Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Science Industries [Hardcover]

Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2001

Tracing the history of the consumer electronics and computer businesses from a global perspective, the author of Scale and Scope explores the evolution of the Information Age, discussing the IBM's role in the development of technology, Japan's conquest of the global electronics market, and more. 25

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Start-ups get all the attention, but the credit or blame for much of the 20th century's gadget frenzy lies squarely with giants like IBM and Sony. Business historian Alfred D. Chandler Jr. thoroughly documents the rise and fall of big players in the consumer electronic and computer industries in Inventing the Electronic Century.

It's not light reading--Chandler draws on mountainous reserves of knowledge of business, politics, technology, and social trends to reach his conclusions, and the narrative relies equally on boardroom stories and commercial data. Still, the book's compelling, often cautionary tales should help managers and investors see patterns underlying their own industrial behaviors, and perhaps emulate Sony more than RCA.

The scope of the book can be daunting, and in many ways parallels the global changes seen throughout the century, including the rise of the Japanese economy, the capricious American commercial sector, and the relative stasis of postwar Europe. Committed and patient readers will gain insight into the nature of the tech industry in Inventing the Electronic Century, and then start inventing the next one. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

The consumer electronics industry began with RCA and the commercialization of radio in the 1920s, grew to comprise a wide variety of products and a number of successful companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and eventually became dominated by Japanese companies. In a kind of historical parallel, the computer industry began with several U.S. companies in the 1960s, spread to Europe and Japan, and today is dominated by several large U.S. and Japanese companies. Harvard Business School professor Chandler (Strategy and Structure) delivers a straightforward chronicle of the development of these industries and the rise of the information age. Despite his fondness for words like "epic" and "drama," Chandler's is a names and dates version; not surprisingly, the story is well researched and relatively dry, charting the industry's progression from minicomputers to microprocessors to personal computers and beyond. The organization and expansion of these two high technology industries is enough to warrant many dense pages, and the questions raised particularly why European companies with 19th-century roots continue to dominate in chemicals and pharmaceuticals, while in consumer electronics and computers, Japan has completely displaced Europe occupy the author and reader in involved contemplation.(Nov.)Forecast: Chandler is a respected historian and a noted business author, but the lifelessness of this volume will overshadow its human and business interest.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st edition (November 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743215672
• ISBN-13: 978-0743215671
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #233,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More company histories than analytic principles, January 6, 2002

By 

Howard Aldrich (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Science Industries (Hardcover)

In earlier books by Chandler that I liked very much, such as Strategy & Structure and The Visible Hand, historical narrative took precedence over facts and figures. Epic stories were told, and individual biography was subordinated to broader historical developments. In this book, I felt the balance tilted the other way: I found myself fighting to concentrate on the story, while wading through very specific details that I quickly forgot as I moved onto the next company history.

Chandler has certainly done his homework. In the Preface, he notes his limited technical knowledge of the consumer electronics and computer industries, but one would never guess that from the adept way he handles technical terms and explains the significance of various innovations. With many tables in the text and more in the appendix, Chandler convincingly documents his story.

It is a simple one: firms that came to dominate their industries did so by being first movers that established integrated learning bases, based on technical, functional or managerial knowledge. They thus gained economies of scale and scope (another concept that Chandler has contributed to the business history literature), obtained a critical head start, and successfully beat back most entrepreneurial startups. In consumer electronics, a handful of Japanese firms built on their initial advantages to not only dominate world markets but also to destroy domestic producers in the U.S. In computers, however, IBM built a lead it never relinquished, even though it was repeatedly challenged by European and Japanese firms.

Chandler noted, with obvious relish, that top executives in many firms engaged in short-sighted strategies that eventually brought them down. For example, RCA created many innovations that it licensed to the Japanese firms that ultimately destroyed it. Indeed, perhaps the major benefit of including so many detailed company histories is that they remind us of just how wrong so many excutives have been!

If you know little about the history of these two industries, Chandler's book will give you an excellent overview. If you are familiar with them, you can still appreciate Chandler's skill in conveying the international comparative context for their evolution in the 20th century. In his provocative conclusion, Chandler asks whether the Japanese firms, with their strong integrated learning bases and dominance of consumer electronics, will ultimately triumph in the struggle for control of the world's information technology industries.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic History, First Mover Theory, January 4, 2010

By 

Tom K. (Carmel, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Science Industries (Hardcover)

Alfred Chandler is an award winning author and management theorist. This book documents the history of the consumer electronics and computer industries adequately. It describes the ways in which Europe died, the US took the lead in some sectors and how Japan has cumulatively dominated the scientifically based components.

The proposed theory seems weak. First mover advantage matters, except when it does not. Many other conclusions can be drawn from the author's accurate history. Corporate advantage is often the random fate of chance. Really smart individuals change history 2 or 3 times. IBM failed so many times, but emerged a winner because it left hardware for services. Computer Associates successfully pursued an acquisition strategy but others could not. US anti-trust agreements really matter. US corporations have been dabbling in other countries for 120 years. Dell's growth stemmed from a production innovation, rather than marketing experise. MicroSoft's key triumphs came from leveraging its monopoly position in operating systems, repeatedly.

Deep technical skills and first mover advantage DO matter in technical industries. They are not the only factor.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The brilliant strategy of Japanese Companies in electronics, February 22, 2005

By 

Jose Ernesto Passos (São Paulo, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Science Industries (Hardcover)

Alfred Chandler has organized the factual information of the key companies in the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries during the second half of the XX century. The title of my review is a suggestion of another apropriate subtitle of this book.

The subject is very complex, specially if we look at the technology involved. My major comment is: the author has a limited technical knowledge and this has limited the depth of his analyses, comments and conclusions. This does not invalidate the major conclusions that he has presented in this book.

I think that it would be interesting to expand the story told in this book by studying/describing the evolution of the whole envinronment around these industries, including the engineering schools and research institutes that supply the brains to develop all the technology involved.

The history of the electronics industry carry an important lesson, about concentration of skills and economic power in only one company (RCA). It was a good thing, while RCA was leading, but when it started to make major strategic mistakes it brought down the whole American Industry. The Japanese Industry used several companies to compete against American and European Companies, this created a whole envinronment, that included engineering schools, research facilities, several different companies where one could make a career and different ideas being tested and pursued at the same time. When you look at the capacity of inovation and development of new technologies of the japanese companies and their envinronment they were a lot more competitive. They created a competitive envinronment so agressive in Japan that western rivals were later decimated by them.

The lesson hidden in the history of the electronics industry is very important, when we look at the industrial policy in America in other industries, like Automobiles, where there is only two American Manufacturers, it is easy to see why Japanese companies are doing much better, they are following the same type of competitive organization in this industry... Ford and GM are going in the same direction of RCA... This will raise a very important question, in what industries does America plans to remain competitive in the future??? This will determine the long term stability of the American Democracy.

One may criticize the quality of this book, but the history told in this book should be understood and deserves attention.

One aspect related to the industries studied that should be brought to attention is the availability of information about the japanese industry due to the language barrier.