1st Edition
Forms of Organising in Industrial History
This shortform book presents key peer-reviewed research selected by expert series editors and contextualised by new analysis from each author on different forms of organising British industry.
With contributions on the strengths and weaknesses of the holding company structure, government organisation of industry during war time, the effects of forms of organisation on innovation, and debates over the suitability of international comparisons, this volume provides an array of fascinating insights into industrial history.
Of interest to business and economic historians, this shortform book also provides analysis and illustrative case-studies that will be valuable reading across the social sciences.
Introduction
John F. Wilson, Ian G. Jones, Steven Toms
1. Debates and speculations: The competitive and institutional advantages of holding companies: British businesses in the inter-war period
Robert Fitzgerald
2. Debates and speculations: Reflections on Robert Fitzgerald on holding companies
John Quail
3. Corporate structures and holding companies in Britain: Evidence, comparison and appraisal
Robert Fitzgerald
Retrospective: Large firms, organizational structures and comparisons within business history
Robert Fitzgerald
4. The tank producers: British mechanical engineering in the Great War
John Singleton
Retrospective: The tank producers
John Singleton
Biography
John F. Wilson is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Law) at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He has published widely in the fields of business, management, and industrial history, including ten monographs, six edited collections, and over seventy articles and chapters.
Steven Toms is Professor of Accounting at the University of Leeds. He is a former editor of Business History. His research interests are focused on accounting and financial history and the history of the textile industry.
Ian G. Jones is a Senior Research Assistant at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, and won the John F. Mee Best Paper Award at the Academy of Management in 2018 for his contribution to the Management History Division.
