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Submits additional evidence for the cross‐class alliance theory of welfare state development in order to challenge competing theories, especially those that deny the positive role that capitalist power plays in determining the timing and shaping of reform. It shows, contrary to influential institutionalist theory, that the New Dealers did not act in bold defiance of monolithic opposition from capitalists, for in fact business organizations were internally divided; that corporate progressives were not disappointed with the New Deal; and that the New Dealers were not interested in building or defending state institutions that would endow bureaucrats and policy experts with the autonomous power to execute progressive policy without regard to capitalist interests. The discussion also challenges other theories that focus on the following: the loss of capitalist power due to the Depression and therefore politicians’ supposed new freedom to ignore business confidence; horse trading between internationalist business interests with little to lose from progressive legislation, and labor groups with little to lose from free trade; and direct pressure from capitalists for regulatory social reform.

The two papers in Ch. 5 examine how lawyers and law professors, operating in private arenas, successfully revived a pre-modern legal system, the Lex Mercatoria – the international body of trade law derived from merchant practice. Shapiro’s paper, which was originally published in The State and Freedom of Contract (ed. Harry Scheiber, Stanford University Press) in 1998) first introduces the Lex Mercatoria (the law of merchants) in relation to freedom of contract and contract law, and then discusses globalizing tendencies in contract law, doctrine, and jurisprudence, before moving on to globalizing tendencies in contract practice, using the legal doctrine of conflict of laws as a baseline for measurement of globalization tendencies. Here, Lex Mercatoria (or general principles of law) often play a substantial part in the resolution of contract disputes, particularly where arbitration is involved. Shapiro goes on to deal with the unification of private law in the United States in the 1920s (the trans-state harmonization of contract law), which he uses as a benchmark to assess the massive post-Second World War movement to a global law of contract. Aspects addressed include the globalization of contracting practice and law, the American-style contract (in relation to franchising law and mineral (non-oil) development contracts), and developments in business organization and law institutions.

This chapter describes the new forms of business and production organization in Japan and the ‘third Italy’ (new competition), which exposed the limitations in production organization of managerial capitalism. These forms include ‘networks’ of firms (in the shape of large corporations in Japan and small firm industrial districts in Italy), inter-firm relations, new production concepts such as just-in-time, and the role of industrial policy. The problems of this form of business and production organization are described. The business and production organization forms responsible for the resurgence of US high-tech industry (network-based systems integration) are examined.

This chapter discusses the business organization strategies of religious publishers. Although the American Bible Society, American Tract Society, and American Sunday School Union had developed the technological capacity for universal mass media by 1830, they lacked the organizational ability to distribute these books to all the people who needed them. Focusing on the work of the American Bible Society and American Tract Society in the 1830s and 1840s, it is shown how the religious publishers created new structures and strategies of business organization to do, through the invisible hand of administration, what invisible hand of the market could not do.

Competing perspectives on the role of technology in economic growth are briefly presented. Neoclassical growth theory does not control for technology; the ‘new growth theory’ accounts for new ideas; and Joseph Schumpeter focuses attention on innovation and the entrepreneur. Michael Porter, following Alfred Chandler, focuses attention on business organization and competitive strategy and introduces the concept of cluster to explain competitiveness. The capabilities and innovation perspective that informs The New Competitive Advantage develops the concept of the entrepreneurial firm; distinguishes technology from technology management; integrates production into business organization; and contrasts inter‐firm relations in terms of market, and closed‐ and open‐networks. Driven by a technology capability and market opportunity, dynamic, entrepreneurial firms are forever advancing their own capabilities. In the process a region's technology capabilities are revitalized and growth potential is enhanced. The book is organized around Productivity Triad, a concept that captures the interdependencies amongst business model, production capabilities, and skill formation.

In examining management styles during the 1990s, there are three fundamental features that need to be analysed: endeavours made in changing the operations of organizations; the fact that these endeavours mostly resulted in failure; and the fact that most organizations may be characterized with risk aversion. As has been seen in previous chapters, organizations and managing organizations in the Western World is accompanied by a continuous state of turmoil since consecutive changes are viewed to be attempts at reversing what has previously been constructed. The traditional measures of business organization and the organization of public services are no longer feasible for dealing with how overseas competitors have increased within the industry. This chapter looks into how organizations have failed to proceed with successful transformations.

The Technical Division of Technicon experienced problems in coming up with new products. Examining this case would reveal that the company's key research scientists had experienced a great deal of demoralization and had even resorted to working for the company's competitors. John Whitehead, then head of the Technical Division, had to learn, however, that finding solutions to such problems involves more than just restructuring the business organization without understanding its complexities. This chapter looks into the design decisions that managers have to face, concentrating particularly on design's role in the general organizational model. It also identifies design's fundamental elements, and which modes of designs are appropriate for various situations.

