American boomers and the flotation of shares in the city of London in the late nineteenth century

During the late nineteenth century there was a wave of promotions of American companies on the London Stock Exchange, which have been described as ‘free-standing’. The British company promoter, H. Osborne O'Hagan, is often regarded as the first mover in these promotions, a view based on his autobiography. This article suggests that, in fact, the American lawyer promoters, Samuel and Isaac Untermyer, were the first movers in these company promotions. This article looks at a number of free-standing companies where everyday managerial control was retained by the original managers, and in particular, the case of the Untermyer brothers who competed with O'Hagan.     

Unions and Management in Engineering: A Case Study, 1964–79

Britain' direct investment overseas has become the subject of debate. Not only is much more known about British multinationals, but the concepts of investment groups and free-standing companies have further enriched the discussions. This study examines an example of British capital export – to the Brazilian coffee trade before and after the First World War. The case study illustrates the difficulties in developing typologies for direct investment abroad, and it also considers the managerial and organisational problems facing such companies for the businessmen who developed them. Further, the article speculates that the retreat of British commercial enterprise from Latin America before 1914 may have been more selective than was once thought.     

The concise economic history of Portugal – a comprehensive guide

Most research on British business in Latin America has concentrated on the free-standing companies, such as the railways, which characterised British investment before 1914. Apart from Royal Dutch Shell, the most important new British investments thereafter were manufacturing companies, which steadily increased their presence in the region. Some began to arrive before 1914, but several more made significant investments between the wars, especially in Argentina and Brazil, with a further wave of new investment after 1945. This paper utilises corporate archives, as well as those of the British government and Bank of England, to investigate the financial aspects of their growth. While the provision of finance for fixed investments and working capital was relatively straightforward before World War II, thereafter it became more difficult due to government regulation on both sides of the Atlantic, leading to ingenious solutions to overcome financial challenges.     

The Rise and Fall of a Free-Standing Company in Nova Scotia: The General Mining Association

The General Mining Association was a free-standing company which originated in 1826 as the result of a mercantilist granting of special privileges, but nonetheless it operated in a fashion little different from that of most mining firms during the early and mid-nineteenth century. Even its organisation as a free-standing company was common among mining companies. The firm continued as an independent corporation, although on a reduced scale, while other mining companies were created and many were subsequently absorbed in horizontal mergers during the 1880s and 1890s. In 1900 the GMA was bought by a vertically integrated steel company. The causes of the firm's lack of dynamism during most of its history cannot be determined with certainty, but attribution to its organisation as a free-standing company is hardly a tenable thesis, since rival firms which behaved far more aggressively were generally also free-standing companies.     

European Family Firms in International Business: British and Greek Tramp-Shipping Firms

This article traces the similar paths and common characteristics of British and Greek tramp-shipping companies over the last 130 years through a comparative and international perspective. Despite the tendency of companies to adopt corporate and managerial forms, British and Greek tramp-shipping firms remained first and foremost family firms. The strength and the viability of these firms were networks, on a local, national and international level – networks whose cohesion was based on trust and a particular business culture that was developed in the maritime regions whence they came, centred on family firms involved in international business.     

Strategies,market concentration and hegemony in chemical parcel tanker shipping, 1960–1985

The article analyses the emergence of chemical shipping as a specialised shipping segment. In the 1950s and 1960s seaborne transport of chemicals was characterised by rapid technological development, based on the introduction of parcel tankers, which could carry chemicals in bulk. By the early 1970s two Norwegian companies had built up substantial market shares, but were challenged by financially stronger British companies. The article traces the background of the main companies involved in chemical shipping in the 1970s, by which stage market concentration was evident. We look at their entry into the market and their strategies. First mover advantages, determination to remain market leaders, fleet structure and timing go a long way to explaining why by the mid-1980s the Norwegians had managed to fend off the British challenge.     

The nineteenth-century child and consumer culture

This essay examines the processes through which technology and technological capabilities were transferred by parent companies to their foreign affiliates in Canada, focusing on three companies covering the period from the 1880s to the 1950s. The three companies are: Bell Telephone Co. of Canada, which was affiliated with American Bell/American Telephone &; Telegraph during this period; Canadian Vickers Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British firm, Vickers Ltd, from 1910 to 1927; and Canadian Industries Ltd (CIL) which was jointly owned by the American firm, Du Pont, and the British Company, Imperial Chemical industries Ltd, from 1910 to 1952. In each case the major factors affecting decisions involving transfers of technology were: the general strategic objectives of the parent firm(s); the role played by managers in the affiliated firm in negotiating for these transfers; and the degree of control exercised by the parent company over the Canadian enterprise.     

