Banks,Institutional Constraints and the Limits of Central Banking: Monetary Policy in Britain and West Germany, 1950–52

This paper analyses the anti-inflationary policies which were pursued in Britain and West Germany during the Korean War boom. It argues that the institutional relationships between the government, the central bank and the banking system can have considerable impact on the implementation of policy. The war brought a major shift in raw material prices and a consequent rise in bank lending in both countries to finance the increased import bill. The German independent central bank (BdL) used technical measures to restrain short-term lending, but was frustrated by the willingness of the Landeszentralbanken (regional central banks) to discount the bills of their local banking system. In addition, the banks themselves, because they operated in a competitive system, sought ways to circumvent the restrictions. The BdL took steps to tighten these loopholes and introduce a much stronger and more well defined policy transmission mechanism. Shifts in the terms of trade reduced inflationary pressure but the BdL retained tighter control over the banking system.

In Britain, the Bank of England was nominally controlled by the government, although it was able to exercise a degree of independence. Both parties had clear ideas of how inflationary pressure could be controlled in the economy; but these ideas differed significantly and neither one was able to impose their preferred option on the other. The result was a mixture of quantitative restrictions on the banks' balance sheets and qualitative guidelines to the banking system on the nature and extent of lending. The shift in raw material prices in 1952 largely solved the problem which it had created in 1951. The authorities, however, felt that their policies had been successful in constraining inflation and they failed to improve the monetary policy transmission mechanism as the Germans had done.     

Employers and Engineering Education in Britain and the United States, 1890–1914

Studies of dynamic American firms reveal that new accounting systems developed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represented important adjuncts to administrative innovations which supported strategies designed to secure sustainable competitive advantages. Investigations of British firms have not previously been undertaken to provide a basis for international comparison of costing methods and systems designs which arose during the 1890–1914 period when technological change, the rise of scientific management, and growing foreign competition called for new types of strategic decisions. The following article examines the interaction between strategic processes and systems development within two British steel firms which pursued divergent strategies during the same years that du Pont made its pioneering accounting innovations. The study draws attention to the impact of environmental conditions and firm-specific factors in influencing strategy, structure, and systems design.     

National Determinants of Family Firm Development? Family Firms in Britain, Spain, and Italy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

We provide here a complement to recent work on family business,which has demonstrated the need to go beyond the generic definitionof the family firm to place personal capitalism in an appropriateinstitutional, historical, and cultural framework. By focusingon the nineteenth- and twentieth-century experiences in Britain,Spain, and Italy, we challenge the notion that in the nineteenthand twentieth centuries there was anything so simple as a Mediterraneanmodel for family business. Rather, we demonstrate the need toconsider family businesses in national and regional contextsif we are to understand their various capabilities and characteristics.We use similarities and differences in the experiences and responsesof families and firms in the three countries to support thisclaim.     

The Unsatisfied Fringe in Britain, 1930s–80s

This article considers the longevity of the criticism that the financial system in Britain has failed to provide adequate funding to small or fast-growing companies. It considers, first, some of the advantages which an economy might gain from having a vibrant and healthy small firms sector. It then discusses the financing difficulties faced by small firms and some of the attempts which have been undertaken to ‘solve’ these problems. The paper suggests that the size of the unsatisfied fringe of creditworthy borrowers in Britain has been consistently over-estimated, since none of the ameliorative measures have displayed significant success. Small firms may require additional financial provision, but this has to be justified by recourse to social welfare and externalities, rather than financial efficiency, arguments.     

Business and State in the development of the steel industry in Spain and Italy (c.1880–1929)

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Spanish and Italian steel industries were significantly less developed than those of the more advanced countries in Europe. From the mid-1880s, heavy industry in these two countries experienced considerable growth, particularly the steel sector, due to two very different strategies. In the case of Italy, state intervention was so frequent and significant that it has even been referred to as an early state capitalism. In Spain, on the other hand, the sector’s development was based principally on the private initiative. This article seeks to shed light on the interaction between government institutions and business organisations in the implementation of the development strategies of the two countries.     

European market integration and the political economy of corporate adjustment: OTE and Telecom Italia, 1949–2009

Despite the common challenges posed by European market integration and liberalisation, the behaviour of telecommunications operators across Europe suggests a variety of modes of adjustment and paths to privatisation. The article examines the puzzle of divergent responses to liberalisation by OTE and Telecom Italia (TI), casting light on their distinct paths to privatisation and internationalisation. The cases are considered in the context of the Varieties of Capitalism frame, which challenges the perspective that global market integration will lead to convergence in strategies and structures. Thus, the article suggests that the observed differences are largely explained by the domestic actors' preferences, and to a much lesser extent attributed to the globalising forces of technological change and competition.     

