Domestication of Technology: The Impact of Cash Register Evolution on Romanian Companies

The cash register is an electronic device that is part of everyday routine, almost invisible, but essential for modern commerce. Like any other technology, cash registers have undergone significant changes, with their evolution both influenced by and influencing tax laws, resulting in important effects on business and society. The paper has two main contributions. The first is a theoretical contribution that systematizes how the relationship between cash registers and tax legislation in Romania has evolved. It identifies and describes four cash register generations: the First Generation (1999) with fiscal memory; the Second Generation (2014) with an electronic journal; the Third Generation (2018) with an SD card; and the Fourth Generation (2021) connected to the Romanian National Agency of Fiscal Administration (NAFA) server. The second contribution is empirical, highlighting the perceived impact by representatives of Romanian companies as they moved through these four generations of cash register-tax legislation relationships. These findings are based on quantitative research conducted with a sample of 110 Romanian companies. The paper can also be viewed as a partial social history of cash registers in Romania from 1999 to 2023.