Acculturation and the influence of ethnicity on market orientation of African and Caribbean companies in Britain

Since acculturation is the process of acquiring the customs of an alternative society we assume that adapting to consumers from various cultures will be a fundamental task for African and Caribbean (A&C) companies in Britain. This study investigates market orientation of A&C service companies and their processes of cultural learning and adaptation using ethnicity as a basis for an exploratory study of the British market. The findings indicate that A&C companies serve as bicultural mediators, both accommodating their consumers and working to alter their consumption patterns to bring them into line with their own ethnic and British national market customs. The adaptation of A&C service companies to the cultural characteristics and needs of their customers results in changes to their companies, consumers and the British marketplace.     

Challenges and Opportunities in European Utility Markets

This article calls on companies – and governments – in Europe to welcome competition in their markets. Liberalisation of Europe's utility sectors has lagged behind the Single Market generally, to the detriment of consumers and industrial users – except in telecommunications where new technology has forced the pace. The author argues that the potential advantages for incumbents of loss of domestic market dominance are outweighed by the advantages of embracing competition and access to overseas markets: they benefit from the discipline of benchmarking, lessened regulatory pressures and fewer barriers to access to markets abroad. He compares the strategies of Electricité de France and British Telecom to illustrate this.     

The British house magazine 1945 to 2015: The creation of family,organisation and markets

Abstract

This article examines the history of British house magazines from 1945 to 2015. It discusses their content, audience and function within companies. From tools of internal public relations, house magazines switched to being used as mediums of industrial relations in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the late 1980s were increasingly applied to the creation of corporate identity, organisational culture and internal marketing. They were also forced to accommodate the rise of internal communications and electronic media. The article discusses the rise and relative decline of the British house magazine, and ends by asking whether it has a future.     

The quality of British marketing: A comparison with US and Japanese multinationals in the UK market

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study comparing the marketing strategies and organisations of a matched sample of British companies and their US and Japanese competitors in the UK. Hypotheses about Japanese marketing are tested and provide a framework for the comparative analysis of the marketing effectiveness of the three sets of competitors. The findings highlight significant weaknesses in the marketing effort of British companies, these being exacerbated by excessive focus on short‐run financial gains. The US competitors, equally concerned with short‐term profits, were less committed to the UK market than their Japanese rivals, their market position being in danger of deteriorating further as the Japanese close the technological gap between them. The Japanese were unmistakably aggressive, single‐minded in their pursuit of market share and undeniably more market‐oriented than their US and British counterparts. This research was funded by the ESRC.     

The British corporate network, 1904–1976: Revisiting the finance–industry relationship

The relationship between finance and industry in Britain has received substantial attention, largely focusing on the role played by clearing banks as lenders to industry. This article, through the use of a unique dataset detailing the composition of the British corporate network, aims to investigate the corporate connectivity of industry to banks but also, importantly, highlight the increasing presence of financial institutions other than banks in British business. Additionally, the position of these financial institutions within the network reflects the changes in patterns of ownership of British business through this period as institutional investors’ share of British companies increased. This changing position is further articulated by an analysis of network density over the period, providing critical insights into wider patterns in British business between 1904 and 1976.     

Domestic Distortions and the Early Emergence of the International Trade in Fire Insurance from the UK

In the second half of the nineteenth century, British fire insurance exports grew rapidly to more than half of the revenue accepted by British fire insurance companies. It has been suggested by some, including Michael Porter, that this expansion was based on a comparative advantage created in large part by a highly competitive domestic insurance market. Yet the existence of strong and sophisticated cartels in the British insurance market is well known. The paper argues that in fact the chief motive for the drive to develop business abroad came from the existence of the cartel, whose increasing power prompted the creation of a number of new well‐supported companies. The circumstances of the insurance business forced them to develop a large and diversified business and this required them to join the cartel. This membership deprived them of the price weapon to develop their business in the domestic market. They were thus forced to develop innovative strategies to grow. One of these was to deploy innovative marketing policies at home. The other was to expand abroad. By contrast, most of the older companies that had created the cartel developed foreign business later and on a far smaller scale.     

