IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/entsoc/v15y2014i01p103-131_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How the Future Shaped the Past: The Case of the Cashless Society

Author

Listed:
  • Bátiz-Lazo, Bernardo
  • Haigh, Thomas
  • Stearns, David L.

Abstract

The future matters to business history, because the adoption of new technology and new organizational forms has often been driven by acceptance of a collective sense of what the future will be. Investments are made and strategies set on an industry-wide basis, influenced by the predictions of business consultants, industry groups, and futurists. To explore the part played by the future in shaping the past, we focus on the establishment and early acceptance of the idea of a rapid and inevitable transition to a “cashless society” in the US retail financial services industry during the 1960s and 1970s. Our aim is thus to advance a methodological point rather than to arrive at a definitive conclusion about the future of money.

Suggested Citation

  • Bátiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Haigh, Thomas & Stearns, David L., 2014. "How the Future Shaped the Past: The Case of the Cashless Society," Enterprise & Society, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 103-131, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:entsoc:v:15:y:2014:i:01:p:103-131_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1467222700000057/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bátiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Wardley, Peter, 2007. "Banking on change: information systems and technologies in UK high street banking, 1919–1969," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(2), pages 177-205, October.
    2. Walter A. Friedman, 2009. "The Harvard Economic Service and the Problems of Forecasting," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 57-88, Spring.
    3. Reistad, Dale L., 1967. "The coming cashless society," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 23-32.
    4. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Karlsson, Tobias & Thodenius, Björn, 2009. "Building Bankomat: The development of on-line, real-time systems in British and Swedish savings banks, c.1965-1985," MPRA Paper 27084, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Galambos, Louis, 1970. "The Emerging Organizational Synthesis In Modern American History," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 279-290, October.
    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. Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia & José Ignacio Alarcón & Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, 2022. "Local Adaptation of Work Practices: The Case of BancoEstado’s “CajaVecina†Correspondent Banking System," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    2. Batiz-lazo, Bernardo & del Angel, Gustavo, 2016. "El nacimiento de la tarjeta de credito bancaria an Mexico y Espana, 1966-1975 [The emergence of the bank credit card in Mexico and Spain, 1966-1975]," MPRA Paper 78004, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Aug 2016.
    3. Gustavo A. Del Angel, 2016. "Cashless Payments and the Persistence of Cash: Open Questions About Mexico," Economics Working Papers 16108, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
    4. Suder, Marcin & Gurgul, Henryk & Barbosa, Belem & Machno, Artur & Lach, Łukasz, 2024. "Effectiveness of ATM withdrawal forecasting methods under different market conditions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    5. Dilek Önkal & Shari De Baets, 2020. "Past‐future synergies: Commentary on Schoemaker 2020," Futures & Foresight Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(3-4), September.
    6. Roy Suddaby & Diego Coraiola & Charles Harvey & William Foster, 2020. "History and the micro‐foundations of dynamic capabilities," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 530-556, March.
    7. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Bautista-González, Manuel A & González-Correa, Ignacio, 2021. "La transformación en el uso de efectivo y pagos digitales durante la pandemia de Covid-19 [Thye transformation in the use of cash and digital payments during the Covid-19 pandemioc]," MPRA Paper 109943, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Zsófia Pintér & Mónika Zita Nagy & Katalin Tóth & József Varga, 2022. "The Struggle between Cash and Electronic Payments," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, November.
    9. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Maixe-Altes, J Carles & Peon, David, 2023. "Behavioral drivers of cashless payments in Africa," MPRA Paper 117984, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Buckley, Tom, 2021. "Early “Frictions” in the Transition towards Cashless Payments," MPRA Paper 108834, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Bruna Bruno & Marisa Faggini, 2022. "The cashless man: do preferences matter?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 1525-1544, November.
    12. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo & Gustavo A. Del Angel, 2016. "The Dawn of the Plastic Jungle: The Introduction of the Credit Card in Europe and North America, 1950-1975," Economics Working Papers 16107, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
    13. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo & Alarcon-Molina, Jose & Espinosa-Cristia, Juan Felipe, 2019. "Trust and Agency Redistribution in CajaVecina's Payment Ecosystem," Working Papers 19015, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    14. Mrinalini Tankha, 2021. "Detained settlements: The infrastructures and temporalities of digital financial transactions between the United States and Cuba," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 133-147, January.
    15. Pantano, Eleonora & Dennis, Charles, 2017. "Exploring the origin of retail stores in Europe: Evidence from Southern Italy from the 6th century BCE to the 3rd century BCE," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 243-249.
    16. Konstantinos Nikolopoulos & Konstantia Litsiou, 2019. "Consumer payment choice during the crisis in Europe: a heterogeneous behaviour?," Working Papers 19007, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).

