Paul Geroski’s The Evolution of New Markets, published by the University of Oxford press, is a 221-page book, inclusive of the Index. First published in 2003, it was reprinted in 2009 with copyrights exclusive to the University of Oxford Press.
In 1586, “Oxford University Press was established as a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford, Auckland, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Hong Kong, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Nairobi, New Delhi, Shanghai, Taipei, Toronto, with offices in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. Oxford is the registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.”
Research does not lay credence to the exact time the University of Oxford was established, but there is clear evidence to establish the undisputed fact that teaching commenced in Oxford in 1096. According to the University, “teaching developed rapidly in Oxford in 1167 when Henry the Second banned students of England from attending the University of Paris.”
The University of Oxford records that “In 1188, the historian Gerald of Wales, gave a public reading to the assemblies of Oxford Dons and around 1190, the arrival of Emo of Friesland, the first known overseas student, set in motion the University’s tradition of international scholarship links. By 1201, the university was headed by magister scolarum Oxonie, on whom the title Chancellor was conferred in 1214, and in 1231, the masters were recognised as universitas or corporation.”
This summary of events confirms that teaching and scholarship have been the practice in Oxford in the last eight hundred years! Paul Geroski’s The Evolution of New Markets is one of the fortunate books published by the Oxford Press, just like the historic and the famous Oxford Dictionary and perhaps the dictionary of the events in the marketplace.
The book is a reward for the teaching years of Kenith Cowling, a teacher of teachers, and it goes to say again and again that the reward of teachers is no longer in heaven as Geroski deeply acknowledges and appreciates his advice and encouragement at all times. The foundation of what we all refer to as the authority in The Evolution of New Markets today dates back to, or in itself ‘evolved’ from the interest of the author in his days as a graduate student of the University of Warwick.
In the last few years, the teaching of ‘Strategy and Market Change’ and of recent ‘technology and competition’ by the author has a great influence on the author. Interactive sessions with his students give the author the opportunity of cross-fertilisation of ideas. The author paid glowing tributes to his colleagues who are great intellectuals in the field and duly acknowledged some of his students and their impact in terms of encouragement in writing the book.
The book’s contents are divided into six chapters, from the introduction to the growth of the market and the future. Explanation of the proper understanding of the evolution of the new market was provided in the list of empirical evidence on the list of figures, in addition to the contents, which again are well discussed specifically on pages 41, 44, 64, 65, 70, 71, 73, 150, 152, 179, 181, 183. We shall review this list of figures along with chapters.
At the introduction stage, the author took on the evolution of new markets and the creation of the universe. He was particularly interested in the first three minutes of the events that happened after the creation of the universe. He posited that a proper understanding of the events of the happenings in the first three minutes of creation will lay a good foundation for the understanding of continuous evolving of the universe. According to him, “Our concern here is with what happens in the very early phases of the development of a new market. Like the origin of the universe,” Geroski believes that those events involving the evolution of the new market cannot be said to be completely accidental. He says they are of systemic pattern. To him, no matter the stage or the differences in the historic pattern of evolution of the markets, there are common features.
Geroski submitted that what eventually happened in the market is traceable to the history of evolution of how that market evolved. To him, Steven Weinberg’s The First Three Minutes is useful as a chorology to whatever happens to the universe after the first three minutes of its creation.
The author drew interesting stories and used the ‘evolution theory’ to justify the happenings in the market and the flow of events in issues relating to the use of technology in driving specific markets. This he started with the historical evolution of the internet market, which he regarded as harbinger. He made a distinction between the new and the old economy in relation to the print industry, cars, radio sets and steel making. The new economy, according to him, is revolutionary and modern, very entrepreneurial, dynamic and expected to progress with technology. The old economy has developed to a point of tiredness and matured to the point of senescence.
The Internet, which is just a process of making many computers to work and talk to each other with an enhanced communication, first evolved in the 1960s. According to the author, the generic recherché project was largely supported by the US Department of Defence, which was motivated by a desire to economise on scarce computer recourses. This explains the appearance of the first Internet, called ARPANET, which the author explained grew quickly in 1970 to become NSFNET. In the 1990s, various networks emerged, which included some that linked one or two computers together, which is called local area network. This whole process, which led to an increase in the use of the Internet, also led to various developments of applications, which introduced new users and suppliers to the market
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK
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