This book presents case studies of the development of videotex in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Ireland and the United States. These studies offer an excellent overview of the many factors which might influence the outcome of complex innovation and implementation processes. Videotex is an interlocked innovation comprising not only innovations in the infrastructure (networks, hard- and software) but also an innovation in the supply of services and the user demand. If only one of these elements is absent the entire chain...

Helena Flam Universitat Konstanz B. D. R. Volker Schneider Max Planck Institute for Social Research Kaln, B. D. R. I. A traditional sociologist or political scientist may find the choise of videotex as the object of this cross-national comparison surprising. Indeed, contemporary Sociology and Political Science have shied away from the studies of technology. Consequently, until recently they have not contributed much to the understanding of technological change, leaving this field of study to geographers and historians. The very best among such studies reveal, however, that the evolution of...