Family Capitalism : : Wendels, Haniels, Falcks, and the Continental European Model / / Harold James.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
• VerfasserIn: James, Harold,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2022]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (448 p.)

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."

Table of 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