From Family Firms to Corporate Capitalism: Essays in Business and Industrial History in Honour of Peter Mathias

Stimulated by the work of Peter Mathias, one of the leading figures in the field of post-war business and economic history, this volume explores the myriad of micro-decisions that ultimately help to explain the overall performance of industries, sectors, and national economies as they evolve.
What explains the growth of a business, and more broadly the development or decline of a whole economy? What role do particular entrepreneurs or indeed a culture of entrepreneurship play? Does the evidence suggest that a particular structure or organizational form was or should be adopted to ensure best practice and commercial success? These fundamental questions have long pre-occupied business and economic historians. With the current expansion of business and management education and training, the investigations and findings of the historian may have wider significance and relevance. This volume has been stimulated by the work of Peter Mathias, one of the leading figures in this field in the post-war period. Here a number of his former students, many now internationally distinguished historians, pay tribute in a book that explores the move from family firms to corporate capitalism. In a series of chapters they explore at the level of the firm the myriad of micro-decisions that ultimately help to explain the overall performance of industries, sectors, and national economies as they evolve through time. The contributors argue that sustained growth has never been a matter of a few s