The Industrial Organization of Hong Kong's Progression Toward a Cashless Economy (1960s-2000s)

A dramatic change occurred in retail banking technology in Hong Kong between 1960 and 2000. Initially, the relevant technologies were installed and managed within the boundaries of large banks, such as HSBC. Over the course of this period, however, the industrial organization of the relevant technologies transformed to include provisions outsourced to nonbank institutions. This article seeks to account for this shift in the organization of computer technology. Specifically, the authors compare the adoption of computers at HSBC in the 1960s and 1970s with the Octopus micropayment system, which was developed in the 1990s by a consortium that excluded financial firms, thanks to the development (both in terms of depth and breadth) of an epistemic community of computer professionals and computer-literate managers in Hong Kong.