We examine the early marketing and distribution of entertainment radio sets. Manufacturers used distribution networks to both maximize profits and create barriers to entry. Lacking the market power of auto manufacturers, they developed cooperative strategies with authorized distributors and dealers. Dealers often complained about the costly activities manufacturers required of them. However, these underpinned the dominant quality and branding competition model of the 1920s, while the Depression-era switch to a simpler radio format, sold on price, proved catastrophic for the specialist retailer.

The globalization of financial markets over the past decade has focused the spotlight on the responsiveness of financial firms to international pressures. Insurance markets have traditionally relied on global networks not only to expand the insurers' sphere of influence but also to support domestic business. Until relatively recently, Australian insurance companies have not played a significant role in the development of international markets. However, in the last decade of the twentieth century Australian insurers ventured overseas on a scale without precedence. This article presents an historical perspective on the internationalization of the Australian life-insurance market with a view to understanding why these firms have been classified “late starters” in the internationalization stakes. In a broader capacity it provides insights into the impediments to overseas expansion and the forces encouraging or discouraging the development of cross border networks.

The interaction of business and political goals and strategies is emphasized in this critique of a key state bank's role in national affairs of the 1830's.

The following article reexamines the role of business leaders in the structural reform of American city government during the Progressive Era. In presenting a careful analysis of the fate of redevelopment plans after Baltimore's great 1904 fire, this case study argues against an unsophisticated good guy/bad guy approach to urban and business history. Historians are urged, however, not to abandon attempts to make reasoned moral judgments concerning the consequences of structural reform, but rather to base those efforts on a recognition of the deepening complexity of twentieth-century urban society.

Professor Blomquist describes and analyzes various forms of business association in an important northern Italian city during the period of economic growth in the thirteenth century. These included two basic forms of partnerships, as well as an early version of limited liability association.

Many opportunities for fruitful research emerge from this survey of those holdings of the National Archives which are pertinent to the historical study of government-business relationships in the United States.

Two British land companies, the Canada Company and the British American Land Company (BALC), were active during the nineteenth century in settling what are now Ontario and the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Both purchased large tracts of land from the British government, with two goals: to provide funds for the governors of Canada and to relieve Britain of its surplus population. The Canada Company worked closely with the government to meet these objectives, whereas BALC indulged in land speculation and made immigration a secondary priority. One was successful, and the other struggled throughout its existence. Their success or failure was the directresult of how well they dealt with both the changing economic climate and the British and Canadian political situation.

For many years Americans engaged in business abroad at their own risk, unaided in any important way by the backing of their government. When confronted with the forces of national self-interest, they faced frustration. Then the policy of the United States, aware of its economic responsibilities and opportunities and dangers, swung to their support. The new diplomacy was not always adept, but it produced remarkable changes. These are exemplified in the thirty-year history of American efforts to gain an entry to the oilfields of the Netherlands East Indies. The files of the Department of State provide an intimate and unique view both of motivations and the mechanisms of change.

The interplay between national economic policy and private business policy in Latin America is a constant historical theme. The case of foreign-owned railroads in Argentina illustrates the road to nationalization between 1854 and 1948.

We analyze how Hollywood films from 1928 to 2016 represented business within a broad historical and business context. We argue that the films actively contributed to audiences’ sensemaking processes and to how different groups perceived the role of business in society. We advance the idea that films provided cultural blueprints to be used by viewers for their own understanding, identification, and practices in relation to business in its historical context, particularly during periods of uncertainty, crisis, and instability when many films addressed deeper societal concerns about the role of business.

This article examines the 1968 decision by the French mineral water company Vittel to use PVC packaging for its main product. This was the first time this type of packaging had been used for a mainstream consumer product. By examining the causes, manifestations, and consequences of this business decision, it aims to show how this model has spread and contributed to the creation of an environmentally damaging waste regime by abandoning deposit systems. The article also seeks to show, through this case, the importance of identifying social and institutional contexts to understand the trajectory of consumer products.

The following article combines an analysis of production techniques in the French automobile industry between the wars and a rich supply of photographs that visually document the course of innovation in the industry. The text and illustrations show that, though production managers at Citroën, Peugeot, and Renault were aware of the methods of Henry Ford and Frederick W. Taylor, they adapted them to specific situations within the French industry and within their own companies. By looking specifically at the work of Ernest Mattern, who held production responsibilities at both Peugeot and Citroën and observed Renault as well, the essay traces the incremental changes in the organization of automobile manufacturing in France before the Second World War.

The early patterns of finance in a twentieth-century transportation industry are examined by Professor Rae. His analysis is especially illustrative of the problems of companies manufacturing a product to highly exacting technical standards and for sale to a limited number of customers.

Although Norway's information-technology (IT) industry has never been an international success, it has been a critical factor in the country's economy over the past thirty years. Several IT companies came close to reaching a global scale, but escalating costs finally prevented them from doing so. In addition, the IT firms became sidetracked by the domestic sales opportunities that accompanied the expansion of the Norwegian oil sector, as they chose to design specialized products for national markets instead of targeting the international market-place. Although their decision resulted in organizational continuity, the firms themselves have experienced turbulence, bankruptcy, and change, making the development of the sector a messy and problematic affair.

In the second of two articles, Professors Aduddell and Cain take the story of the application of antitrust law to the large meatpackers from the 1920 consent decree to Judge Julius Hoffman's 1956 decision not to lift the decree. Despite fundamental changes in the technology and structure of the food distribution industry, and strong indications that the packers' proposed plan to sell at retail was no longer good business, Hoffman refused to remove the obstacle to forward integration. The decision, in the authors' opinion, does not bear scrutiny on economic grounds. The episode supports two important generalizations about antitrust prosecution as a tool for economic planning: that constant change in a dynamic society often renders antitrust decisions meaningless; and that regulation frequently deprives society of rational structural change.

This article establishes the contributions of a pioneer American thinker to the theory of administration, scientific management, and the theory (and practice) of human relations. Barksdale did not publish his ideas widely, and his contributions are best known through the men he trained and his own managerial success at Du Pont and General Motors.

The taxonomy and utility of early American checks are suggested by Dr. Redlich and an example of their use by the customers of Stephen Girard's Bank, 1812–1834, is supplied by Mr. Christman. Readers are encouraged to comment on or supplement this first attempt at the history of an important business instrument.

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, businessmen and government officials increasingly worked together to strengthen the position of the United States in world markets. Much of the intellectual underpinnings of this organizational drive lay in progressive America's attraction to the gospel of efficiency and in a desire to emulate the nation which seemed to embody that gospel best — Germany.