The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries witnessed a growth in the use of information within firms throughout the industrialised nations. In her survey of this phenomenon in American businesses, Yates (1989, 1994) has stressed the importance not only of technological developments in...

Standard costing was developed during the early years of the twentieth century in connection with the rise of scientific management. Such research as has been carried out into the adoption of this technique suggests that European firms lagged well behind their American counterparts in its...

Standard costing was developed during the early years of the twentieth century in connection with the rise of scientific management. Such research as has been carried out into the adoption of this technique suggests that European firms lagged well behind their American counterparts in its...

The intellectual content and intentions of scientific management theories, aimed at industrial performance and harmony, were largely absent from British management practice for a great part of the last century. The limited interpretation of scientific management in Britain was characterised by a...

Utilising archival materials relating to an Italian pottery manufacturer, Manifattura Ginori, this paper examines the development of the company's accounting system during the 19th century. By the early 1800s, Manifattura Ginori is shown to have developed a double-entry bookkeeping system and to...

Georgina Ferry (2003) A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer, London: Fourth Estate, pp. xii + 221. £15.99 (hbk), ISBN 1841-15185-8.

This study examines aspects of the accounting and financial history of the South Manchuria Railway Company (SMR) from its formation in 1907. In particular we focus on the 1930s, a period in which the activities of the SMR became increasingly dominated by the demands of the Kwantung Army which...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the role of the Japanese state in the development of budgets within “special companies” in the transportation sector between 1928 and 1945. Design/methodology/approach – Using evidence contained in the archives of “closedown institutions” this...