Information is not taken seriously. Much is said about the information age, the information economy, the information society, and particularly about information technology, but little about information itself. Information is not as other good: it has some very odd characteristics, conveniently overlooked by senior managers passionate about knowledge-based, learning organizations; by politicians and public servants, compensating with policy and programme for the information failure of organizationa and market; and by the IT and dotcom communities, bent on adding value to what they treat as just a commodity. This book looks at innovation from an information perspective; one that puts information first. Its information perspective is applied to eighteenth-century agriculture and high technology, to technology transfer and espionage, to corporate strategy and intellectual property. The results are intriguing.

About the Author
Stuart Macdonald is Professor of Information and Organization at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of Technology and the Tyranny of Export Controls: Whisper Who Dares (Macmillan, 1990) and (with Ernest Braun) Revolution in Miniature: The History and Impact of Semiconductor Electronics (Cambridge University Press, 1982).

Reviews
Information for Innovation, by MacDonald is an interesting book, providing a fresh new perspective on a topic of particular interest to economies possessing ever more increasing knowledge intensive production processes. It is illustrated by a very broad and diverse range of examples, that demonstrate the general applicability of the chosen approach. Marcus Hagermeister, Information Economics and Policy, 2000



Book Information
ISBN 9780199241477
Author Stuart Macdonald
Format Paperback
Page Count 308
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 368g
Dimensions(mm) 217mm * 138mm * 16mm