Mitchell J. Larson

Strategic responses to global challenges: The case of European banking, 1973–2000

In applying a strategy, structure, ownership and performance (SSOP) framework to three major clearing banks (ABN AMRO, UBS, Barclays), this article debates whether the conclusions generated by Whittington and Mayer about European manufacturing industry can be applied to the financial services sector. While European integration plays a key role in determining strategy, it is clear that global factors were far more important in determining management actions, leading to significant differences in structural adaptation. The article also debates whether this has led to improved performance, given the problems experienced with both geographical dispersion and diversification, bringing into question the quality of decision-making over the long term.

Banking from Leeds, not London: regional strategy and structure at the Yorkshire Bank, 1859–1952

Industrial philanthropist Edward Akroyd created the Yorkshire Penny Savings Bank in 1859. Despite competition from the Post Office Savings Bank after 1861 and a serious reserve problem in 1911, it sustained his overall strategy to become a successful regional bank. Using archival and contemporary sources to build on recent scholarship illustrating how savings banks were integrated into local economies and the complementary roles of philanthropy and paternalism, we analyse an English regional banks strategy, including an assessment of strategic innovation, ownership changes and management structure. This will demonstrate that the founders vision continued, even though the 1911 crisis radically altered both strategy and structure.

‘Hey Pal! Who Won the Marathon?’ The Illustrated London News's Coverage of Sport in 1908, an Olympic Year

The complete digitization of The Illustrated London News (1842–2003) enables a closer look at its contents and coverage of particular events and areas of interest. In this article, we look at how The Illustrated London News covered sport, including the London Olympic Games in 1908, during that year. We determined that the newspaper devoted comparatively little special coverage to these Olympic Games apart from the marathon. This was because the social goals of its readers were not perceived to be met by this relatively new and unproven international sporting event. Unlike more established domestic events, the games failed to excite the editors and readers of the first mass-readership illustrated newspaper.

When (or how) do the Olympics become ‘stale’?

This paper presents a discussion about the ongoing search for seemingly faddish new events in the Olympic programme, such as golf, rugby, and BMX cycling, which may be intended to liven up the Olympic Games to maintain public appeal. Whilst programme space may be a logistical concern, there is also an aesthetic debate over how the avant-garde in sporting events may take precedence over the classic, more established events with which we are familiar. Consequently, a number of questions are posed in this paper which explores the aesthetic and commercial implications of Olympic taste through the selection and rejection of Olympic events. The paper concludes that the current popularity of the Olympic Games may hang upon a frail sequence of dependencies: an overburdening commercial interest resting upon an ill-defined aesthetic purpose or identity.

The development of the PhD degree in Britain, 1917–1959 and since: an evolutionary and statistical history in higher education

One is immediately struck by the magnitude of two things upon taking up this book. First, there is the sheer length of it – monographs of such length are increasingly rare these days. Second, there is the scale of the task the author undertook – the attempt to chronicle the establishment and early history of the doctoral degree across all disciplines for an entire nation certainly deserves admiration. That this effort produced a sequel to the author’s previous work (How the PhD came to Britain: a century of struggle for postgraduate education, Guildford, 1983) testifies to her commitment to the history of higher education in Great Britain and her thorough knowledge of the field. For modern historians, it is not difficult to remember what significant events took place in 1917. Simpson lists among them the introduction to Britain of the PhD degree, which the author attributes, in differing amounts, to pressure from North American universities to provide further education for their university graduates combined with, or resulting from, the inability to access German universities during the First World War. The PhD originated in Germany and many scholars in all three nations received their PhDs from German universities up to 1914. By 1917, with this avenue cut off for the foreseeable future, British universities began to develop their own research-based degree programmes which occasionally conflicted with existing research-based offerings, such as the Bachelor of Literature at Oxford. Simpson’s otherwise enormous task was sensibly limited by the proviso that she focused her attention on the development of the PhD at those British universities that existed at the time of the degree’s first introduction in 1917 (p. xxxii). This condition creates the impression of three main centres of activity: Oxbridge, the University of Edinburgh, and three federal components of the University of London (London School of Economics, Imperial College and University College). The outsider of this group, both geographically as well as occasionally pedagogically, was the University of Manchester; others understandably enter the discussion from time to time. The book is divided into two parts. Part I – quite consciously – has no statistics but is instead ‘devoted to the more descriptive, explanatory, and historical development of the PhD’ (p. xxxiii) in the UK from its inception. Chapters cover the several elements of the process of pursuing a PhD, from admissions (‘The first hurdle’) to an ominously titled penultimate chapter (‘The verdict’). The final chapter of Part I covers part-time students and internal academic staff candidates for PhDs. Through this step-by-step analysis of the procedures and requirements, the reader gets a feel for the student experience of embarking on a PhD during the period History of Education Vol. 41, No. 4, July 2012, 559–574