This article uses the example of the postwar consolidation of the American newspaper industry to demonstrate that the process of industrial evolution is not simply the consequence of arbitrary market forces nor strictly the result of enterprising individuals' innovative schemes. Rather it is interaction of the two. Moreover, by examining the technological, laborrelated, and regulatory forces behind the industry's dramatic change in ownership structure, the article also illustrates the cumulative and sequential nature of industrial change.

While retailing a great variety of goods under one roof and single management already existed in China by the late nineteenth century, modern style department stores on the China coast began only in 1900. Organized by Chinese entrepreneurs who had started their careers in Australia, they consciously borrowed managerial techniques from abroad. Sincere and Wing On, the two premier Chinese department stores, expanded rapidly during diese years and, in the process, developed new forms of organization and strategy based on western models as well as on traditional Chinese business practices and cultural values. When political and economic turmoil during the 1920s and 1930s slowed the growth of these companies, Wing On emerged more successfully tban Sincere. Wing On's path diverged from that of its competitor because its stronger management team was better at blending individual personality, western organization and Chinese cultural values.

An analysis of the aircraft industry's public relations campaign suggests that individuals' thoughts and feelings about airplanes and atomic weapons, domestic politics, and international events had greater influence on public opinion and political action than the PR program. However, the industry's public relations program did bring together many groups interested in air power. By linking these groups and capitalizing on the domestic and international situation, the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton of New York helped to create a climate in which air power was an acceptable solution to national defense and budgetary problems.

This paper explores the origins of the Silicon Valley model for regional economic development, and attempts to deploy this model elsewhere in the United States and abroad. Frederick Terman, Stanford's provost, first envisioned its unique partnership of academia and industry, and trained the first generation of students who effected it. He patiently cultivated an aggressively entrepreneurial culture in what he called “the newly emerging community of technical scholars.” Beginning in the 1960s, business groups elsewhere set out to build their own versions of Silicon Valley, some enlisting the assistance of Terman and his proteges. After discussing the emergence of the Stanford-Silicon Valley effort, the paper examines in detail the New Jersey Institute of Science and Technology, an effort led by Bell Laboratories; the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest and the SMU Foundaton for Science and Engineering in Dallas, Texas; and the Korea Advanced Insitute of Science and Technology, Terman's last and arguably most successful attempt. The paper discusses the reasons for the difficulties in creating new versions, and suggests explanations for the apparent success of the Korean experiment.

In recent years, business historians have expressed increasing interest in the development and evolution of corporate cultures. This study carries forward this body of scholarship by exploring a fundamental point of tension in the construction of corporate cultures—the meaning and demands of salaried employment. In a period in which the workings of corporations were uncertain and rapidly evolving, leaders sought to define the meaning and duties of corporate employment in varied but always expansive terms. Corporations wanted employees to act like limited partners, or stakeholders. Whatever the specific tasks of their jobs, the ideal employee was expected to be salesperson, ambassador to the community, and political activist on die firm's behalf. This article probes the ways in which leaders of emerging corporations in Los Angeles struggled to persuade salaried employees to act with such a sense of ownership in the firm.

The South African state maintained vigorous repressive legislation to destroy trade union activity among African workers after World War II. The genesis of industrial psychology, personnel research and personnel management is examined in this context. In particular, the article reveals tension between the recommendations of the National Institute for Personnel Research and the imperatives of apartheid.

There is, on an average, annually wrecked upon the Florida coast, about fifty vessels…. The great destruction of property consequent upon this state of things, and the hope of gain, have induced a settlement at Key West, where, to adjudicate upon the wrecked property, a court of admiralty has been established. A large number of vessels, from 20 to 30, are annually engaged as wreckers, lying about this coast to “help the unfortunate,” and to help themselves. These vessels are in many instances owned in whole or in part by the merchants of Key West; the same merchant frequently acts in quadruple capacity of owner of die wrecker, agent for the wreckers, consignee of the captain, and agent for the underwriters. Whose business he transacts with most assiduity, his own, or that of others, may be readily inferred.

