M. J. Lewis

Personal Capitalism and British Industrial Decline: The Personally Managed Firm and Business Strategy in Sheffield, 1880–1920

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., has maintained that the persistence of the personally managed firm in Britain may be a cause of that nations long-run industrial decline. This article contributes to the debate over decline through a detailed exploration of the business role of personally managed firms in a strategic sector of the Second Industrial Revolution: the metal and metal-making trades of Sheffield. Our study shows that the business strategies of Sheffield firms, based on quality production and flexible technology, had close similarities to those of American companies described by scholars such as Philip Scranton. Many of the Sheffield firms were not lacking in enterprise; they demonstrated tenacity and, in certain key segments of the metal trades, enjoyed a high degree of business success. Our examination of personal capitalism in Sheffield suggests that the terms of the debate over Britains industrial decline may require further refinement.

Control, Conflict and Concession: Corporate Governance, Accounting and Accountability at Birmingham Small Arms, 1906-1933

This paper takes as its starting point the relevance of a historical perspective to the study of corporate governance. Corporate governance is concerned with the institutions that influence how business corporations allocate resources and returns, and with the exercise of accountability to investors and other stakeholders. The historical model adopted is that of personal capitalism which is informed by scholars such as Chandler, and in the British context, Quail. Birmingham Small Arms, a quoted and diversified engineering company, was selected for analysis because although it was relatively large and adopted a holding company format, it retained many of the characteristics of a personal capitalist firm. Our longitudinal study of 1906 to 1933 shows that what emerged at BSA was a dominant group of directors who were eventually impelled to concede change by a sustained shareholder critique and an altered legal and business environment.

Culture as Metaphor: Company Culture and Business Strategy at Raleigh Industries, c.1945–60

This study of Raleigh Industries, one of the leading bicycle manufactures in the world in the immediate post-war years, argues that its business strategy was in part shaped by a managerial commitment to a dominant company culture which was deeply embedded in Raleighs history. Using the notion of culture as metaphor, the paper examines the way that core values in the company acted as a guide in the setting of organisational goals and, intended or unintended, impinged upon company performance. In many respects, the culture guided the company well, but our study shows a number of ambiguities, tensions and contradictions between culture and strategy which had negative effects on company behaviour. Thus, Raleighs attachment to personal capitalism constrained its capacity expansion programme, and, while it adopted what appeared to be a progressive education and training policy, it in effect trained workers for the past rather than the future.

Corporate governance in a major British holding company: BSA in the interwar years

Abstract This paper uses a case study of BSA to examine corporate governance in a holding company during the interwar years. Recognised as generally progressive in its policy towards financial disclosure, nevertheless BSA attracted hostile criticism from its shareholders, showed little evidence of developing administrative coordination and provided limited detailed information concerning the performance of its subsidiaries. Voice did have an effect in changing the pattern of financial reporting, but even under the pressure of its banker, when financial circumstances deteriorated in the early 1930s, BSA was only prepared to change personnel while organisational structures remained in place.

‘A new paradigm of British business history’: A critique of Toms and Wilson

We provide a critical reflection of Toms and Wilsons ‘new paradigm of British business history’ by focusing on the logical consistency of their model, the robustness of its predictive powers, and its explanation of transitional change related to stages of business capitalism. For example, central to the paradigm is the importance of accountability and external economies of scale, assumed as exogenous parameters in the analysis of British business history. This assumption is challenged, as is the predictive powers of the analytical matrix in providing an all-encompassing model for British business evolution. In particular, the transitional processes in British business history are not simply reducible to an assessment of accountability and economies of scale and scope, but rather to enhance our understanding there is a need also to engage with the concept of personal capitalism. While business historians should engage with theoretical frameworks, it must also be recognized that firms are idiosyncratic, a feature of business organizations that should not be lost.

A guide to tracing the history of a business

outdated production and organisational methods was made in two challenging environments: the largest railway company of its day; and Britain’s unreformed governmental machine. Both were immense employers of labour, and in both pathdependent methods of working were entrenched, inhibiting effective decisionmaking. Lemon had his faults. He was a hard taskmaster, his personal life became messy, and after he returned to the LMS in 1940 his career seemed to stall. But he was an enthusiastic supporter of the principles of scientific management and standardised production, which he applied at an early stage to the Midland Railway’s carriage and wagon production, and later during his short tenure as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS. He was a theorist who had the ability to apply his theories in practice. His work in reorganising production at the Air Ministry and in encouraging the sub-contracting of aircraft components deserves wider recognition. This often neglected railway manager now has the biography he deserves.