Business and government in electricity network integration in Western Europe,c.1900–1950

A cross-country comparison is made of the moves to system integration, at the national level, of electricity supply in several Western European countries. Private electricity business firms were dominant in France, Italy and Spain and large generating enterprises and transporting groups grew through mergers and agreements. In Germany, Scandinavia and the UK, municipalities were more common and were resistant to mergers and network development. Several national networks had emerged by the 1940s but hardly any were nationally managed in the sense of ensuring electricity was everywhere supplied from the lowest cost source. The article considers the economic gains from integration and argues that it developed successfully where central governments became actively involved.     

Cooperation between business associations and the government in the Korean cotton industry, 1950–70

The Korean government intended to promote the cotton industry, and expected that the industry would play a positive role to decelerate the inflation rate and increase exports during 1950–70. However, the ability of Korean public servants to develop the industry was insufficient. Korea had a powerful business association in the industry, the Spinners and Weavers Association of Korea (SWAK), which did have enough organisational resources. The government asked SWAK to support its policies, and SWAK cooperated with the government with good results. SWAK did not simply implement government policies in the business world, but was a partner of the government in accomplishing targets.     

Host market characteristics,FDI, and the FDI – trade relationship

This paper empirically examines how a host nation's market characteristics, particularly its market maturity and role as an export platform, affect the amount of inward FDI it receives and its FDI?–?bilateral trade relationship with the FDI source. For the period 1989?–?1999, using Japanese outward FDI into 85 geographically and developmentally diverse countries, we find a positive and significant relationship between FDI inflows and the host's market maturity levels. However, the FDI?–?trade interaction between the host and the FDI source appears to vary inversely with the host country's market maturity level. In addition, after controlling for the host's market maturity, we find that the nature of the host's ‘export platform’ status also significantly impacts both inward FDI flows and the FDI?–?trade relationship.     

Restrictive Practices on the Shopfloor in Britain, 1945–60: Myth and Reality

It is widely assumed that shopfloor restrictive practices were both pervasive and very damaging in post-war British industry. Indeed, this point has been repeated by both politicians and academics, receiving perhaps its most sophisticated exposition in the work of Mancur Olson. However, a review of the contemporary evidence reveals that such an interpretation is almost wholly erroneous. Some commentators made much of restrictive practices in the 1940s and 1950s, but their accounts are hardly convincing. On the other hand, a range of more comprehensive enquiries into the problem consistently showed that it was of limited importance. Serious restrictionism, in fact, was confined to a very few sectors– the printing industry, the docks and shipbuilding– and cannot, anyway, be explained simply in terms of labour intransigence. These facts clearly need to be incorporated in future accounts of Britain's postwar industrial decline.     

Reputation and export performance: Danish butter exports and the British market,c.1880–c.1914

This article extends current scholarship on the role of branding and trade marking in establishing competitive advantage. Using a case study of Danish butter exports to the British market, 1880–1914, we demonstrate that many of the technological and organisational innovations in this industry were not in themselves sufficient to guarantee that Danish butter would command price premiums in the British market. We argue that the introduction of the ‘Lurbrand’, together with the rigorous prosecution of vendors misrepresenting other butters as Danish, were vital to maintaining the reputation of Danish butter at a time when rival countries were producing butter of comparable quality. Of particular importance to current debates on branding and trade marking is our finding that independent butter producers collaborated with the Danish government to use the same trade mark and to ensure that state inspection guaranteed that Danish butter was produced consistently to the highest quality.     

Trust,Burroughs Wellcome & Co. and the foundation of a modern pharmaceutical industry in Britain, 1880–1914

The literature relating to networks and organizational culture has acknowledged trust to be a valuable intangible asset. This article reviews the theoretical literature and the limited empirical research on trust in relation to business organizations and activity. Within this framework, the early history of Burroughs Wellcome & Co. reveals the importance of trust in building a cohesive organization and in establishing a reputation with the medical profession and with the trade. The study shows the construction of trust to have been an essential dimension in the company's growth to become the leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in Britain by 1914.     

Cadbury and the rise of the supermarket: innovation in marketing 1953–1975

This article uses company archival data, supported by evidence from the trade press, to examine the development of the manufacturer–retailer relationship in the case of Cadbury and the supermarket retailers distributing its products in the period 1953–1975. It reveals the influence upon Cadbury’s marketing strategies and practices of the increasing importance of supermarket retailing in relation to the confectionery as well as the grocery goods trades. It also provides new insight into the significance of these changes for Cadbury’s relationships with other manufacturers, and with small-scale retailers typified by confectioners, tobacconists and newsagents.     