—“Wrecks, Wrecking, and Wreckees, on Florida Reef,” Hunt's Merchants' Magazine 6 (1842): 349.

During the 1950's, Fiat, one of Italy's most important manufacturing companies, grew at enormous speed. Two factors helped the car maker achieve this impressive performance: For one, a set of import barriers virtually denied foreign producers access to the Italian market until the founding of the European Economic Community (EEC). Moreover, Fiat managed to remain at the cutting edge of car manufacturing technology, enabling it to expand production, foreign sales and profits. Combining a reliance on trade barriers with technological change as well as an aggressive export strategy, Vittorio Valletta, Fiat's post-World War II general manager, bet on serving the more dynamic foreign markets from modern plants built with the help of Marshall Plan funds. From this basis he later sold into a growing domestic market, where Fiat was without serious competition.

As part of its centennial celebration, Harris commissioned a historical survey of the 1994 list of Fortune 500 companies, inquiring as to when they were founded and what their initial names, products, or services were. Harris then sent this list to several historians, including Professor Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and the editor of this Review. We believe the Harris compilation to be a potentially valuable research tool. We are pleased to present it here, along with the following brief introduction, which is a composite of observations by the Harris researchers, Professor Chandler, and the Editor and Assistant Editor of the Review.

This article presents a new database on U.S. multinationals active in British manufacturing between 1907 and 1962. Britain was the largest European host economy for U.S. direct investment in manufacturing and the second largest host worldwide. This article identifies the industrial distribution and mode of entry of U.S. investors, and offers explanations for the time trends which are shown. It goes on to trace the evolution of U.S. subsidiaries, and shows that rates of divestment were substantial. An examination of the characteristics of U.S. subsidiaries, including the substantial investments in R & D and high export propensity, is followed by a survey of British public policy, which made Britain an attractive host but did little to shape the form of U.S. investment.

The French inter-war steel cartels were characterized by contemporaries as powerful trusts, restricting output and raising steel prices. The cartels were cited as a cause for the length of the French depression, the low productivity of the 1930s, and the rapid rise in steel prices after 1936. This paper shows that the formation and development of the French steel cartels was problematic and argues that the French industry was not structurally conducive to widespread collusion and was further harmed by governmental policies. Steel cartels were unable to police their arrangements effectively among members and were unable to stop outsiders from undercutting prices. It is not at all clear that firms in the cartel achieved higher profits. The increase in prices that did occur after 1936 was not due to firms colluding and profiting from the increased demand for steel due to the anticipation of Nazi aggression; rather, these price increases occurred because of input price increases caused by government action that raised the costs of production.

The modern corporation arose out of the trusts, mergers and holding companies of the late 19th century, an evolution that generated volatile political reactions. Though economists and business historians have analyzed the rise of the corporate form, they have neglected a second, related problem: Did attacks on the modern corporation depress business activity, as critics of Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft claimed? This paper has three aims. First, it covers the relevant analytical issues, including the effects of policy uncertainty on business investment. Second, it reviews the history of shifting governmental policy in the light of its possible economic effects. Finally, it examines die statistical link between antitrust enforcement and business activity for the years 1891–1914. Antitrust case filings against large firms coincided with business downturns, while filings against small firms did not. These findings provide supporting evidence though not decisive proof for the charge that trust-busting hurt business activity.

In this essay, Cynthia Little gives a brief overview of the collections of interest to business historians available at the Histical Society of Pennsylvania.

During the time period from 1870–1930, economic, social, demographic and educational forces interacted with the separation of accounting from bookkeeping. The result of this interaction was the changing genderization of the bookkeeping workforce. This paper suggests that this change process cannot be fully understood until both environmental forces and the emergence of accounting from bookkeeping are considered. Evidence of this interaction comes from Census data as well as historical documents.