Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T20:53:10.515Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Governance at Points of Corporate Transition: Networks and the Formation of the United Alkali Company, 1890–1895

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Andrew Popp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the formation in 1890 of the United Alkali Company in order to explore new perspectives on the transition to a corporate economy. Its starting point is the process of transition itself, highlighting the role played by networks. This perspective promotes an emphasis on institutional environments and on patterns of relationships and behavior, as opposed to those of formal structure. Thus, the archives of the company are probed for evidence of how key agents conceived of the firm. Finally, governance systems are seen as interacting in a dynamic fashion with the institutional environment, and in particular with the balance of internal and external economies.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2006 , pp. 315 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2006. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Barney, J. B. Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. New York, 1997.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, Mass., 1990.Google Scholar
Checkland, S. G. The Mines of Tharsis. London, 1967.Google Scholar
Hardie, D. W. F. A History of the Chemical Industry in Widnes. London, 1950.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. O. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Princeton, N.J., 1958.Google Scholar
Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. and Its Founding Companies. Vol. 3: The History of the United Alkali Company Ltd., 1890–1926. London, 1939.Google Scholar
Irvine, A. S. A History of the Alkali Division, Formerly Brunner, Mond and Co. Ltd.: A Booklet for Newly Joined Managerial Staff. London, n.d.Google Scholar
Jeremy, David J. Dictionary of Business Biography. London, 1984.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi. The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895–1904. Cambridge, U.K., 1985.Google Scholar
Reader, W. J. Imperial Chemical Industries: A History. Vol. 1: The Forerunners, 1870–1926. Oxford, U.K., 1970.Google Scholar
Stobart, Jon. The First Industrial Region: North-west England, c. 1700–60. Manchester, U.K., 2004.Google Scholar
Storper, Michael. The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy. New York, 1997.Google Scholar
The Struggle for Supremacy: Being a Series of Chapters in the History of the Leblanc Alkali Industry in Great Britain. Liverpool, U.K., 1907.Google Scholar
Timmins, Geoffrey. Made in Lancashire: A History of Regional Industrialisation. Manchester, U.K., 1998.Google Scholar
Warren, Kenneth. Chemical Foundations: The Alkali Industry in Britain to 1926. Oxford, U.K., 1983.Google Scholar
Wilson, John F. British Business History, 1720–1994. Manchester, U.K., 1995.Google Scholar
Wilson, John F., and Andrew Popp, eds. Industrial Clusters and Regional Business Networks in England, 1750–1970. Aldershot, U.K., 2003.Google Scholar

Articles and Essays

Casson, Mark. “An Economic Approach to Regional Business Networks.” In Industrial Districts and Regional Business Networks in England, 1750–1970, ed. John F. Wilson and Andrew Popp. Aldershot, U.K., 2003, pp. 19–43.Google Scholar
Cookson, Gillian. “Family Firms and Business Networks: Textile Engineering in Yorkshire, 1780–1830.” Business History 39 (Jan. 1997): 1–20.Google Scholar
Fear, Jeffrey R. “Constructing Big Business: The Cultural Concept of the Firm.” In Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, ed. Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Franco Amatori, and Takashi Hikino. Cambridge, U.K., 1999, pp. 546–74.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Robert. “The Competitive and Institutional Advantages of Holding Companies: British Business in the Inter-war Years.” Journal of Industrial History 3, no. 2 (2000): 1–30.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark. “Problems of Explanation in Economic Sociology.” In Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action, ed. Nitin Nohria and Robert G. Eccles. Boston, 1992, pp. 25–56.Google Scholar
Hassink, Robert, and Dong-Ho Shin. “Guest Editorial: The Restructuring of Old Industrial Areas in Europe and Asia.” Environment and Planning A 37 (April 2005): 571–80.Google Scholar
Kudo, Y. “Strategy and Structure of the United Alkali Company Limited: A Case Study of the Rise of Big Business in Great Britain.” Academia-Nanzan Journal of Economics and Business Administration 66 (March 1980): 73–149.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Jones, Roger, and M. J. Lewis. “Regional Business Networks in Historical Perspective: The British Bicycle Industry, 1870–1914.” In Business History, Theory and Practice: Proceedings of the Conference on Business History and Theory, ed. Tony Slaven. Glasgow, 2000, pp. 142–60.Google Scholar
Nohria, Nitin. “Is a Network Perspective a Useful Way of Studying Organizations?” In Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action, ed. Nitin Nohria and Robert G. Eccles. Boston, 1992, pp. 1–22.Google Scholar
Popp, Andrew “Industrial Clustering in England in Historical Perspective: Facts and Concepts.” In Diebold Institute Working Papers. Bedford, N.Y., 2002, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Popp, Andrew. “Networks and Industrial Restructuring: The Widnes District and the Formation of the United Alkali Company.” In Industrial Clusters and Regional Business Networks in England, 1750–1970, ed. John F. Wilson and Andrew Popp. Aldershot, U.K., 2003, pp. 208–29.Google Scholar
Quail, John. “The Proprietorial Theory of the Firm.” Journal of Industrial History 3, no. 1 (2000): 1–28.Google Scholar
Scranton, Philip. “Webs of Productive Association in American Industrialization: Patterns of Institutional Formation and Their Limits: Philadelphia, 1880–1930.” Journal of Industrial History 1, no.1 (1998): 9–34.Google Scholar
Staber, Udo. “Social Embeddedness of Industrial District Networks.” In Regional Business Networks: Prospects for Prosperity, ed. U. Staber, N. Schaeffer, and B. Sharma. Berlin, 1996, pp. 148–74.Google Scholar
Toms, Steve, and John F. Wilson. “Scale, Scope, and Accountability: Towards a New Paradigm of British Business History.” Business History 45, no. 4 (2003): 1–23.Google Scholar
Toms, Steve, and Wright, Mike. “Corporate Governance, Strategy, and Structure in British Business History, 1950–2000.” Business History 44 (July 2002): 91–124.Google Scholar
Wilson, John F., and Andrew Popp. “Business Networking in the Industrial Revolution: Some Comments.” Economic History Review 56, no. 2 (2003): 355–61.Google Scholar

Newspapers

The Weekly News. Widnes Public Library, Widnes, U.K.Google Scholar

Archival Sources

Chester Record Office, Chester, U.K.Google Scholar
UA/3/1. Minute Book of the Board of Directors of the United Alkali Company Ltd.Google Scholar
UA/3/4/1. Minutes of the Meetings of the East Coast Directors of the United Alkali Company Ltd., 1890–93.Google Scholar
UA6/6/1. Instructions for Preparing Works Cost Accounts.Google Scholar
UA/17/30. Minutes of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Widnes Traders Association.Google Scholar
UA/17/31. Widnes Traders Association Scrapbook.Google Scholar