IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buhirw/v76y2002i04p733-765_07.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Learning and Traffic Management at the Bell System, 1900–1929: Probability Theory and the Evolution of Organizational Capabilities

Author

Listed:
  • Miranti, Paul J.

Abstract

This study analyzes the evolution of organizational capabilities for assessing market growth and capital budgeting in the traffic management operations of the Bell System from 1900 to 1929. The initial impetus for developing the complex procedures that were integrated into this process was the need to enhance firm competitiveness, particularly in response to the threats to its survival during the financial panic of 1907. The resultant new organizational capabilities, however, also eventually proved vital in successfully guiding the firm's planning for system automation and in demonstrating compliance with regulatory mandates for efficient and economical service. Moreover, this study explains how probability theory became a key element in this managerial transition, thus, providing the Bell System with a powerful analytical tool useful for confronting uncertainty in budgeting and business planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Miranti, Paul J., 2002. "Corporate Learning and Traffic Management at the Bell System, 1900–1929: Probability Theory and the Evolution of Organizational Capabilities," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(4), pages 733-765, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buhirw:v:76:y:2002:i:04:p:733-765_07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000768050007803X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Maixe-Altes, J. Carles, 2012. "Las cajas de ahorro y el cambio tecnológico antes de Internet, 1945-1995 [Technological change in Spanish Savings Banks before Internet, 1945-1995]," MPRA Paper 37726, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    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:cup:buhirw:v:76:y:2002:i:04:p:733-765_07. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/bhr .

    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.