This selection of readings demonstrates the use of both descriptive analysis and quantitative methods in the study of business records. The emphasis, however, is on the role of various quantitative approaches.
Part I contains articles that consider a number of questions about the methods to be used and the aims of business history research. How is the subject to be defined? What types of analysis are most useful in research? In what ways can the findings of any research he used?
Part II provides a number of examples of business history writing that demonstrate the results of a quantitative approach using both Primary and secondary source material. Some of the papers concentrate on the growth and performance of firms from various sectors of the economy. Some consider features of industrial structure. Others concentrate on techniques of marketing, personnel management and the assessment of profitability.
Part III focuses on the techniques of manage meat that have been used to motivate or control the development of business activity. The studies include an analysis of the role of accounting data and other types of information, aids to forecasting, market analysis and the problems of risk and uncertainty in business decision making within various contexts.
The editor has not only provided an introduction to the reprinted articles but he has also included, in Part IV, several special appendices useful for future research in business history. There is a section on allowing for changes in the unit of account. Another appendix deals with the merits and limitations of financial ratio analysis. An extensive bibliography is also provided. This authoritative text was first published in 1977.
Edited by:
K. A Tucker
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 860g
ISBN: 9780415607742
ISBN 10: 0415607744
Series: Economic History
Pages: 448
Publication Date: 20 October 2010
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Part 1: Aims and Methods in Business History 1. Economic Theory and Business History 2. Business History and the Theory of the Growth of the Firm 3. Business History: Some Proposals for Aims and Methodology Part 2: Entrepreneurs, The Firm and Industrial Structure 5. The Govan Collieries 1804–1805 6. The Productivity of Capital in the Lancashire Cotton Industry During the Nineteenth Century 7. Factory Discipline in the Industrial Revolution 8. The Profitability of Consett Iron Company before 1914 9. James Nasmyth and the Early Growth of Mechanical Engineering 10. Vertical Integration in American Manufacturing, 1899–1948 11. The Growth of Competition among the Standard Oil Companies in the United States, 1911–1961 12. Government Contracting, Competition and Growth in the Heavy Woollen Industry 13. The Growth Strategies of Southern Railroads, 1865–1893 14. The Merchant as Catalyst: Financing Economic Growth 15. What Price Style? The Fabric Advisory Function of the Dry Goods Commission Merchant, 1850–1880 16. Accounting and The Rise of Capitalism: Further Notes on a Theme by Sombart 17. Early Cost Accounting for Internal Management Control 18. An Early Victorian Business Forecaster in The Woollen Industry 19. A Manchester Merchant and His Schedules of Supply and Demand 20. The Social Organisation of Credit in a West African Cattle Market Part 3: Special Appendices Author Index General Index