This chapter highlights and argues for a particular conception of the future high-value decision maker, embodying skills and characteristics that make him or her unique from the prototypes for managerial success on which current versions of the MBA curriculum and design philosophy rest. It demonstrates why this high-value decision maker of the future will be in great demand and short supply given current trends in educational and selection technologies and programs. It also shows how the problems that the high-value decision maker must solve are likely the result of the current social and cultural context of business organizations.

This book is a collection of seven original research papers by leading scholars of American economic history that were presented at a conference held at Vanderbilt University in December 2013 and revised in light of suggestions from conference participants and outside reviewers. Sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research and Vanderbilt University, the conference was entitled, “Enterprising America: Businesses, Banks, and Credit Markets in Historical Perspective.” The principal themes of the book include changes in business organization and governance, bank behavior and credit markets, and scale economies in nineteenth-century production. The introductory chapter provides a discussion of the background context that motivated the conference, follows with a summary of each chapter, and concludes with a brief recapitulation of the main findings and suggestions for further research.

Several benefits may possibly be derived from various efforts that further cooperation into mainstream management thinking. This final chapter summarizes the additional efforts that have to be made in the future. The first of these involves focusing more on managing cooperation and how this can be developed into a mature condition since more attention has been given to the outcomes instead of the underlying processes. Through this, the chapter identifies means of utilizing the full potential of cooperation. The second requirement, on the other hand, entails considering the changes in the business environment and how cooperative strategies play a positive role in such situations through further examining the contribution of cooperation as a mode of business organization.

This chapter provides an overview of the general rules for incorporation and operation of business organizations in Mexico. It focuses on the most common form of business corporation in Mexico, the sociedad anónima, or registered stock corporation. It also explores the main characteristics of the sociedad de responsabilidad limitada (S. de R.L.), or ‘limited liability company’, which a growing number of foreign investors use to conduct business in Mexico. Finally, it discusses the formation of partnerships, which may be used as alternatives to the sociedad anónima in carrying out commercial activities.

This book has set out to investigate the importance of business to contemporary developments in social policy. This chapter presents the key developments of forms of influence, with a discussion of their implications for present and future social policy. First, globalisation has increased corporate structural power and this, in turn, has had an impact on the capacity of the UK to formulate and deliver social policy. Second, globalisation has also increased both the capacity and reasons for business to organise internationally. Third, nationally organised business has become increasingly important to the shaping of social policy debate and delivery. Fourth, local business organisations and individual firms play an increasingly important role in the delivery of social provision. And last of all, business interest in and views on social policy are variable.

This chapter analyzes ancient Rome’s law of business entities from the perspective of asset partitioning, the delimiting of creditor collection rights based on the distinction between business assets and personal assets. Asset partitioning, which is an essential legal attribute of modern business forms such as the partnership and the business corporation, reduces borrowing costs by simplifying credit-risk assessment and expediting insolvency proceedings. The chapter finds that ancient Roman business arrangements, such as the societas and the slave-run business endowed by the slaveowner with a peculium, did not give business creditors the first claim to business assets, making these forms of organization non-entities according to the criterion of asset partitioning. It appears that the only true legal entity used to form profit-seeking firms was the societas publicanorum, which roughly resembled the modern limited partnership. But use of that form was generally confined to firms that provided public services under contract with the state. Moreover, the societas publicanorum was essentially a creature of the Republic, and was largely abandoned during the Empire. Although Rome had a complex economy and sophisticated commercial law, and was familiar with most of the types of asset partitioning seen in modern legal systems, it ultimately failed to develop legal entities for general use in commerce. Apparent reasons include the Roman aristocracy’s disparagement of commerce, the emperors’ wariness of strong organizations outside the state, and the society’s continuing reliance on the family—a durable and complex legal entity in its own right—to handle many commercial needs.

This book begins with a discussion of the local business organizations in American cities, which have enjoyed the greatest legitimacy and influence among all interest groups. Chambers of commerce, merchants and manufacturers organizations, realty boards, and a myriad of smaller organizations made up of prominent business leaders have enjoyed political influence out of proportion to their numbers or economic importance. In fact, these groups enjoyed such political legitimacy during the mid-twentieth century that they were rarely described as special interests at all. The central question of the book is how this type of organization secured its special status in local politics and how that status was transcribed into national politics in the second quarter of the twentieth century.