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

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 busine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Enterprise & society 2014-03, Vol.15 (1), p.103-131
Main Authors: Bátiz-Lazo, Bernardo, Haigh, Thomas, Stearns, David L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceptance
American history
Automatic control
Bankers
Banking industry
Business
Cash
Checkless society
Checks
Consultants
Credit cards
Electronic payments
Financial services
Financial transactions
Future
Information technology
Money
New technology
Payment systems
Sociology
Studies
Technology adoption
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1467-2227
1467-2235
DOI:10.1093/es/kht024