Management Problems the Western-Style
In
at the Turn of the Century
KAZUO YAMAGUCHI
All of the papers published in
this number were read at the third annual conference of the Business History
Society of Japan which was held at
In the opening address, Kazuo
Yamaguchi emphasized the extent of the competition the western-style
enterprises in
The second speaker, Kanji Ishii, of the University of Tokyo, explained that there were two types of silk-reeling mills, the mills which produced the common grade of raw silk and the mills which specialized in fine raw silk, both being exported for the American market.
He also emphasized that the
patterns of behavior of the two mills, the Kata-kura of the former type and the
Gunze of the latter, were quite different in financing, purchasing, and labor
recruitment. The commentator,
Naosuke Takamura of
Yoichiro Inoue of
Tsunehiko Yui, of
Toshimitsu lmuta of Osaka Municipal University suggested that the success of Tokyo Marine Insurance should also be considered in relation to the de-velopment of industrial enterprises, to the cooperation among the competitive insurance companies and finally to the generous government subsidies.
The final reporter, Yoshio
Togai of
Keiichiro Nakagawa of
“THE STONE THAT THE BUILDERS REFUSED . . .”
A. H. Cole
The author emphasizes the need for the studies in “meso-economics, “ a new field of the research concerning entrepreneurship. The other-support-ing institutional relations which lie between the economic development and entrepreneurship have been discarded by both macro-and micro-economics. But the development of such a business system, or “structural innovation” is considered by the author to be a primary source for economic development A full text in English of this paper will be published in Tradition, the German journal of business history.
AN ASPECT IN THE BUSINESS HISTORY OF THE
AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Koichi Shimokawa
During the 1920’ s, the structure of the American automobile market changed from that of a simple growth market to that of a replacement market. An examination of that period has some importance to the business history of the American automobile industry. This article will point out some of the characteristics of the structure of the American automobile industry in the twenties. Model changes were regularized during this period through a transformation of the market structure. Competitiveness in market shares was achieved by big firms through improvements in the efficiency of passenger cars and through the establishment of a demand-sliding schedule. Third, the demand for automobiles was saturated after 1925 and the automobile industry was chronically in a state of oversupply, thus investment was financed exclusively from retained profits.
During the twenties, Ford and GM developed contrasting managerial policies. Ford was able to reduce the production costs significantly by a technological rationalization of assembly processes, while GM adopted a decentralized managerial scheme to deal with changes in the market structure. After 1925, GM succeeded in surpassing Ford in the production of automobiles. GM also had a superior system of financial controls, and was ready for an administered pricing system, by means of objective rates of return and standard volumes.
Finally, the twenties v/ere aturning point for the American automobile industry. During this period, price competition was severe, preventing the establishment of a monopolistic control. New managerial techniques were adopted to develop advanced marketing and pricing policies geared to perpetual model changes. Thus the twenties may be regarded as preparatory to the oligopolistic era of the thirties.
RECENT STUDIES ON BUSINESS HISTORY OF
OF BANKING AND STEEL-MAKING IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY—
Teruaki Endo
Prof. D. S. Landes and other
American scholars who did pioneering research on French business history
studied the reasons for the economic stagnation of
By contrast, Prof. B. Gille and other French business historians empha-
sized the success of national economic planning since the end of the World WarⅡ and tried to make it clear that the economic development in this
period stemmed from various phenomena of the late 19th century: the
corporation system, the joint-stock deposit and investment banks, and the
technological innovations in the steel industry. For the purpose of clarifying
contributions of 19th century entrepreneurs to the economic
development in France, French scholars have published two journals, Histoire des Enterprises
and Revue d’Histoire de la Siderurgie.
The author reviewed the papers appearing in the above two journals, and
outlined the development of the banking and the steel-making businesses in
SOME ASPECTS ON THE LIMITED LIABILITY
IN THE MAKING OF THE MITSUI ZAIBATSU
Shigeaki Yasuoka
The limited liability system
of all partners was permitted in
In this article I tried to elucidate these elaborate means and make it clear
that the primary objective of the reorganization in 1909 of the Mitsuis subsi-
diaries on the basis of joint-stock system was not the establishment of limited liability but was rather the rationalization of management in its own way.
THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE
PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANY IN
THE UNITED STATES
Junko Nishikawa
The making of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 implies an important role played by public utility holding companies in the development of the bull stock market in the late 192(Xs. A holding company, whose aim is to hold other companies’ securities in order to get controlling power, first appeared in the field of manufacturing industry around 1890. But, under legislative regulations such as Sherman Act or Clayton Act, holding companies were deprived of chances to florish in the manufacturing industry, and were replaced by some other legal means of capital concentration. They found themselves again, however, in the newly developed industry, public utilities, in the 191(Vs, and this was the place for their full activities all through the prosperity decade of the 1920’s. Why in public utilities, not in other fields ? Who created holding companies in public utilities ? The author attempted in this paper to answer these questions by illustrating the development of major holding companies in the 1910’s.
BUSINESS HISTORY AND THE BEHAVIORAL
THEORY OF TNNOVATTON
Hideki Yoshihara
Representative theories of innovation developed for business history studies by such scholars as J. A. Schumpeter, F. Redlich and T. C. Cochran, have mostly emphasized the innovative behaviors of business firms or business executives in order to explain the economic growth and or economic development. They can be grouped under the category of “a macro theory of innovation”.
In order to make an analysis of innovations generated within business organizations themselves, Business History needs “a micro theory of innovation” This micro theory of innovation does not aim to answer macro economic ques-tions, but is primarily designed to explain the innovations within individual business firms.
“The behavioral theory of organizational decision-making”, developed by
Chester I. Barnard, Herbert A. Simon, and James G. March, have its main
research interests precisely on this “innovation” in its organizational context,
and eventually there evolved a “behavioral theory of innovation”. Applying
it, Business History‘s micro analysis of innovation would surely make great strides.