Enterprise Management And Innovation In British Business 1914 80

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'A general introductory text on British business history', declared ProfessorDonald Coleman in an important public lecture published in 1987, 'has yet to bewritten'.1 This lacunae is extraordinary, given Britain's role as the birthplace ofthe Industrial Revolution and its possession, even in the late 1980s, of theworld's sixth largest Gross Domestic Product.2 It is even more odd given thatbusiness history in Britain is almost a 'sunrise' industry: every year severalscholarly company histories are published, although these volumes remainlargely unread by business people, business scholars and e.

Analyses the emergence, growth and performance from the 1830s to the present

First Published in 1989. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1990. This is the companion title to R.P.T. Davenport-Hines', Capital, Entrepreneurs and Profits. This title responds to the little discussion surrounding the subject of business history. The editor recognised that although the interpretation of business history has been wide, the only distinguishing features was a dependence on, often British, business records which is reflected in the selection of volumes within this collection. This title intends to present a list of searching and analytical, and therefore more satisfying and instructive, histories of British companies from which lessons can be learned.

Managing Industrial Decline examines the dramatic decline of the British coal industry through the lens of comparative business history, challenging the prevailing belief that the industry's decline was due primarily to global economic factors and instead demonstrating that entrepreneurial failings of individual coal firms contributed significantly to the problem. Through a comparative analysis of company histories, Dintenfass shows how the full range of business operations at British coal firms, including labor management policies, technological choices, and marketing practices, affected their performance. The histories of individual firms demonstrate that the managements could improve productivity, increase sale prices, and sustain profitability, even as the coal trade succumbed to cyclical depression and secular decline. According to Dintenfass, comparisons between the individual firms and the regional coal industries to which they belonged show that neighboring firms were slow to introduce the modest innovations that the successful firms pioneered. Since there were few barriers to the implementation of these strategies, it appears that Britain's coal masters miscalculated their costs and benefits, contributing to the problem by failing to adopt inexpensive and accessible second-best solutions to production and commercial problems. Managing Industrial Decline, breaks new ground in the field of business history and restores entrepreneurship to its proper place in the analysis of industrial decline.

First Published in 1989. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.