This book makes the startling case that North Americans were getting on the "information highway" as early as the 1700's, and have been using it as a critical building block of their social, economic, and political world ever since.
By the time of the founding of the United States, there was a postal system and roads for the distribution of mail copyright laws to protect intellectual property, and newspapers, books, and broadsides to bring information to a populace that was building a nation on the basis of an informed electorate. In the 19th century, Americans developed the telegraph,...

Business Strategy is becoming increasingly pluralist, drawing on the insights of different disciplines and business practice in different parts of the world. This book brings together the work and ideas of leading international scholars working in the field under three main headings--Technology, Strategy and Organization, and Regions--to explore from different perspectives the dynamic interplay between the technology of a firm; its strategies; organizational choices; and issues of place, region, and location. Together, the contributors address the challenge of explaining the long-run...

Business Strategy is becoming increasingly pluralist, drawing on the insights of different disciplines and business practice in different parts of the world. This book brings together the work and ideas of leading international scholars working in the field under three main headings--Technology, Strategy and Organization, and Regions--to explore from different perspectives the dynamic interplay between the technology of a firm; its strategies; organizational choices; and issues of place, region, and location. Together, the contributors address the challenge of explaining the long-run...

This book shows how the seventy largest corporations in America have dealt with a single economic problem: the effective administration of an expanding business. The author summarizes the history of the expansion of the nation's largest industries during the past hundred years and then examines in depth the modern decentralized corporate structure as it was developed independently by four companies -- du Pont, General Motors, Standard Oil (New Jersey), and Sears, Roebuck. This 1990 reprint includes a new introduction by the author.

Written in nontechnical terms, this book explains how the dynamics of big business have influenced national and international economies. A path-breaking study, it provides the first systematic treatment of big business in advanced, emerging, and centrally-planned economies from the late nineteenth century, when big businesses first appeared, to the present. Large industrial enterprises play a vital role in developing new technologies and commercializing new products in all of the major countries. How such firms emerged and evolved in different economic, political, and social settings...

Representing a path-breaking effort to look at multinational corporations in the round, this book emphasizes their scope, history and development, cultural and social implications, and governance problems. Starting with a primer on MNCs, eight chapters are devoted to a variety of aspects, including global elites. Their approach makes readers recognize that MNCs are not merely economic entities, but are part of a complex interplay of factors. In turn, studying MNCs will lead to reexamination of the globalization process.

Written in nontechnical terms, this book explains how the dynamics of big business have influenced national and international economies. A path-breaking study, it provides the first systematic treatment of big business in advanced, emerging, and centrally-planned economies from the late nineteenth century, when big businesses first appeared, to the present. Large industrial enterprises play a vital role in developing new technologies and commercializing new products in all of the major countries. How such firms emerged and evolved in different economic, political, and social settings...

The dean of business historians continues his masterful chronicle of the transforming revolutions of the twentieth century begun in "Inventing the Electronic Century."

Alfred Chandler argues that only with consistent attention to research and development and an emphasis on long-term corporate strategies could firms remain successful over time. He details these processes for nearly every major chemical and pharmaceutical firm, demonstrating why some companies forged ahead while others failed.

By the end of World War II, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries were transformed by...

Consumer electronics and computers redefined life and work in the twentieth century. In Inventing the Electronic Century, Pulitzer Prize-winning business historian Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. traces their origins and worldwide development. From electronics prime mover RCA in the 1920s to Sony and Matsushita's dramatic rise in the 1970s; from IBM's dominance in computer technology in the 1950s to Microsoft's stunning example of the creation of competitive advantage, this masterful analysis is essential reading for every manager and student of technology. "Thought provoking. Chandler develops the...

Scale and Scope is Alfred Chandler's first major work since his Pulitzer prize-winning The Visible Hand. Representing ten years of research into the history of the managerial business system, this book concentrates on patterns of growth and competitiveness in the US, Germany, and Great Britain, tracing the evolution of large firms into multinational giants and orienting the late 20th century's most important developments.