The rise and decline of small firms

Boswell, Jonathan

George Allen and Unwin Ltd.

Presenting a new political and historical theory of the mixed economy, this book is a convincing argument for a challenging social ideal - democratic communitarianism. Individualistic notions of liberty, equality and prosperity are too central to modern life and they need to be balanced by values of `community' and co-operation. Arguing that such a transformation is possible and practical, the author argues that long-term changes must be achieved before economic success can take place in a more fraternal, participative, and democratic society.

Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-operation

Business & Money

Economics

Routledge

Presenting a new political and historical theory of the mixed economy, this book is a convincing argument for a challenging social ideal - democratic communitarianism. Individualistic notions of liberty, equality and prosperity are too central to modern life and they need to be balanced by values of `community' and co-operation. Arguing that such a transformation is possible and practical, the author argues that long-term changes must be achieved before economic success can take place in a more fraternal, participative, and democratic society.

Community and the Economy

Capitalism in Contention: Business Leaders and Political Economy in Modern Britain

Capitalism in Contention examines the ideas of business leaders on political, economic and ethical issues in modern Britain. Drawing on hitherto unexplored records and wide-ranging interviews, the book sheds new light on the Wilson, Heath and Thatcher periods, the "mixed economy" and the "New Right", the peak representative organizations of business, and business relationships with government. This book will be of value to students and scholars of political economy, economic history and business, and all those interested in the influence of an important actor in modern political life.

PETERS, James

Cambridge University Press

Business Policies in the Making (Routledge Revivals): Three Steel Companies Compared

First published in 1983, this study investigates and compares three leading firms in the British iron and steel industry between 1914 and 1939, analysing their strategies, boardroom politics, and their responses to the problems posed by the Great War and by the vicissitudes of the 1920s and ‘30s. Jonathan Boswell illuminates certain issues that are of perennial importance for students of business: rationality and ‘error’ in decision-making, ethics, centralisation versus decentralisation, and the question of cyclical phases. The central theme throughout is the pursuit of three partly conflicting objectives: growth, efficiency and social action. The trade-offs between these three pursuits are used to examine significant contrasts in corporate strategies and behaviour, including towards government and public opinion. Boswell’s rejection of economic determinism; his insistence that managerial influences fall into definable long-run patterns; and his theses on managerial specialisation and long-term policy biases confront fundamental issues for theories of the firm.

Biography & History

The Rise and Decline of Small Firms (Routledge Revivals)

First published in 1973, this title examines the development patterns of small businesses. It considers why people found firms; the factors that contribute to entrepreneurial success; problems of management succession and inheritance; the strengths and weaknesses of family firms; the reasons why small firms are taken over; and the social, economic and managerial context of their growth, decline, and revival. Based on a survey of sixty-four firms, each employing fewer than five hundred people, in engineering, hosiery, and knitwear, and on the records of 370 similar organisations, a striking gap in performance and management attitudes emerges as between dynamic, mostly founder-run firms and stagnant, mostly inherited ones. Where many books are either minutely specialised or highly abstract and over-generalised, Jonathan Boswell’s work is practical and diagnostic, probing the inner recesses of the small firm sector. With particular relevance to the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in today’s economic environment, this title advances selective measures to deal with old firms and inheritance, and a wide range of policies to encourage new entrepreneurship.

Industries

First published in 1973, this title examines the development patterns of small businesses. It considers why people found firms; the factors that contribute to entrepreneurial success; problems of management succession and inheritance; the strengths and weaknesses of family firms; the reasons why small firms are taken over; and the social, economic and managerial context of their growth, decline, and revival. Based on a survey of sixty-four firms, each employing fewer than five hundred people, in engineering, hosiery, and knitwear, and on the records of 370 similar organisations, a striking gap in performance and management attitudes emerges as between dynamic, mostly founder-run firms and stagnant, mostly inherited ones. Where many books are either minutely specialised or highly abstract and over-generalised, Jonathan Boswell’s work is practical and diagnostic, probing the inner recesses of the small firm sector. With particular relevance to the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in today’s economic environment, this title advances selective measures to deal with old firms and inheritance, and a wide range of policies to encourage new entrepreneurship.

First published in 1983, this study investigates and compares three leading firms in the British iron and steel industry between 1914 and 1939, analysing their strategies, boardroom politics, and their responses to the problems posed by the Great War and by the vicissitudes of the 1920s and ‘30s. Jonathan Boswell illuminates certain issues that are of perennial importance for students of business: rationality and ‘error’ in decision-making, ethics, centralisation versus decentralisation, and the question of cyclical phases. The central theme throughout is the pursuit of three partly conflicting objectives: growth, efficiency and social action. The trade-offs between these three pursuits are used to examine significant contrasts in corporate strategies and behaviour, including towards government and public opinion. Boswell’s rejection of economic determinism; his insistence that managerial influences fall into definable long-run patterns; and his theses on managerial specialisation and long-term policy biases confront fundamental issues for theories of the firm.

Finance

Social and Business Enterprises (RLE: Organizations) (Routledge Library Editions: Organizations)

Reference

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Books by Boswell, Jonathan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Boswell, Jonathan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The rise and decline of small firms

Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-operation

Community and the Economy

Capitalism in Contention: Business Leaders and Political Economy in Modern Britain

Capitalism in Contention: Business Leaders and Political Economy in Modern Britain

Business Policies in the Making (Routledge Revivals): Three Steel Companies Compared

The Rise and Decline of Small Firms (Routledge Revivals)

The Rise and Decline of Small Firms (Routledge Revivals)

Business Policies in the Making (Routledge Revivals): Three Steel Companies Compared

Social and Business Enterprises (RLE: Organizations) (Routledge Library Editions: Organizations)