Between business and academia in post-war Britain: three advocates of neoliberalism at the heart of the British business community

This chapter examines the attitudes of three neoliberal business economists about the welfare state in postwar Britain. The three—John Jewkes, Arthur Shenfield, and Barry Bracewell-Milnes—had some degree of economic literacy, and each was active in neoliberal circles and critical of Britain’s welfare state in the 1960s along typical neoliberal lines. Significantly, all three provided economic advice at the heart of the British business community. This illustrates three main points. First, neoliberals were not as isolated before the 1970s as commonly presented and had good links with parts of the business community. Second, the focus on the intellectuals in the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) distorts our understanding of the organization and the dissemination of its ideas. Third, we need to be aware of the growing number of business economists in Britain and other advanced economies after World War II and the role that they played

Business history and European integration: How EEC competition policy affected companies’ strategies

This introduction to the special issue on business responses to European competition policy considers the development of research in the field of European competition policy. It is argued that existing analyses have concentrated on the development of policy over time and that we know surprisingly little about the response of business to the demands of competition policy. This is important because it is apparent that ever stricter legal provision has not removed the problem and where there appears to be a considerable degree of recidivism. The aim of the special issue is to begin to address these issues by examining the response of different companies and sectors to the existence of EEC/EU competition policy

Government and regulators

Government, its policies and regulations in the respect are exogenous variables to which multinational enterprises (MNEs) respond and are therefore extraneous to many international business models of multinational enterprise. This chapter deals with the contribution of an historical perspective to the making of global business to our understanding of the relationship between multinationals and governments. It examines the relationship between MNEs and government in the context of European integration that is as a move away from national levels of governance; and considers the highly topical and controversial subject of tax avoidance and tax evasion. Managing political risk has also been a theme of another branch of the business historiography of international business–government relations, that is studies relating to MNEs and developing host economies. Corporate political activities, in the form of lobbying and relationship building with national governments were a core element of the MNEs’ strategies, even if they were not always successful

The development of transnational business associations during the twentieth century

This article outlines the development of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), and especially those relating to business, over the twentieth century. Using a variety of constructed datasets and drawing on population ecology approaches to interest groups, it is shown how business associations were numerically dominant for much of the twentieth century despite being largely excluded from accounts of the development of INGOs over this period. Growth in all such organisations was particularly prevalent in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, but transnational business associations grew most rapidly at this time. The trends indicate that both the environmental context and the different dynamics of particular associational sectors explain these developments and that further research is needed to pin down more precisely the different factors at work

The twilight world of British business politics: the Spring Sunningdale conferences since the 1960s

This article explores a previously unknown form of interaction, known as Spring Sunningdale, between the British business elite and its civil servant equivalent in Whitehall. These began in 1963 and were still continuing only a few years ago. The continuity and stability of these meetings stands in contrast to wider changes in the nature of business–government relations in Britain during this period, particularly since the election of the Thatcher government in 1979. The article analyses why there was such continuity and what the senior civil servants and the captains of industry who attended these annual meetings gained from them

The brokers of globalization: towards a history of business associations in the international arena

This article is the introduction to the special issue looking at organised business in the international arena to gain better understanding of the role of this group of actors. The international strategies of national business interest associations and transnational business interest associations have largely been overlooked by business historians with a focus on multinational enterprise and global historians studying international organisations and international non-governmental organisations. The article explores in broad terms the historical development of these actors, their representation in the existing literature – historical as well as political and social scientific – before turning to some new research perspectives and the contributions of the articles in the special issue to this research agenda

Editorial

With the first issue of the 56th volume of Business History, a new editorial team has taken over responsibility for direction and management of the journal. Led by executive editor Ray Stokes (University of Glasgow), the team includes as co-editors Andrea Colli (Bocconi University), Stephanie Decker (Aston University), Paloma Fernández Pérez (University of Barcelona), Abe de Jong (Erasmus University Rotterdam) and Neil Rollings (University of Glasgow), who will also serve as deputy editor. In addition, the book review editorship has been expanded. Joining Kevin Tennent (York University), who has acted as sole book review editor over the past years, will be Veronica Binda (Bocconi University). Veronica Binda will be primarily responsible for books published in, or reviewed by, authors from Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal

Editorial: special issues in Business History

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