Back to the future of digital price display: Analyzing patents and other archives to understand contemporary market innovations

Cochoy Franck, Soutjis Bastien. 2020. Back to the future of digital price display: Analyzing patents and other archives to understand contemporary market innovations. Social Studies of Science, 50 (1) : 3-29.

Quartile : Outlier, Sujet : HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (Science) / Quartile : Q1, Sujet : HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (Social Sciences)

Liste HCERES des revues (en SHS) : oui

Thème(s) HCERES des revues (en SHS) : Histoire; Histoire et philosophie des sciences; Histoire, histoire de l'art, archéologie; Science politique; Sociologie-démographie

Résumé : The article explores reasons for the lack of success of digital electronic shelf labels (ESLs) in US retail settings. It suggests that these reasons can be traced by referring to the triple meaning of 'digital': 'Digital' now means electronic, but the word also long encompassed numerals – a digit is a number – and body parts – digitus is the Latin word for the finger, that is, the index we use to point at things or manipulate them. The current fate of ESLs is linked to a long history that combined these three dimensions. The study unfolds along a twofold narrative. First, it reviews the recent introduction of ESLs in the United States based on the reading of papers and advertisements published in Progressive Grocer, a leading trade press magazine. Then, it goes 'back to the future' by exploring the roots of ESLs over a century. This historical study is based on the analysis of the evolution of US price tag patents (through a network study of patents citations and their evolution); the network analysis is complemented with the history of the US price tag market (through the knowledge gained from Progressive Grocer). The results show that digital price fixing depends on past and present systems and infrastructures, cost constraints and payback schemes, legal frameworks, and social projects.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : innovation, prix, brevet, histoire, information sur le marché, marketing, marché

Mots-clés libres : Digitization, Market devices, Patents, Prices

Agences de financement hors UE : Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Swedish Research Council

Projets sur financement : (FRA) Structurations des mondes sociaux

Auteurs et affiliations

• Cochoy Franck, Université Toulouse 2 - Jean Jaurès (FRA) - auteur correspondant
• Soutjis Bastien, Université Toulouse 2 - Jean Jaurès (FRA) ORCID: 0000-0003-2128-9766

Source : Cirad-Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/612454/)

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