The restructuring and privatisation of British Rail: Was it really that bad?

This paper uses a social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) framework to assess whether rail privatisation in Britain has produced savings in operating costs. The paper shows that major efficiencies have been achieved, consumers have benefited through lower prices, whilst the increased government subsidy has been largely recouped through privatisation proceeds. We also find that output quality is no lower (and is probably better) than under the counterfactual scenario of public ownership (pre-Hatfield). The achievement of further savings is key to delivering improved rail services in the future. This paper finds that a privatised structure, where shareholders demand a return on their investment, has led to significant improvements in operating efficiency - it remains to be seen whether the new regime, with a not-for-profit infrastructure owner, will deliver the same efficiency improvements

Entrepreneurship and the development of global brands

Over the course of the twentieth century, entrepreneurs developed a number of successful global brands in consumer-goods industries. However, few independent brands survived the merger waves of the 1980s. To address the question of why so few independent brands survived, this paper examines successful brands in industries that rely principally on advertising for competitive success. Successful consumer-goods brands in several industries and countries are compared in order to highlight innovative strategies pursued by brand managers. The analyzed brands are mainly owned by Europeans, although a few examples of American and Japanese brands are covered as well

La estructura de la propiedad, la organización y la gestión de una gran empresa ferroviaria: la Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España, 1858-1936

Editada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaEl trabajo estudia la composición del accionariado de una de las mayores compañías de ferrocarriles privadas que operaron en España y en la economía española entre 1858 y 1941, la Compañía de los Ferrocarriles del Norte. Se reconstruyen los cambios que experimentó la estructura de la propiedad y se identifican los grupos de mayor capacidad en la toma de decisiones. Al mismo tiempo se establecen las repercusiones que tuvieron los cambios del accionariado en la composición del Consejo de Administración. Todo ello en el marco de la teoría de agencia, buscando conocer los avances en la estructura corporativa de la empresa, poniéndola en relación con el comportamiento de las compañías de ferrocarril en el resto de Europa y los Estados Unidos. Se pone de relieve que la influencia francesa fue determinante, tanto en la estructura de la propiedad como en la gestión y en la configuración del CA. Sólo a comienzos del siglo XX, y especialmente tras la Guerra de 1914, se produjo una mayor presencia del capital nacional en el accionariado, así como un estilo más internacional en la gestión. Esto último estuvo relacionado directamente con la política de los directores generales, que iniciaron un período de reclutamiento de directivos y personal cualificado español, rompiendo con la anterior tradición, más personalista y francófona. Finalmente se aborda cómo tuvo lugar la modificación de las estructuras organizativas de la compañía, que pasaron de un esquema en linea a otro más complejo y evolucionado, aunque sin llegar a ser un organigrama plenamente multidivisional.This article studies the evolution of the composition of shareholders in one of the big companies in Spain, Compañía del Norte, devoted to railways sector between 1858 and 1941. Changes in property and interests groups inside the company are identified along the time. We establish the implications that this changes had in the Board of Administration by using modern agency theory, and looking for how the corporate structure advanced within the company. This process is studied from a comparative point of view in Europe and United States. The French influence in property, management and power in BA is highlighted. Only at the beginning of the XX century, when First World War broke out, Spanish capital got the majority of shareholders and the company introduced and intemational management style. The Spanish General Managers started to recruit new executives from qualified staS preferably with the same nationality, introducing a new system between the managers. This meant a break with hierarchic and militar system imposed by French style. Finally we analyse the evolution of the organization of the company which grew up rapidly from Une schemes into a more complex structure although without arriving at a multidivisional one.Publicad

