IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v21y2003i5p735-760.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Demutualisation, Strategic Choice, and Social Responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • J Neill Marshall
  • Richard Willis
  • Ranald Richardson

Abstract

This paper examines the demutualisation of the British building societies, the trend during the 1990s for these mutual financial institutions run on behalf of their members and without external shareholders to convert to public limited companies. Demutualisation resulted from cultural change within senior management in mutual societies, which undermined their support for the idea of mutual ownership. This cultural change was a consequence of the deeper integration of mutual societies into the retail financial services sector where a different business culture was dominant. Though government has ignored the wider social impact of demutualisation, it has in fact undermined their attempts to encourage more socially inclusive forms of delivery for personal financial services. The paper makes a case for recognition of the contribution of mutual building societies to the development of more socially responsible corporate strategies. The recent wave of demutuahsations also highlights the need for mutuals to encourage greater membership involvement in the running of the organisation.

Suggested Citation

  • J Neill Marshall & Richard Willis & Ranald Richardson, 2003. "Demutualisation, Strategic Choice, and Social Responsibility," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 21(5), pages 735-760, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:21:y:2003:i:5:p:735-760
    DOI: 10.1068/c30m
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c30m
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/c30m?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thompson, Steve, 1997. "Takeover activity among financial mutuals: An analysis of target characteristics," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 37-53, January.
    2. J.Cook & S.Deakin & A.Hughes, 2001. "Mutuality and Corporate Governance: The Evolution of UK Building Societies Following Deregulation," Working Papers wp205, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philip Linsley & Richard Slack, 2013. "Crisis Management and an Ethic of Care: The Case of Northern Rock Bank," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 285-295, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manuel Hensmans, 2011. "WHAT IS STRATEGY? The case of retail finance and English Building Societies," Working Papers CEB 11-049, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Coccorese, Paolo & Ferri, Giovanni, 2020. "Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on efficiency effects of M&As in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 147-164.
    3. Dickerson, Andrew P. & Gibson, Heather D. & Tsakalotos, Euclid, 2002. "Takeover risk and the market for corporate control: the experience of British firms in the 1970s and 1980s," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 1167-1195, October.
    4. Koetter, M. & Bos, J.W.B. & Heid, F. & Kolari, J.W. & Kool, C.J.M. & Porath, D., 2007. "Accounting for distress in bank mergers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 3200-3217, October.
    5. Francesc Relano, 2015. "Disambiguating the concept of social banking," Post-Print hal-01507875, HAL.
    6. Katsafados, Apostolos G. & Androutsopoulos, Ion & Chalkidis, Ilias & Fergadiotis, Emmanouel & Leledakis, George N. & Pyrgiotakis, Emmanouil G., 2021. "Using textual analysis to identify merger participants: Evidence from the U.S. banking industry," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    7. Offenberg, David, 2010. "Agency Costs And The Size Discount: Evidence From Acquisitions," Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, Universidad ESAN, vol. 15(29), pages 73-93.
    8. J.Cook & S.Deakin & A.Hughes, 2001. "Mutuality and Corporate Governance: The Evolution of UK Building Societies Following Deregulation," Working Papers wp205, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    9. Valnek, Tomas, 1999. "The comparative performance of mutual building societies and stock retail banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 925-938, June.
    10. Jean-Robert Alcaras & Jean-Noël Ory & Nathalie Dompnier & François Rousseau & Mireille Jaeger & Emmanuelle Gurtner & Laurent Ducau, 2008. "La gouvernance partenariale des Banques coopératives françaises," Working Papers hal-00501816, HAL.
    11. Rezitis, Anthony N., 2008. "Efficiency and productivity effects of bank mergers: Evidence from the Greek banking industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 236-254, March.
    12. Daniel Boos & Nikolaos Karampatsas & Wolfgang Garn & Lampros K. Stergioulas, 2024. "Predicting corporate restructuring and financial distress in banks: The case of the Swiss banking industry," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 497-533, June.
    13. Sergio Sanfilippo Azofra & Myriam García Olalla & Begoña Torre Olmo, 2008. "Size, Target Performance and European Bank Mergers and Acquisitions," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(1), pages 53-63.
    14. Andy Cosh & Alan Hughes, 2008. "Takeovers after "Takeovers"," Working Papers wp363, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    15. Michelle Haynes & Steve Thompson, 1999. "Merger Activity and Employment: Evidence from the UK Mutual Sector," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 39-54, March.
    16. J. N. Marshall & A. Pike & J. S. Pollard & J. Tomaney & S. Dawley & J. Gray, 2012. "Placing the run on northern rock," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 157-181, January.
    17. Athanasios Tsagkanos & Antonios Georgopoulos & Costas Siriopoulos & Evangelos Koumanakos, 2008. "Identification of Greek Takeover Targets and Coherent Policy Implications," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 180-192, February.
    18. Patrizia Battilani & Vera Zamagni, 2012. "The managerial transformation of Italian co-operative enterprises 1946--2010," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 964-985, October.
    19. Paolo Coccorese & Giovanni Ferri & Fabiola Spiniello, 2017. "Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on post-M&A efficiency in Italy," CERBE Working Papers wpC18, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    20. Elisabetta Montanaro, 2010. "Islamic Banking: A Challenge for the Basel Capital Accord," Chapters, in: M. Fahim Khan & Mario Porzio (ed.), Islamic Banking and Finance in the European Union, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:21:y:2003:i:5:p:735-760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.