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The Performance of European Business in the 20th Century
Page contents > Organisation | Context | Objectives | Significance and originality | Method | Members of the expert group
OrganisationThe project is being carried out within a European, collective and multidisciplinary framework and relies on research teams in the major European countries. The project is jointly based at the Business History Unit, London School of Economics (Youssef Cassis and Terry Gourvish) and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme-Alpes, Université Pierre Mendes France, Grenoble (Youssef Cassis). The Instituto di Storia Economica (ISE), Università Bocconi, Milan (Franco Amatori) is also acting as co-organiser. The project has three main constituents, forming, as it were, three concentric circles. The first consists of the project's organisers, including one full-time research officer (Camilla Brautaset) based at the Business History Unit (LSE) and financed from 1 January 2002 by a three years grant from the Leverhulme Trust; they are supported by a small team of scholars in Grenoble and Milan, with Youssef Cassis assuming overall responsibility for the project. They co-ordinate the entire project and are in charge of setting up the database and analysing the performances of a sample of European companies. The second circle consists of a committee of European scholars, including Franco Amatori (Bocconi), Dominique Barjot (Paris IV), Albert Carreras (Pompeu Fabra), Youssef Cassis (UPMF and LSE), Anne Dalmasso (UPMF), Terry Gourvish (LSE), Ginette Kurgan van Hentenryk (ULB), Isabelle Lescent-Giles (Paris IV), Harm Schröter (Bergen), and Peter Wardley (UWE). The group convenes once or twice a year. Its main task is to advise and support the organisers, in particular by providing contacts and expertise on individual countries, as well as to contribute directly to the project and encourage research on the subject. Finally, the third circle includes a number of individual (or teams of) scholars interested in contributing their own work to the project, either through their empirical research on aspects of business performance; or by revisiting a area of economic or business history from the point of view of business performance. Such contributions will mainly, though not exclusively, be made within conferences that will be organised as part of the research project. ContextA historical and comparative analysis of European business performance is still badly needed. Performance should be at the heart of business history, yet this is not the case. Data are of course available at firm or even sectoral level, and there have been a few national analyses of profits and profitability, especially in France, with the studies inspired by Jean Bouvier in the 1960s and Jacques Marseille in the 1990s; more recently a German doctoral thesis has reassessed business profitability under the Nazi regime. I have myself attempted a comparative analysis of the performances (defined in terms of profits, profitability and survival) of the leading British, French and German companies in the course of the 20th century. However, most comparative approaches to performance have relied either on macroeconomic data or on explanatory factors, rather than measures, of these performances, such as strategy and structure of the firm, technological innovation, multinational development, business concentration, state intervention, industrial relations, and social and cultural attitudes. From this basis, implicit or explicit rankings of national 'models' have been established such as the 'universality' of the American model in the 1950s and 1960s, the 'superiority' of the German model in Europe and the 'admiration' for Japanese practices. However, recent works have questioned the validity of some of these assumptions: British firms, for example, have proved more profitable than their German counterparts throughout the 20th century, raising the question of the relationships between business performance at the micro-economic level and economic performance at the macro-economic level. One could question in the same way most factors usually considered to be conducive to economic success -the superiority of managerial over family control, universal over deposit banking and so on. ObjectivesThe research project intends to put performance at the very core of business history. There are three objectives. The first is to define the notion of performance, which must include criteria relating to company size, profits, survival and growth, competitiveness as well as reputation and ethics. The intention here is to combine a quantitative analysis of performance with an institutional approach to the firm over a long-term period. The second objective is to test the validity of a number of explanatory variables of economic performance through the empirical analysis of the performance of a sample of European companies. It is intended to set up a database of a sample of European companies, based on both published and archival sources. One of the aims of the project is to assemble the huge material available on business performances which has so far remained scattered in countless company monographs, the economic press, as well as, for the more recent period, the works of economists and financial analysts. The third objective is to draw some preliminary conclusions concerning the relationships between institutional structure, business performance and economic welfare. Significance and originalityBeyond these specific results, the project should play a major role in the current renewal of business history as an academic field. Having been dominated during some thirty years by the Chandlerian concepts, it is currently at the crossroads, somewhat torn between several trends (the institutional approach, theory of information, business and management tools and culture and value systems). The question of performances provides a unifying theme, involving all aspects of business activity, and around which all types of approaches, from the economic to the cultural, could converge. By integrating the history of the