Internal accounting practices at Whitbread & Company c.1890-1925

This paper examines internal accounting practices at Whitbread & Company from c. 1890 to 1925. At this time, there was an increasing interest in cost accounting, but there is little detailed extant research on general internal accounting practices of firms. The brewing sector, we suggest, is a potentially fruitful realm to further our knowledge of this time. Drawing on the Whitbread brewery archival records, we chart the internal accounting practices of the company. Our findings reveal a stable set of accounting practices, focused mainly on bookkeeping, although the firm’s auditor produced some reports which may have been useful for management decision-making. We argue these practices were highly institutionalised, and seemingly resistant to external forces present in the company’s environment

Improving the public house in Britain, 1920-40: Sir Sydney Nevile and 'social work'

The ‘improved public house’ movement in the inter-war years was a central part of the shift towards retailing by the brewing industry. An important part of the reform movement was the alliance between certain brewers, notably Whitbread, and ‘social workers’, particularly those associated with the University settlement movement in London. Using the papers of Sydney Nevile, the importance of a particular social milieu is outlined, calling into question attempts to align the movement to improve public houses with transatlantic Progressivism. Rather, this alliance drew upon longstanding English traditions of public service and religious affiliation amongst a fraction of the gentry

Drift or shift? Continuity, change, and international variation in knowledge production in OR/MS

With the aim of contributing to the debate around OR/MS as a discipline, this study provides a historical comparative investigation of publicly available knowledge production in the field. The empirical investigation is based on a content analysis of 300 randomly selected articles from six major journals in the field. We have found: (1) since the late 1950s to the present day there has been no significant change in the types of published research in OR/MS in North America; (2) from the late 1950s to the present day, there have been significant differences in types of published research in OR/MS internationally. The imputed imbalance between theory and applications in published work had already occurred in the early stages of the development of OR/MS in North America and has since remained very much the same. Furthermore, research in the United Kingdom has been distinctly different from that dominant in North America and elsewhere. There are also indications that outside North America and the United Kingdom there is an emerging turn towards applications-oriented research. Over the last two or three decades there has been a significant increase overall in the share of articles published by academic authors

Socioemotional wealth in family firms: a longitudinal content analysis of corporate disclosures

This is the Accepted Manuscript of the article published in Journal of Family Business Strategy, 2019, 10(2), pp. 119-132, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2018.11.002. Please cite the published version. This Accepted Manuscript is deposited under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.Family business literature has noted the nature and presence of socioemotional wealth (SEW) in family firms. One method of observing SEW is by a five-dimension approach, collectively termed FIBER. While the dimensions are well defined, they have been critiqued, as have the theoretical foundations of SEW. Regardless, given the concept of SEW is about a decade old and the FIBER dimensions less so, it is reasonable to argue more research is needed. One potentially useful research approach is an historical one, which we will here term SEW history – the use of historical research to support (or question) the development of SEW as a concept. We undertake a content analysis of corporate disclosures through the Chairman’s Statement of two Irish family breweries over a period of about two decades. To conduct the analysis, we develop a coding scheme based on the FIBER dimensions and offer some research propositions around these dimensions of SEW being stable (or not) over time. Our findings reveal that the Chairman’s Statement does include FIBER dimensions in both breweries and they do change over time. Subsequent statistical analysis reveals significant differences in the FIBER dimensions between the two breweries and context is revealed as a key issue in the assessment of SEW, something prior research has noted. The study also raises some questions on the nature of some FIBER dimensions, in particular the “I” dimension. This is the Accepted Manuscript of the article published in Journal of Family Business Strategy, 2019, 10(2), pp. 119-132, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2018.11.002. Please cite the published version. This Accepted Manuscript is deposited under a CC-BY-NC-ND license

From Monasteries to Multinationals (and Back): A Historical Review of the Beer Economy

This article reviews beer production, consumption and the industrial organization of breweries throughout history. Monasteries were the centers of the beer economy in the early Middle Ages. Innovation and increased demand later induced the growth of commercial breweries. Globalization and scientific discoveries transfirmed the beer industry and increased competition from the 16th through the 19th century. The 20th century was characterized by dramatic (domestic and international) consolidation, major shifts in consumption patterns, and the re-emergence of small breweries