IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v44y2002i3p91-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Governance, Strategy and Structure in British Business History, 1950-2000

Author

Listed:
  • Steve Toms
  • Mike Wright

Abstract

This article examines why British firms adopted diversification strategies and multi-divisional structures in the middle of the twentieth century and why this strategy and structure was reversed towards the end. Corporate governance mechanisms and the impact on information costs of such monitoring arrangements are considered in conjunction with strategy and structure to explain these changes. Diversification and multi-divisional adoption were associated with ineffective governance, poor monitoring and poor performance, whilst refocusing and divestment after 1980 were associated with more effective monitoring and improved performance. The evidence suggests important relationships between governance, strategy and business performance that help explain the development of British business institutions in the second half of the twentieth century.

Suggested Citation

  • Steve Toms & Mike Wright, 2002. "Corporate Governance, Strategy and Structure in British Business History, 1950-2000," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 91-124.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:44:y:2002:i:3:p:91-124
    DOI: 10.1080/713999280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713999280
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/713999280?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Toms, Steven, 2005. "Financial control, managerial control and accountability: evidence from the British Cotton Industry, 1700-2000," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(7-8), pages 627-653.
    2. Toms, J.S., 2010. "Calculating profit: A historical perspective on the development of capitalism," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 205-221, February.
    3. Steven Toms & John Wilson, 2012. "Revisiting Chandler on the Theory of the Firm," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 22, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Jari Eloranta, 2009. "Rent seeking and collusion in the military allocation decisions of Finland, Sweden, and Great Britain, 1920–381," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(1), pages 23-44, February.
    5. Neveen Abdelrehim, 2022. "Corporate Governance and Corporate Failure in the Oil Industry: Historical Analysis of Anglo Iranian Oil Company," Eurasian Journal of Business and Management, Eurasian Publications, vol. 10(3), pages 181-189.
    6. Toms, Steven & Fleischman, Richard K., 2015. "Accounting fundamentals and accounting change: Boulton & Watt and the Springfield Armory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-20.
    7. Ees, Hans van & Bachmann, Reinhard, 2003. "Transition economics and trust building : a network perspective on E.U. enlargement," Research Report 03G06, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).

    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:taf:bushst:v:44:y:2002:i:3:p:91-124. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    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.