Mendelsohn and Richard Tedlow for suggesting participants. For help in editing the volume I am also indebted to Martin Campbell-Kelly, to Lucy Isenberg and to my husband Robert Bud. Hiromi Yamamoto helped check Japanese bibliographic references. Thanks as well to my editors at Routledge, Diana Grivas, Laura Large, Michael Leiser, Marguerite Nesling and Rosemary Nixon. Finally, I would like to thank my son, Alex, who reminds me that kite-flying is even more important than producing books.