"Accounting for Growth" is a study of information systems in American business during the quarter-century before World War I, 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 also discusses how changes in information systems affected Dow s organization and management, as well as the extent of its technological innovation. During this period, Dow transformed itself from a small, single-product firm, which sold all its output through a national cartel, into a technologically dynamic, vertically integrated firm selling pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial chemicals throughout the world. These organizational and strategic changes required changes in the firm s information systems, which measured and recorded what occurred within the firm, particularly in the areas of monitoring and planning.
Most of these changes were incremental and were initiated by Dow s managers, who relied heavily on the expertise of large stockholders associated with other firms.
"Accounting for Growth" is a study of information systems in American business during the quarter-century before World War I, 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 also discusses how changes in information systems affected Dow s organization and management, as well as the extent of its technological innovation. During this period, Dow transformed itself from a small, single-product firm, which sold all its output through a national cartel, into a technologically dynamic, vertically integrated firm selling pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial chemicals throughout the world. These organizational and strategic changes required changes in the firm s information systems, which measured and recorded what occurred within the firm, particularly in the areas of monitoring and planning.
Most of these changes were incremental and were initiated by Dow s managers, who relied heavily on the expertise of large stockholders associated with other firms.
1. Functions of information in a manufacturing firm; 2. Monthly financial statement: general balance sheet, Dow and Midland II; 3. Weekly report by H. H. Dow, summarized in notebook, Midland Chemical Company (preincorporation); 4. Weekly report by Henry S. Cooper, Midland Chemical Company; 5. Semiannual financial statement: trial balance, Midland Chemical Company; 6. Semiannual financial statement: other accounts, Midland Chemical Company; 7. Weekly report by J. C. Graves, Midland Chemical Company; 8. Weekly production report; 9. Weekly production report: Bleach plant A; 10. Weekly production report: Bromide plant B; 11. Weekly production report: Bleach plant C; 12. Weekly preliminary report; 13. Monthly financial report: general balance sheet; 14. Monthly financial report: income account; 15. Monthly financial report: cost and net earning sheet; 16. Montly reserves for maintenance report; 17. Monthly betterments and additions report (suspense); 18. Monthly financial report: statement of net profits; 19. Monthly financial report: statement of amount charged to betterments and additions.
Margaret C. Levenstein is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan.
"Levenstein gives us a richly articulated view of the complex interactions between a firm's strategy and its information system that will be welcomed by economic and business historians and should be required reading for economists of the firm." - Joanne Yates, Journal of Economic History
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