Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
Aims of the study: 1) track the strategic and structural development of large industrial firms in the United Kingdom, France and Germany up to 1993 in order to gain a longitudinal and cross-nationally comparative perspective on strategic and structural change. The compilation of this dataset allows us to compare changes in the strategy and structure amongst large British industrial enterprises with trends in the immediate post-war period and with French and German firms over the 1980’s and early 1990’s; 2) track the development of ownership patterns and the functional backgrounds of chief executive officers of large industrial firms in the United Kingdom, France and Germany in order to gain a longitudinal and cross-nationally comparative perspective on the development of these key dimensions of corporate governance, control and systems of management development and leadership; 3) investigate the relationship between national context, diversification strategy and ownership patterns and the non-adoption of the multidivisional organisational form in order to allow comment on a) the role of national, economic and political factors in affecting changes in organisational structure thereby testing, within a European context, the relative power of the original Harvard theory of the diversified, multidivisional firm against sociological theories stressing institutional influences within and between countries, and b) investigate the universality or local specificity of such relationships; 4) to leverage the outcomes of considerations related to aims 1 through 3 in order to comment on wider debates in the strategy field and the social sciences more widely concerning the possibility of universality/generalisability on the one hand and the imperative of local specificity on the other; 5) to contribute to managerial and policy debates on the benefits of the diversified, multidivisional firm and on the extent of West European convergence on a dominant model of industrial organisation.
Main Topics:
The data set includes the following: classification of firms into categories of diversification strategy according to the categorical approach and criteria developed by Rumelt (1974); classification of firms into categories of diversification strategy according to the categorical approach and criteria used by Channon (1973) for the United Kingdom, Dyas (1972) for France and Thanheiser (1972) for Germany for two time periods each: 1983 and 1993; classification of firms into categories of organisational structure in line with the approach and criteria used by Channon (1973), Dyas (1972) and Thanheiser (1972). Average return on assets for, respectively the years 1982-1984 and 1992-1994; indication of the functional background of the chief executive officer according to the dominant track through which the chief executive officer has risen to the top; indication if the firms had owners with 5 percent or more of voting shares in the following categories: personal (family or entrepreneurial); bank and/or other financial institution; other firm; state. Standard Measures The categorisation of diversification strategy was based on the categorical approach developed by Rumelt (1974); For categorisation of ownership the standard cut-off point of 5 percent of voting shares (Palmer et al. 1993) was used; As indicator of systems of management control the researchers followed Palmer et al. 1993 in classifying top management career backgrounds according to the dominant track through which the chief executive officers have risen to the top.
No sampling (total universe)
Face-to-face interview
Telephone interview
Information collected from published sources: press reports; annual reports; published company newsletters and reports for investors; published case studies.