State intervention and economic growth in Southern Italy: the rise and fall of the ‘Cassa per il Mezzogiorno’ (1950–1986)

In the second half of the twentieth century, the Italian government carried out a massive regional policy in southern Italy, through the State-owned agency ‘Cassa per il Mezzogiorno’ (1950–1986). The article reconstructs the activities of this agency, making use of its yearly reports and of national and local archives. The Cassa was effective in the first two decades, thanks to substantial technical autonomy and, in the 1960s, to a strong focus on industrial development; however, from the 1970s it progressively became an instrument of waste and misallocation. At the local level, we find significant differences between the southern regions, and correspondence between the quality of state intervention and the regional patterns of GDP and productivity.     

Cultural resistance and the gradual emergence of modern marketing and retailing practices in Spain, 1950–1975

The backwardness and autarky of early Francoism explain why Spain failed to enter the age of mass consumption before the late 1960s. The modernization of commercial practices lagged behind the rapid growth in income per capita. This article examines the different ways in which modern marketing methods were introduced in Spain during the 1950s and the 1960s. It demonstrates that marketing as both concept and practice faced fierce cultural resistance, manifest in the derided image of the salesman and an enduring distrust of advertising.     

“Made in Italy”: The Italian Contribution to the Development of Business Marketing Discipline and Practices

Purpose: The authors analyze the main contributions of Italian literature in the business-to-business field as it relates to the characteristics of the Italian industrial manufacturing system. Even if not directly labeled as business-to-business marketing, Italian and other scholars who have studied Italian business experiences have largely faced the topic of business marketing management with innovative approaches and distinctive benchmark examples. In particular, the analysis of the Italian contribution to business marketing relies on the specific nature of the Italian industrial structure as recognized by the international literature. In this respect, the authors argue that three main areas of interest progressively arose from the peculiarities of the Italian industrial system: industrial districts, subcontractors/subcontracting relationships, and mid-sized manufacturing companies. These three research topics have been thoroughly investigated by both Italian and international scholars. They analyze the contributions that Italian researchers provided to advance business marketing discipline and practices.

Methodology/approach: The authors reviewed the literature of the main contributions developed in the three individual areas of research that have a strong focus on the Italian experience. The methodology was in three steps. First, the review planning process was guided by the three areas of research that were assumed to have a major contribution to business marketing discipline. Second, the SCOPUS database was used as a primary source for paper identification by using a keywords search method. Third, the dataset was refined by excluding non relevant contributions (not focused on business management and marketing or not specifically dealing with the three areas of interest) and validating/integrating the original dataset by using other complementary sources (e.g., Google Books, Google Scholar). Finally, a set of 268 products were taken into account in the analysis.

Findings: The results of the analysis suggest that the Italian contribution to the field of business marketing is valuable in light of the three chosen areas of research. These three empirical arenas—industrial districts, subcontractors, and mid-sized firms—contribute to providing a better understanding of business market structure and dynamics as well as the improvement of business marketing studies.

Originality/value: The article is an original and first attempt to elaborate and reflect on the contribution of the Italian business experience literature to the advances of business marketing discipline. The authors develop an original comprehensive review of “Made in Italy” business marketing and management research that has not been used in previous studies. The review will increase international knowledge of Italian practices and theoretical frameworks that can contribute to the reinforcement of the business-to-business marketing discipline.     

Financial institutions and corporate strategy: David Alliance and the transformation of British textiles,c.1950–c.1990

This article introduces and assesses a conceptual model of institutional and corporate change. In particular it seeks to integrate strategic choice and associated corporate structure with the role of the market for corporate control (MCC) as a governance mechanism. The model is illustrated using longitudinal case studies from the British textile industry with particular reference to the acquisition policy of David Alliance as he built up the Spirella Group and then used this as a vehicle to acquire, in turn, Vantona, Carrington Viyella, Nottingham Manufacturing Company and Coats Patons. These policies are contrasted with the acquisition strategies of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation (LCC) and Courtaulds and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The evidence indicates that there was no relationship between the depth of the MCC and restructuring success, but to the extent that the market lacked depth, abnormal profits accrued to market-making entrepreneurs such as Alliance. There is evidence that decentralized market-led strategies were more successful than strategies based on the integration of production for the achievement of scale economies. Successful adoption of these strategies was also based on the acquisition of financial resources through appropriate network connections and associated political lobbying channels.