Managerial failure in mid-Victorian Britain?: Corporate expansion during a promotion boom

This article examines the mid-1840s expansion of the British railway network, which was associated with a large deterioration in shareholder value. Using a counterfactual approach and new data on railway competition, we argue that the expansion of the railway companies, and their subsequent decline in financial performance, was not due to managerial failure. Rather, the promotion of new routes by established railways and mergers with other companies was part of a managerial strategy to maintain incumbent positions, and may have been preferable to not expanding whilst their competitors did.     

The growth,development and management of J. & P. Coats Ltd,c.1890–1960: An analysis of strategy and structure

The purpose of this article is to investigate the management of one of Britain's most important multinational companies, J. & P. Coats Ltd, in the period 1890–1960, a topic which has not hitherto been examined in detail. In particular, the article examines the system of committees that the enterprise used to control and direct its disparate empire over the time period concerned. As a theoretical focus, the study compares what is found in the writings of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., who held that, in general, British family capital and management inhibited business growth and development, especially when compared with firms in the USA. The article concludes that Coats did not fit this interpretation. It provides the first in-depth study of the management of one of Britain's largest and most successful multinational companies, clarifying the relationships between organizational structure and financial arrangements, concluding that Coats' approach to management, although in some ways unique, was appropriate to its aims.     

The British dynamic mail contract on the North Atlantic: 1860–1900

This article addresses the research on the situation of the British shipping industry and mail service on the North Atlantic during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In addition to revealing the co-operation and competition among various shipping companies, the article will discuss the official assistance from the British government in support of the shipping industry. The article will argue that the lobbying of shipping companies was highly influential in the political decision-making process of awarding mail contracts. The article concludes that the British transatlantic mail contract in the nineteenth century had become a politically motivated policy rather than an economic issue.     

Vertical monopoly power,profit and risk: The British beer industry,c.1970–c.2004

ABSTRACT

By investigating surplus and risk distribution in the British brewing industry, this article shows that risk and risk transfer are important dimensions of vertical supply chain relationships. A comparative financial analysis shows the effects of models of vertical ownership before and after the break-up of producer controlled tenanted estates and the strategy and performance of pub-owning companies. Contrasting mechanisms for controlling the capture of surplus and division of risk are evaluated. The article complements prior studies that have concentrated on the brewers by assessing winners and losers amongst pub owning companies and tenants in different models of vertical organisation and how they might be effectively regulated.     

The interplay between home and host institutions on CBA ownership decision

Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) are one of the key strategies for internationalization. However, most of what is known about CBA strategies relies on the effects of the host country's environment or the home country's conditions. In this article, we analyze the interplay between these two important factors. We show that companies from less institutionally developed countries are more influenced by poor institutional conditions found in host countries. We analyzed a dataset of 1,390 cross-border acquisitions performed by Latin American firms. The literature on the subject points out that less developed host environments lead to fewer shares of ownership acquired in CBAs. However, we confirmed that the quality of the home country's institutional environment positively moderates the effects of the host environment over ownership choice in the acquisition. This effect is due to companies from less developed environments being able to use their embedded capabilities to better navigate faulty institutional environments abroad.     

Discount development in france: The introduction of the format and the competitive response

This article aims to set forth and clarify the factors that caused the rapid development of the hard discount business in France over the past 2 years and to highlight their key impacts. The hard discount business is supposed to have triggered an “intratype” competitive reaction by many French companies which diversified their businesses into this segment, as well as an “intertype” set of reactions by both supermarkets and hypermarkets which implemented the new strategies described in this article based on either cost‐cutting policies and/or trade names differentiation. Conclusions may be drawn following an analysis of the features of this formula as well as the consumers' and competitors' responses. One conclusion may be that the discounters are also bound to increase their market share further once the economic crisis is over. In fact, this business meets the on‐going purchasing and shopping needs by most of the consumers.     

Vogue in Britain: Authenticity and the creation of competitive advantage in the UK magazine industry

By 1914 the leading British magazine publishers had successfully launched a range of popular weekly titles for female readers which focused on everyday women's fashions. In contrast, the British operations of American publishers Hearst and Condé Nast sought to develop high-quality magazines designed to attract affluent consumers – and the advertisers who sought to reach these readers. This paper argues that the success of Condé Nast's Vogue depended on two main factors: gaining authenticity in the world of high fashion and forming close relations with their customers – both readers and advertisers – using market research and promotion techniques transferred from the United States.