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."

First published in 1994. The articles in this collection are concerned with family-owned business enterprises and span three centuries and three continents. Family firms account for between 75 per cent and 99 per cent of all companies in the EC, and 65 per cent of GDP and employment in Europe. While the huge majority of family businesses are very small-scale, many are not. In the United States one-third of Fortune 500 companies are currentlyfamily-controlled.

Here the authors offer a perspective set apart from the more traditional depiction of the family business as being isolated, nepotistic, and fraught with succession conflicts and dramas. They focus on the identification of strategies derived from successful family businesses and owners from geographically distinct locations that include: China, the United Kingdom, Africa, the United States of America, Colombia, Germany, Sweden and Israel and examine the driving forces in the founding, consolidation and survival over generations in ownership of a business, as well as in the renewal of entrepreneurship within and between generations.

A collection of essays offering an overview of the importance and resilience of family-controlled large businesses.

Capitalism in Contrasting Cultures.

Although market importance is acknowledged, this work's emerging theme is the need to account for the ways in which multiple forms of social organization -- elite groups, communities & government structures -- influence economic processes.

Discusses gender quota reform from an economic, political and philosophical point of view. This title looks at whether the economic performance of companies is influenced, positively or negatively. It provides a comparative study of the access of women to top positions in business in Europe.

The 2008 financial crisis has come to be known as the Great Crisis. Just when the world thought that, with the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Marxism would die and be buried, the Great Crisis of the first decade of the 21st century, has triggered a renewed interest in Marxism. This book looks at Marx’s seminal work – Capital, A Critique of Political Economy – from an energy perspective. By combining the thoughts of this great thinker with those of scholars on energy, both past and present, this book serves to enhance the scientific thought of Marx, by using energy as a conceptual and analytical tool. With the capitalist economy taking repeated beatings since 2008, mainstream economic science is also under critical scrutiny for the unpredictable manner in which it has thus far analysed the global capitalist system. The invisible hand and self-interest theses of Adam Smith and his adherents are proving to be unworthy of their 250 year ideological grip on mankind and the natural environment. The 500 year-old capitalist system itself is showing signs of wear and tear, and so are its sciences that have thus far attempted to analyse it, if not uphold it. With the growing acknowledgement of energy as a central entity in all of aspects of life, disciplines such as economics are giving rise to interdisciplinary sciences such as econophysics; and sociology may see a revival of its founding discipline – sociophysics. All disciplines, it seems, will have to incorporate energy as a field of study in their curricula. Marx’s thoughts in Capital are an amalgamation of science, philosophy, history, sociology, political economy, and anthropology, among others. Capital: An Energy Perspective provides a fresh look at the physical workings of the capitalist economy – by using Marx’s Capital as a framework of interpretation and analysis.

In contrast to widespread assessments that family enterprises lack sufficient resources and capabilities to go global, many family companies are competing successfully in an increasingly globalized business environment. Worldwide, a large number of thriving multinationals are still family-owned and/or under family control. While there is abundant literature on the phenomenon of globalization from many different disciplines, neither the literature on multinationals nor the growing field of family business studies have systematically investigated family multinationals yet. This volume is one of the first to deal explicitly with family multinationals and the role of the family in internationalization. It situates itself at the crossroads of internationalization studies on the one hand and family business research on the other. Why do families continue to play such a large role in some of the most prominent firms in emerging and mature economies? How did they manage to maintain ownership control, yet divest of unrelated business ventures? How did they internationalize yet maintain control? This book identifies the idiosyncratic strategies and structures of family multinationals in different countries and at different points in time. A comparative historical and case study approach allows us to explore the role of the family through the firms’ various internationalization pathways and understand long-term developments and path dependencies.

The SAGE Handbook of Family Business captures the conceptual map and state-of-the-art thinking on family business - an area experiencing rapid global growth in research and education since the last three decades. Edited by the leading figures in family business studies, with contributions and editorial board support from the most prominent scholars in the field, this Handbook reflects on the development and current status of family enterprise research in terms of applied theories, methods, topics investigated, and perspectives on the field′s future. The SAGE Handbook of Family Business is divided into following six sections, allowing for ease of navigation while gaining a multi-dimensional perspective and understanding of the field. Part I: Theoretical perspectives in family business studies Part II: Major issues in family business studies Part III: Entrepreneurial and managerial aspects in family business studies Part IV: Behavioral and organizational aspects in family business studies Part V: Methods in use in family business studies Part VI: The future of the field of family business studies By including critical reflections and presenting possible alternative perspectives and theories, this Handbook contributes to the framing of future research on family enterprises around the world. It is an invaluable resource for current and future scholars interested in understanding the unique dynamics of family enterprises under the rubric of entrepreneurship, strategic management, organization theory, accounting, marketing or other related areas.