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Management of Infrastructures - What Can the Internet Developers Learn from the History of Railways

Reima Suomi, Management of Infrastructures - What Can the Internet Developers Learn from the History of Railways. Journal of Management History 43(6), 896–905, 2005.

Abstract:

Purpose
The aim of this paper is to compare the railway and Internet revolutions. What do they have in common and what is different between them, considering the 150 years time difference in their occurrence. As time has passed, can the Internet developers learn something from the railway industry?
Fingings
The two industries have a lot of common. Both railways and the Internet represent national infrastructures that can not be managed just based on business management principles. As both have to do with traffic, either that of physical goods or of messages, the two industries seem to have a lot of common things in technical terms too, when one takes an abstract enough point of view. The main message is that on the long term, the railway revolution vanished and the industry turned to a low profit/interest field. The Internet might follow the same path.
Research limitations/implications
The paper at current form is based on literature review only. Its quality could be improved with a detailed empirical study. Other similar infrastructure-type industries could too be involved.
Practical implications
There are several things that could be improved in the management of Internet, but they are large-scale issues needing co-operation between many stakeholders of the Internet. Examples are those of avoiding digital divide and catering for the critical last mile connections, as well as managing the diversity of different standards.
Originality/Value
As far as the author knows this is the first paper in its kind comparing these two industries. The message is to perform more cross-industrial studies. Too little discussed is too the message of the paper that the Internet might turn into a low-interest business on the long run.

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BibTeX entry:

@ARTICLE{jSuomi05a,
  title = {Management of Infrastructures - What Can the Internet Developers Learn from the History of Railways},
  author = {Suomi, Reima},
  journal = {Journal of Management History},
  volume = {43},
  number = {6},
  pages = {896–905},
  year = {2005},
  keywords = {Internet, Railways, History},
}

Belongs to TUCS Research Unit(s): Network Economics Institute

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