This study adds to the accounting history literature by looking at features common to major defalcations in two small-sized building societies (namely the Wakefield and the Grays). These features were the dominance of an individual over a building society’s systems, and poor systems of...

This paper invites readers to look into how beliefs about future events help to better understand organizational change. Our argument is that the adoption of information technology and the adoption of new organizational forms around it have been driven by shifts in collective ideas of legitimate...

Shiwakoti et al. (2008) concluded that four of the largest UK mutual societies which converted to listed bank status in 1997 outperformed, on a variety of measures, those societies which did not convert in the four-year periods both before and after conversion. All four converting societies have...

There are but a handful of systematic studies on the history of automated teller machines (ATMs) yet all fail to address the issue of paternity while perpetrating ‘common wisdom’ beliefs. This article looks at the birth of currency dispensing equipment, the immediate predecessor to the ATM....

In this article we explore organisational changes associated with the computarization of British savings banks while making a running comparison with developments in Spain. This international comparison addresses the evolution of the same organisational form in two distinct competitive...

In this article we explore organisational changes associated with the automation of financial intermediaries in Spain and the UK. This international comparison looks at the evolution of the same organisational form in two distinct competitive environments. Changes in regulation and technological...

During the 1990s, Spain changed from a net recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) to one of the most important investors in Latin America. Fieldwork in this article identifies trends and directions of Spanish acquisitions, with an emphasis on the 1990 to 2001 period. An overview of the...

This article explores the manipulation of published financial reports in order to counter the potentially unfavourable impact of newly introduced regulation. In this case the reported capital ratio of a major building society was enhanced using a sale and leaseback transaction with a related...

Just over 40 years ago the first cash dispensers became operational in the UK. From its modest beginnings this industry specific application evolved into the backbone of self service technology. In this article we consider their past and present to reflect on their future with the assistance of...

Through archival research we investigate the impact of the introduction of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) in British retail banking. Contrary to the experience in the US, in the UK the ATM has been largely neglected by historians and management scholars. Technologically, cash dispensers...