firm into a collective analysis of business performance, this project will also provide a specific contribution from business history to the theme of performance, as distinct from that of economics, accountancy, or business strategy. Moreover, this project intends to contribute to the reflection on the evolution of industrial capitalism in the twenty-first century. By highlighting, over the long term, the main determinants of business performance, it should prove an invaluable addition to the current debate about the competitiveness of European enterprises in a global economy, in particular the questions of deregulation and market control, corporate governance, and increased social inequalities. MethodThe powerhouse of the project will be a sample of European firms covering all sectors and established for five year periods centred on the following benchmark years: 1913, 1927, 1954, 1970, 1987, and 2000. It will include both quantitative (turnover, assets, workforce, and profits) and qualitative data, the latter consisting of a formalised digest of the firm's history. Quantitative data will be collected from the numerous compilations of lists of the largest companies as well as from stock exchange yearbooks and similar printed material including, in some cases, databases of companies. The collection of qualitative data, though more difficult, will benefit from the large amount of scholarly company monographs now available. When possible, it is planned to capture the essence of the firms' histories by directly contacting the authors of these monographs, using the dense networks of leading scholars on the subject gathered around this project. The analysis will take profits, which are the core of performance, as its starting point. Rankings of companies established on the basis of profit ratios will then be confronted with other measures of performance as well as qualitative data on individual companies. Members of the expert group
Franco Amatori, Economic History Institute, Bocconi University, via Sarfatti 25, 20136 Milan, Italy. Phone: +39 0283 76228, fax: +39 0258 102284. Email: franco.amatori@uni-bocconi.it Franco Amatori is Professor of Economic History at Bocconi University, Milan. He graduated in 1973 in Political Sciences with a major in Contemporary History at University of Florence. In 1978-79 thanks to a Fulbright he spent three semesters in the Individual Studies Program of Harvard Business School specializing in Business History under the tutelage of Alfred Chandler. Since then he has been one of the pioneers of business history in Italy. In addition to translating and editing the most important works of his Harvard mentor (like The Visible Hand and Scale and Scope) he has written, edited or co edited books on Italian firms as well as chapters and articles on the same topic. Among which can be recalled the history of the most important Italian department store, La Rinascente (Proprietà e direzione. La Rinascente 1917-1969, Angeli, Milano, 1989), or the history of the automobile company Lancia (Impresa e mercato. Lancia 1906-1969, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1996). Together with Andrea Colli he has published a synthesis of Italian industrial business history (Impresa e industria in Italia dall'Unità a oggi, Marsilio, Venezia, 1999). In 1994 together with Alfred Chandler and Takashi Hikino he has organized the A Session of the Economic History International Congress "Big Business and the Wealth of Nations" that corresponds to the title of the book published by Cambridge University Press three years later, that Amatori has edited together with Chandler and Hikino. Amatori has been president of ASSI (the Italian association of business historians) from 1993 to 2000 and president of EBHA (European Business History Association) for the term 2000-2001. He sits in the editorial board of Business History Review, Business History, Enterprise and Society. Together with Louis Galambos he is editor of "Comparative Perspectives in Business History", a series of volume published by Cambridge University Press. He is also editor of the Italian Historiographical Dictionary of Entrepreneurs, a publication of Italian Encyclopaedia. Andrea Colli, Economic History Institute, Bocconi University, via Sarfatti 25, 20136 Milan, Italy. Phone: +39 0283 76228, fax: +39 0258 102284. Email: andrea.colli@uni-bocconi.it Andrea Colli, born in Varese, 1966, educated in Varese and Milan. Graduated in Business Administration, Bocconi University of Milan, 1991. PhD in Economic and Social History, Bocconi University, 1996. Associate Professor of Economic History, Bocconi University Milan, Italy. Member of the editorial board of Imprese e Storia and Annali di Storia dell'impresa. Member of the review board of Business History Review. Major publications: Legami di ferro. Storia del distretto metallurgico e meccanico lecchese tra Otto e Novecento, Donzelli, Roma 1998, Impresa e industria in Italia dall'Unità ad oggi (with Franco Amatori) Marsilio, Venezia 1999; I volti di Proteo. Storia della piccola impresa in Italia nel Novecento, Boringhieri, Torino 2002; Family Business in Comparative and Historical Perspective, Cambridge University Press 2002. Currently engaged in research projects on the performance of European business in the twentieth century and in the edition of the biographic dictionary of Italian entrepreneurs (1861-2000). Francesca Polese, Economic History Institute, Bocconi University, via Sarfatti 25, 20136 Milan, Italy. Phone: +39 0283 76228, fax: +39 0258 102284. Email: francesca.polese@uni-bocconi.it Francesca Polese, born in Milan in 1972, graduated in History at the University of Milan in 1996 with a major in Industrial History. In 2002 she obtained a PhD in Economic and Social History at Bocconi University in Milan. Her dissertation, under the tutorship of Franco Amatori, concerned the origins of the first Italian rubber manufacturing company (Pirelli, est. 1872) and was based on the transcription of the manuscript diary of the European educational journey accomplished by its founder (the Italian engineer Giovanni Battista Pirelli) in 1870-1871 (Alla ricerca di un'industria