Author Description

The present period has been called the Information Age. Until now, however, historians have by and large passed over the use and generation of business information. This wide-ranging book provides a new historical perspective by drawing upon concepts and models from economics, business and economic history, management studies, and the sociology and history of science. It will make an important contribution to our understanding of the role of information in business strategies and industrial policy, and marks a step towards a more sophisticated evaluation of information management styles past and present. The authors, distinguished scholars from several European countries, the USA and Japan, explore the 'information society' through focusing on ideas about the meaning and the economic function of business information. Theories of scientific management, the effect of organizational structures and the spread of ideas are studied historically and in contemporary situations throughout the world. At a time when efficient information use is expected to give particular competitive advantage to firms, this book will be of special interest to all those responsible for the use of information in large organizations as well as to scholars, including historians, economists, sociologists and management scientists.