Does It Matter?

Preface

The Great Debate

MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS have passed since computers began to be used in business, yet there remains much we don’t know about their influence on commerce in general and corporate performance in particular. At a broad level, we can’t yet say precisely why computerization had little effect on industrial productivity for four decades and then, in the mid-1990s, suddenly seemed to become the driving force behind a sharp acceleration in U.S. productivity. Nor can we say with certainty why the recent productivity gains have been so unevenly distributed, appearing in certain industries and regions that have invested heavily in information technology but not in others that have also spent great sums on computer hardware and software. ...