IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ijecbs/v11y2004i2p123-140.html

Information Processing in the Theory of the Firm: The Rise of General Motors

Author

Listed:
  • Seth Norton

Abstract

This article reviews alternative theories of the firm and their relationship to the spectacular rise of General Motors during the 1920s. The article examines the degree of synchronization of GM's sales to dealers with dealers' sales to final consumers, both before and after Alfred Sloan's forecasting and information processing reforms. It also examines the link between the synchronization and GM's performance during the period. The data document a dramatic improvement in GM's information processing capabilities and a direct link between those capabilities and GM's profitability.

Suggested Citation

  • Seth Norton, 2004. "Information Processing in the Theory of the Firm: The Rise of General Motors," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 123-140.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:11:y:2004:i:2:p:123-140
    DOI: 10.1080/1357151042000222483
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1357151042000222483
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1357151042000222483?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Masten, Scott E. (ed.), 1996. "Case Studies in Contracting and Organization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195092523.
    2. Chandler, Alfred D., 1990. "Scale and Scope: A Review Colloquium - Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. By Alfred D. ChandlerJr., with Takashi Hikino · Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. xix + 8," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 690-735, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chandna, Vallari & Salimath, Manjula S., 2018. "Peer-to-peer selling in online platforms: A salient business model for virtual entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 162-174.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alfredo Esposto, 2004. "Contractual Integration of Physician and Hospital Services in the U.S," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 8(1), pages 49-69, March.
    2. Susan Helper & Mari Sako, 2010. "Management innovation in supply chain: appreciating Chandler in the twenty-first century," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(2), pages 399-429, April.
    3. Salazar Idana & Galve Górriz Carmen, 2011. "Determinants of the Differences in the Downstream Vertical Integration and Efficiency Implications in Agricultural Cooperatives," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, February.
    4. Martinez, Stephen W. & Hanagriff, Roger D. & Smith, Kevin E., 2006. "Strategic Alliances in U.S. Branded Beef Programs," 2006 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2006, Orlando, Florida 35399, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    5. John S. Heywood & Debashis Pal, 2004. "Successive Monopolies and Regulation in a Spatial Model," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(2), pages 167-178, March.
    6. David Clayton, 2006. "Labour--Intensive Industrialization in Hong Kong, 1950--70: A Note on Sources and Methods," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 375-388, July.
    7. Claude Ménard, 2022. "Hybrids: where are we?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-04012150, HAL.
    8. Leiponen, Aija, 2002. "Competencies and Firm Performance - Increasing Returns from Knowledge Complementaries?," Discussion Papers 703, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    9. Wang, Sen & Bogle, Tim & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 2012. "Forestry and the New Institutional Economics," Working Papers 130818, University of Victoria, Resource Economics and Policy.
    10. Stefan Schwarzkopf, 2008. "Creativity, Capital And Tacit Knowledge," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 181-197, July.
    11. Salvatore Sciascia & Pietro Mazzola & Joseph Astrachan & Torsten Pieper, 2012. "The role of family ownership in international entrepreneurship: exploring nonlinear effects," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 15-31, January.
    12. Jan Fagerberg & Martin Srholec, 2005. "Catching up: What are the Critical Factors for success?," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20050401, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    13. Beladi, Hamid & Chakrabarti, Avik, 2008. "Foreign equity participation under incomplete information," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 279-295, July.
    14. Glachant, Jean-Michel, 1998. "England's wholesale electricity market: could this hybrid institutional arrangement be transposed to the European Union?1," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 63-74, June.
    15. Manuel Portugal Ferreira & Fernando Ribeiro Serra & Emerson Maccari, 2013. "When the innovator fails to capture rents from innovation," Working Papers 101, globADVANTAGE, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria.
    16. Bottazzi, Giulio & Dosi, Giovanni & Lippi, Marco & Pammolli, Fabio & Riccaboni, Massimo, 2001. "Innovation and corporate growth in the evolution of the drug industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1161-1187, July.
    17. MacDonald, James M. & Perry, Janet E. & Ahearn, Mary Clare & Banker, David E. & Chambers, William & Dimitri, Carolyn & Key, Nigel D. & Nelson, Kenneth E. & Southard, Leland W., 2004. "Contracts, Markets, and Prices: Organizing the Production and Use of Agricultural Commodities," Agricultural Economic Reports 34013, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    18. Julio Peña Torres, 2005. "Informal Markets, Perishability and Vertical Control: Brokerage of Artisanal Landings," ILADES-UAH Working Papers inv165, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business.
    19. Peter Sheehan, 2008. "Beyond Industrialization: New Approaches to Development Strategy Based on the Service Sector," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-60, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Tim Leunig, 1998. "New Answers to Old Questions: Transport Costs and the Slow Adoption of Ring Spinning in Lancashire," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _022, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:11:y:2004:i:2:p:123-140. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIJB20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.