Innovating for Failure. Government policy and the early British computer industry

Notes:

Scholarly account which grew out of a much wider project to study the British computer industry from the Second World War to the late 1960s. Deals especially with the implementation of government policy through the establishment and activities of the National Research Development Corp whose archives are extensively used - 'this book is a history of the interaction between the NRDC and the emergent British computer industry. But it is also a case study of what has become known as the 'British problem': the chronic inability of British industry to convert exceptionally high levels of technological expertise into commercial success in the international marketplace'. Has chapters: 1] 'Introduction - government policy and the exploitation of technology'; 2] 'Creation of the National Research Development Corp'; 3] 'Computer technology and its commercial exploitation in postwar America'; 4] 'Computer technology and industrial interest in postwar Britain'; 5] 'A policy for action - Lord Halsbury's offensive'; 6] 'By persuasion, threat or cash - the first results'; 7] 'Who knows best? Elliott Brothers, Ferranti and the packaged computer'; 8] 'Contractual arrangements and monitoring - the problems with Ferranti'; 9] Defining the national interest - the EMI 2400 project'; 10] 'National competitiveness and the problem of consensus - the Fast Computer Project'; 11] 'Developing the market - peripherals and user needs'; 12] 'Into the sixties - industry, government and international competition'; 13] 'Public policy and corporate response - conclusions, observations and policy implications'. An extensive appendix gives quantitative data re the industry, 1949-69 - installations, international market share, profiles of individual manufacturers - Ferrant Brothers; Elliott Brothers; Lyons - Leo Computers Ltd; EMI Ltd; GEC; AEI; Decca; Standard Telephone & Cable Ltd [STC]; Plessey; English Electric Co Ltd / Marconi; British Tabulator / International Computers Ltd