Overview

This authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth. Alongside an original introduction the editors have selected work by scholars who have used corporate archives to explore the fine details of how firms actually operated. It also includes work by those who have been influenced by evolutionary, transaction-cost and resource-based theories of the firm. The book will be an essential source of reference for economic historians as well as industrial economists.

Full Product Details

Author:   Geoffrey Jones ,  Walter A. Friedman
Publisher:   Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Imprint:   Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Volume:   260
ISBN:  

9781848447813

ISBN 10:   1848447817
Pages:   736
Publication Date:   29 December 2011
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Geoffrey Jones and Walter A. Friedman PART I WHAT IS A FIRM? 1. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1992), 'What is a Firm? A Historical Perspective' 2. Mira Wilkins (1986), 'Defining a Firm: History and Theory' 3. S.R.H. Jones (1997), 'Transaction Costs and the Theory of the Firm: The Scope and Limitations of the New Institutional Approach' PART II EARLY FIRMS 4. Karl James Moore and David Charles Lewis (2000), 'Multinational Enterprise in Ancient Phoenicia' 5. Constance Jones Mathers (1988), 'Family Partnerships and International Trade in Early Modern Europe: Merchants from Burgos in England and France, 1470-1570' 6. Ann M. Carlos and Stephen Nicholas (1988), ' Giants of an Earlier Capitalism : The Chartered Trading Companies as Modern Multinationals' PART III MODERN FIRMS 7. N. McKendrick (1960), 'Josiah Wedgewood: An Eighteenth-Century Entrepreneur in Salesmanship and Marketing Techniques' 8. Pat Hudson (1994), 'Financing Firms, 1700-1850' 9. Eric Hilt (2008), 'When Did Ownership Separate from Control? Corporate Governance in the Early Nineteenth Century' 10. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1965), 'The Railroads: Pioneers in Modern Corporate Management' 11. Walter A. Friedman (1998), 'John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884 to 1922' PART IV MATURE FIRMS 12. Edith T. Penrose (1960), 'The Growth of the Firm - A Case Study: The Hercules Powder Company' 13. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. (1976), 'The Development of Modern Management Structure in the US and UK' 14. Richard Whittington, Michael Mayer and Francesco Curto (1999), 'Chandlerism in Post-War Europe: Strategic and Structural Change in France, Germany, and the UK, 1950-1993' 15. Robert F. Freeland (1996), 'The Myth of the M-Form? Governance, Consent, and Organizational Change' 16. Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell (2007), 'Acquisitions and Firm Growth: Creating Unilever's Ice Cream and Tea Business' PART V VARIETIES OF FIRM 17. Madeleine Zelin (2009), 'The Firm in Early Modern China' 18. W. Mark Fruin (1980), 'The Family as a Firm and the Firm as a Family in Japan: The Case of Kikkoman Shoyu Company Limited' 19. Albert Carreras and Xavier Tafunell (1997), 'Spain: Big Manufacturing Firms between State and Market, 1917-1990' 20. Hartmut Berghoff (2006), 'The End of Family Business? The Mittelstand and German Capitalism in Transition, 1949-2000' PART VI LAW AND REGULATION 21. Peter L. Payne (1980), 'Fields of Enterprise' 22. Naomi R. Lamoreaux (1998), 'Partnerships, Corporations, and the Theory of the Firm' 23. William C. Kirby (1995), 'China, Unincorporated: Company Law and Business Enterprise in Twentieth Century China' 24. Aldo Musacchio (2008), 'Can Civil Law Countries Get Good Institutions? Lessons from the History of Creditor Rights and Bond Markets in Brazil' PART VII GLOBAL FIRMS 25. Mira Wilkins (1975), 'Epilogue' 26. Geoffrey Jones and Judith Wale (1998), 'Merchants as Business Groups: British Trading Companies in Asia before 1945' 27. Chiara Betta (2005), 'The Trade Diaspora of Baghdadi Jews: From India to China's Treaty Ports, 1842-1937'

Reviews

'This timely collection by two of the world's most eminent business historians reviews the evolution of the modern firm from a geographical and chronological perspective. It demonstrates definitively how the strategy and organisational structure of the firm, together with the legal framework in which it operates, has adapted to the challenges posed by the rise of the high-technology global economy.' - Mark Casson, University of Reading, UK 'The Rise of the Modern Firm is a splendid collection, combining the most illuminating of economic theory with the most solid of historical fact. From Geoffrey Jones to S.R.H. Jones, and from Pat Hudson to Naomi Lamoreaux, the book assembles the very best of business history written in the past couple of decades. It ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to modern America. No historian of the business enterprise should be without it, nor any economist with an interest in the actual facts of the matter.' - Deirdre N McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago, US

Author Information

Edited by Geoffrey Jones, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School and Walter A. Friedman, Director, Business History Initiative and Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School, US

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions