Fowler, James and Edwards, Roy (2023) Passengers, citizens, customers: London transport transformed 1977–1987. Business History. pp. 1-26. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2023.2247343
Fowler, James and Edwards, Roy (2023) Passengers, citizens, customers: London transport transformed 1977–1987. Business History. pp. 1-26. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2023.2247343
Fowler, James and Edwards, Roy (2023) Passengers, citizens, customers: London transport transformed 1977–1987. Business History. pp. 1-26. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2023.2247343
Abstract
This paper examines a transformation in the corporate control of London’s transport between 1977 and 1987. We offer a detailed case study explaining how a corporatist consensus broke down, what replaced it, and why. By 1977, London Transport was a centralised monopoly captured by its producer groups while passengers were treated as passive recipients. Two alternatives presented themselves: a utility maximising perspective, empowering passengers as citizens, or a cost-minimising perspective construing passengers as customers. After a period of conflict, central government intervened to disaggregate London Transport as an organisation while keeping its monopoly of provision intact. We assess this complicated transformation, arguing that there was a pivot from enterprise-level to product-level orientated logics visible in the day-to-day operations, interactions, and reporting systems. Using techniques later characterised as New Public Management, senior officials re-configured London Transport’s dynamic capabilities towards commercial imperatives, successfully transforming its business model.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Corporate control; transformation; business model; dynamic capabilities; utility maximising; cost minimising; monopoly; London transport |
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Essex Business School |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2023 12:04 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2024 21:21 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/36227 |
Available files
Filename: Passengers citizens customers London transport transformed 1977 1987.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0