Family capitalism : Wendels, Haniels, Falcks, and the continental European model / Harold James.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

James, Harold, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Family-owned business enterprises--Europe--History.

Family-owned business enterprises.

Family-owned business enterprises--Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (447 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This history of three powerful family firms located in different European countries takes place over a period of more than two hundred years. The interplay and the changing social and legal arrangements of the families shaped the development of a European capitalism quite different from the Anglo-American variety. Qualifying claims by Alfred Chandler and David Landes that family firms tend to be dysfunctional, Harold James shows how and why these steel and engineering firms were successful over long periods of time. Indeed, he sees the family enterprise as particularly conducive to managing risk during periods of upheaval and uncertainty when both states and markets are disturbed. He also identifies the key roles played by women executives during such times. In Family Capitalism, James tells how "iron masters" of a classical industrial cast were succeeded by new generations who wanted to shift to information-age systems technologies, and how families and firms wrestled with social and economic changes that occasionally tore them apart. Finally, the author shows how the trajectories of the firms were influenced by political, military, economic, and social events and how these firms illuminate a European model of "relationship capitalism."

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures

Maps

Abbreviations

Introduction: The Familiarity of Capitalism

Part I. The Age of the Individual

Chapter 1 The Wendels and the French State

Chapter 2 The Pioneer in German History

Chapter 3 The Industrial Origins of the Falcks

Part II. The Age of the Corporation

Introduction

Chapter 4 The Gutehoffnungshütte as a Joint-Stock Company

Chapter 5 French Companies in Two Countries

Chapter 6 An Italian Joint-Stock Company

Part III. The Age of Organizationalism

Chapter 7 The Politician as Businessman

Chapter 8 A Family Concern

Chapter 9 Models of Italian Industrial Development

Part IV. The Age of the Postwar Miracle

Chapter 10 A Costly Miracle in Italy

Chapter 11 A New Kind of Family Togetherness

Chapter 12 Postwar Reconstruction in France

Part V. The Age of Globalization

Chapter 13 Wendel Becomes a Conglomerate, French Style

Chapter 14 The Crisis of Italian Steel

Chapter 15 German Diversification and Internationalization

Chapter 16 Family Capitalism and the Exit from Steel

Conclusion Family Entrepreneurship

Appendix: Family Trees

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 393-421) and index.

ISBN:

9780674039094

0674039092

OCLC:

654743585