Accounting for Growth: Information Systems and the Creation of the Large Corporation
Accounting for Growth: Information Systems and the Creation of the Large Corporation
Margaret LevensteinCambridge University Press£30ISBN: 0 8047 3003 2
Keywords: Information systems, USA, Accounting information systems
This is a scholarly yet (why such a pejorative term?) fascinating work: a study of information systems in American business during the quarter-century before the First World War, a period that saw the birth of the large modern corporation as the dominant form of American enterprise.
The book takes as its starting point the way in which the Dow Chemical Company constructed and reconstructed its internal information systems during years of rapid growth and technological change in the chemical industry. The book discusses how changes in information systems affected Dow's organisation and management, as well as the extent of its technological innovation. The book examines the impact of the accounting profession and its new standards in cost accounting on the development of information systems at Dow. It compares Dow's accounting practices to those of other manufacturing firms as well as to the emerging ideas of accountants and engineers about how information systems should be designed. It looks at the functions of information in a manufacturing firm and examines various reports from Dow's actual processes to identify how well they delivered that functionality.
There are many lessons for today's organisations and today's information system builders: to have such a clear and complete analysis of a historical development process is both interesting and rewarding.
