Technological networks and industrial research in Britain: The London, Midland & Scottish Railway, 1926–47

Abstract

Large and complex firms combining service and manufacturing functions such as the railways offer an interesting test of the claim that between the world wars British industry sometimes successfully prosecuted industrial research in ways that do not fit the Chandlerian paradigm. In particular, the largest of the inter-war railway companies relied on networks of external technological experts as well as developing its own in-house capability, thereby reducing uncertainties and transaction costs at minimal risk to itself. The chief disadvantage to this approach was the tension generated between the technological community of ‘scientific’ researchers and the engineers who were traditionally responsible for technological innovation.