The development of italian informatics: technology development of olivetti calculating machines in the global business machine market

Technology innovation in Italy has been studied at a level that includes patent creation trends, the economic ramifications of management decisions regarding research and development, and effects of trade tariffs and other governmental policies. These studies do little to explore detailed product development, a core element of innovation, and do not analyze the origins of the device, dwelling primarily on top-level, socially and culturally sensitive performance characteristics. The overall objective of this study is to complete an analysis of innovation within the design, development and production process for calculating instruments beginning with their design concept ideas to their production and marketing. The typewriter and calculating machine firm of Ing. C. Olivetti & C., S.p.A., of Ivrea, Italy, is used as the representative company and data source since it grew to a significant market level amidst competition from similar companies within the United States and Europe during the period of recovery immediately following the Second World War. Creating a model of innovation that reflects the philosophies of Olivetti management toward the design and production engineering environment, the study examines the resources necessary to implement new and workable ideas. Recent historical studies of the company evolution, including several biographical studies, suggest that the particular managerial approaches utilized first by Camillo and then Adriano Olivetti, were drivers for the company's technical design methodology and the resulting shape and functionality of the machine configuration. The present study will analyze this notion through an historical examination of the development of Olivetti's calculating machine technology from its inception in 1928, to its production and marketing starting in 1939. Using archival materials, secondary sources on the Italian political and economic condition, and interviews with Olivetti retirees, consideration of the detailed design of these early mechanical devices provides an up-to-now rare chapter in the story of industrial growth of the period. The resulting model of innovation is a dynamic concept that includes initiation of product ideas through their ultimate marketing and service as well as all information and communication paths necessary to the operation of these functions.