    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. 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.
    2. repec:rdg:wpaper:em-dp2013-03 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo, 2007. "Emergence and Evolution of Proprietary ATM Networks in the UK, 1967-2000," MPRA Paper 3689, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo, 2017. "Between Novelty and Fashion: Risk Management and the Adoption of Computers in Retail Banking," Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, in: Korinna Schönhärl (ed.), Decision Taking, Confidence and Risk Management in Banks from Early Modernity to the 20th Century, pages 189-207, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Fengqi Xie & Marina V. Ryzhkova, 0000. "Central Bank Digital Currency and Cash: Choice Based on Baumol's Theory," Proceedings of Economics and Finance Conferences 14416317, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    6. John Singleton & James Reveley, 2013. "Business Associations as legitimacy-seekers: the case of CLCB," Working Papers 13005, Economic History Society.
    7. T. C. Mills & K. D. Patterson, 2015. "Modelling The Trend: The Historical Origins Of Some Modern Methods And Ideas," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 527-548, July.
    8. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo & Gustavo A. Del Angel, 2016. "The Dawn of the Plastic Jungle: The Introduction of the Credit Card in Europe and North America, 1950-1975," Economics Working Papers 16107, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
    9. Jovanovic, Franck & Schinckus, Christophe, 2017. "Econophysics and Financial Economics: An Emerging Dialogue," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190205034.
    10. Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Martínez-Rodríguez, Susana, 2022. "Gender and the financialization of Spanish retail banking, 1949-1970," MPRA Paper 114629, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Philip Gunby & Stephen Hickson, 2016. "Is Cash Dead? Using Economic Concepts To Motivate Learning and Economic Thinking," Working Papers in Economics 16/30, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    12. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo & Masayoshi Noguchi, 2011. "Accounting for dominance and submission: Disciplining building societies with accounting-based regulation, circa 1960," Discussion Paper Series DP2011-34, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    13. Colvin, Christopher L., 2015. "The past, present and future of banking history," QUCEH Working Paper Series 15-05, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    14. Philip Gunby & Stephen Hickson, 2020. "Cashless Economies, Data Analysis, and Research-Based Teaching: The Versatility of the Velocity of Money for Teaching Macroeconomics," Working Papers in Economics 20/07, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    15. Malte Krüger, 2016. "The spread of branch banking and the demand for cash in post-war Germany," ROME Working Papers 201609, ROME Network.
    16. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2017. "Twenty Years of Time Series Econometrics in Ten Pictures," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 59-86, Spring.
    17. Jozef Barunik & Lubos Hanus, 2022. "Learning Probability Distributions in Macroeconomics and Finance," Papers 2204.06848, arXiv.org.
    18. Baruník, Jozef & Hanus, Luboš, 2024. "Fan charts in era of big data and learning," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Rouse, Marybeth & Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo & Carbo Valverde, Santiago, 2020. "All about the state-Fifty years of innovative technology to deliver an inclusive financial sector," MPRA Paper 102159, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Terence Mills & Kerry Patterson, 2013. "Modelling the Trend: The Historical Origins of Some Modern Methods and Ideas," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2013-03, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    21. Bjerkholt, Olav, 2014. "Econometric Society 1930: How It Got Founded," Memorandum 26/2014, Oslo University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N82 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • N22 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

    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:entsoc:v:15:y:2014:i:01:p:103-131_00. 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/eso .

    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.