IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v48y2006i4p551-579.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The growth, development and management of J. & P. Coats Ltd, c.1890-1960: An analysis of strategy and structure

Author

Listed:
  • Kirsten Kininmonth

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the management of one of Britain's most important multinational companies, J. & P. Coats Ltd, in the period 1890-1960, a topic which has not hitherto been examined in detail. In particular, the article examines the system of committees that the enterprise used to control and direct its disparate empire over the time period concerned. As a theoretical focus, the study compares what is found in the writings of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., who held that, in general, British family capital and management inhibited business growth and development, especially when compared with firms in the USA. The article concludes that Coats did not fit this interpretation. It provides the first in-depth study of the management of one of Britain's largest and most successful multinational companies, clarifying the relationships between organizational structure and financial arrangements, concluding that Coats' approach to management, although in some ways unique, was appropriate to its aims.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirsten Kininmonth, 2006. "The growth, development and management of J. & P. Coats Ltd, c.1890-1960: An analysis of strategy and structure," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(4), pages 551-579.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:48:y:2006:i:4:p:551-579
    DOI: 10.1080/00076790600809219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00076790600809219
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076790600809219?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Macrosty, Henry William, 1907. "The Trust Movement in British Industry," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number macrosty.
    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. Teresa da Silva Lopes & Mark Casson & Geoffrey Jones, 2019. "Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: Internalization theory and business history," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(8), pages 1338-1358, October.
    2. Toms, Steven, 2017. "Network preferences and the growth of the British cotton textile industry, c.1780-1914," MPRA Paper 80058, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Igor Filatotchev & Steve Toms, 2006. "Corporate Governance and Financial Constraints on Strategic Turnarounds," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 407-433, May.
    2. David Higgins & Steve Toms, 2003. "Financial distress, corporate borrowing, and industrial decline: the Lancashire cotton spinning industry, 1918-38," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 207-232.
    3. Giocoli, Nicola, 2012. "British economists on competition policy (1890-1920)," MPRA Paper 39245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. James Foreman-Peck & Leslie Hannah, 2014. "Some consequences of the early twentieth-century British divorce of ownership from control," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 335-335, March.
    5. Lance Davis, 1966. "The Capital Markets and Industrial Concentration: The U.S. and U.K., a Comparative Study," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 19(2), pages 255-272, August.
    6. David Higgins & Steven Toms & Igor Filatotchev, 2015. "Ownership, financial strategy and performance: the Lancashire cotton textile industry, 1918-1938," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 97-121, January.
    7. Toms, Steven, 2017. "Network preferences and the growth of the British cotton textile industry, c.1780-1914," MPRA Paper 80058, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. By RICHARD PERREN, 1990. "Structural change and market growth in the food industry: flour milling in Britain, Europe, and America, 1850-1914," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 43(3), pages 420-437, August.
    9. Julian Franks & Colin Mayer & Stefano Rossi, 2005. "Spending Less Time with the Family: The Decline of Family Ownership in the United Kingdom," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 581-612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. James Foreman-Peck & Leslie Hannah, 2012. "Some Consequences of the Early Twentieth Century Divorce of Ownership from Control," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-864, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    11. Gareth Shaw & Andrew Alexander & John Benson & Deborah Hodson, 2000. "The Evolving Culture of Retailer Regulation and the Failure of the ‘Balfour Bill’ in Interwar Britain," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 32(11), pages 1977-1989, November.
    12. Foreman-Peck, James & Hannah, Leslie, 2011. "Extreme Divorce: the Managerial Revolution in UK Companies before 1914," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2011/21, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.

    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:48:y:2006:i:4:p:551-579. 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: 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.