nuova. Il viaggio all'estero del giovane Pirelli e le origini di una grande impresa, 1870-1877). She currently benefits of a research grant from the Economic History Institute of Bocconi University. Her publications include: Una fonte per lo studio delle origini dell'industria in Italia: Il diario del "viaggio d'istruzione all'estero" di Giovanni Battista Pirelli, 1870-1871, in "Annali di storia dell'impresa", n. 12, 2001; L'archivio Giuseppe Luraghi, in "Imprese e storia", n. 25 (1), 2002 (with N. Crepax); International transfer of technologies: the training trip through Europe of the Italian engineer G.B. Pirelli in 1870-1871, in Transnational Companies: 19th - 20th Centuries, Paris, Plage, 2002, and the Italian translation of R. Whittington and M. Mayer, The European Corporation. Strategy, Structure and Social Science, Oxford University Press, 2002. In addition to research on the business and entrepreneurial communities in Milan in the first quarter of the 20th century, she is currently engaged in research projects on the performance of European business in the 20th century and in the edition of the biographic dictionary of Italian entrepreneurs (1861-2000). Harm G Schröter, Department of History, Sydnesplassen 7, 5007 Bergen, Norway. Phone: +47 55582323. Email: Harm.Schroter@hi.uib.no Professor in Economic History at the University of Bergen, Norway; educated at the universities of Hamburg and East Anglia, Assistant Professor at Free University of Berlin, professorships at the universities of Cologne, Freiberg, Konstanz and Kiel; numerous publications on European business history, Central European economic history, history of science and technology; board of editors at Enterprise & Society, Scandinavian Economic History Review, Historisk Tidskrift; various professional organizations. Riitta Hjerppe, Department of Social Science History, University of Helsinki, PO Box 54, 00014 Helsinki, Finland. Phone: +358 9 191 24951, fax +358 9 191 24924. Email: riitta.hjerppe@helsinki.fi Professor of Economic History at the University of Helsinki since 1998. Vice-president of the International Economic History Association 2002- and member of the Council of the European Business History Association, 1996-. Selected publications: The Finnish Economy 1860-1985, Growth and Structural Change, Bank of Finland Publications, Helsinki 1989. Finland's Historical National Accounts 1860-1994: Calculation Methods and Statistical Tables, Jyväskylä 1996. Jörg Baten, Department of Economics, Chair of Economic History, University of Tübingen, Mohlstr. 36, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany. Phone: +49 7071 29 78167, fax: +49 7071 29 5119. Email: joerg.baten@uni-tuebingen.de Professor of Economic History at the University of Tübingen, Vice-dean and Director of the Faculty. Graduated in Economic History at University of Freiburg, 1991. PhD in Economics at the University of München, 1997. Member of the editorial board of European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press and member of the editorial board of Social Science History, Duke University Press. Toni Pierenkemper, Department of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Economics, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D-50923 Köln. Phone: +49 221 4702331, fax: +49 221 4705209, Email: pierenkemper@wiso.uni-koeln.de Head of the Chair of Economic and Social History and Director of the Research Institute of Social and Economic History at the University of Cologne. He is the managing editor of Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte. His recent publications include (in cooperation with Richard H. Tilly) The German Economy During the 19th Century and Unternehmensgeschichte. Eine Einführung in ihre Methoden und Ergebnisse, Stuttgart 2000. Pierenkemper’s main research interests are business history, regional industrialization, history of labour-markets and consumption. Diane Dammers, Department of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Economics, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D-50923 Köln. Phone: +49 221 470 2817, fax: +49 221 470 5209. Email: dammers@wiso.uni-koeln.de Diane Dammers, born in Frechen near Cologne in 1977. Graduated in Economics at the University of Cologne 2003. Her diploma thesis on Cartel Formation in the Rhenish Lignite Industry 1871-1914 was awarded with the Erhard-Imelmann-Prize by the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Social Sciences of the University of Cologne. Currently she is working as a part-time Research Assistant at the Department of Economic and Social History. Hendrik K. Fischer, Department of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Economics, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D-50923 Köln. Phone: +49 221 470 2817, fax: +49 221 470 5209. Email: fischer@wiso.uni-koeln.de Hendrik Fischer, born in Brühl near Cologne in 1976. Graduated in Economics at the University of Cologne 2003. His diploma thesis was on The Industrialization of the Rhenish Brown coal District 1870 to 1914. Currently he is working as a part-time Research Assistant at the Department of Economic and Social History. Albert Carreras, Professor, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Balmes 132, E-08008 Barcelona. Email: albert.carreras@econ.upf.es Ginette Kurgan, Professor in History, Centre d'Études Canadiennes Université Libre de Bruxelles CP 175 50, av. Franklin D. Roosevelt, B-1000 Bruxelles. Email: mlebrun@admin.ulb.ac.be Dominique Barjot, Professor in Economic History, University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 1 rue Victor Cousin - 75230 Paris cedex 05. Email: dominique.barjot@paris4.sorbonne.fr Isabelle Lescent-Giles, Maître de conference, Economic History, Centre Roland Mousnier et CRHI, University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 1 rue Victor Cousin - 75230 Paris cedex 05. Email: ilescentgiles@aol.com Peter Wardley, Principal Lecturer in Modern Economic & Business History, History School, Humanities Faculty, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16, Email: Peter.Wardley@uwe.ac.uk |
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