The European Corporation Strategy, Structure, and Social Science

by Whittington, Richard; Mayer, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780199242085
• ISBN10: 0199242089
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book examines the evolving strategies and structure of large European firms in comparative and historical context. Although European corporations still differ in terms of ownership and management, they are adopting increasingly similar organizational structures and diversification strategies. The authors explain recent corporate developments by extending Alfred Chandler's original model of strategy and structure to include conglomerate diversification and the more integrated 'networked multidivisional' structure.

Author Biography

Richard Whittington is University Reader in Strategy at the Said Business School and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He was formerly Lecturer in Organizational Analysis at Imperial College and Reader in Marketing and Strategic Management at the University of Warwick. He is author of 'Corporate Strategies in Recession and Recovery' (Unwin Hyman) and 'What is Strategy-and Does it Matter?' (Routledge), as well as articles in a variety of journals. He is Associate Editor of the British Journal of Management and on the editorial boards of Long Range Planning and Organization Studies. Michael Mayer is a Lecturer in Strategic and International Management at the University of Glasgow. He has published articles in Organization Studies, the European Management Journal, and Industrial and Corporate Change.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
List of Figures	xii
List of Tables	xiv
Change, Context, and the Corporation	1	(22)
Changing strategies and structures	4	(5)
The corporation in context	9	(3)
Researching strategy and structure in Europe	12	(5)
Programme and proposal	17	(6)
Chandler and Context	23	(24)
Contextualizing Chandlerism	24	(8)
Postmodernism and context	32	(8)
Between Chandlerism and contextualism	40	(5)
Summary	45	(2)
Scale, Scope, and Structure	47	(40)
Scale	48	(3)
Scope	51	(4)
Explaining scope	55	(10)
Divisionalization and beyond	65	(20)
Summary	85	(2)
Corporate Careers and Control	87	(35)
Financial systems and corporate ownership	89	(17)
Managerial control	106	(4)
Management development	110	(10)
Summary	120	(2)
Changing Strategies	122	(34)
Measuring strategy	123	(3)
Strategy trends and transitions	126	(17)
Cross-national comparisons	143	(2)
Strategy and performance	145	(8)
Summary	153	(3)
Changing Structures	156	(33)
Measuring structure	158	(4)
National context and organizational structure	162	(16)
The network multidivisional	178	(5)
Structure and performance	183	(4)
Summary	187	(2)
Strategy, Structure, and Politics	189	(25)
The politics of strategy and structure	190	(2)
Ownership and strategy	192	(11)
Ownership and structure	203	(9)
Summary	212	(2)
Concluding for the Corporation	214	(12)
The Chandlerian model renewed	215	(4)
Strategy, structure, and nations	219	(4)
The science of the corporation	223	(3)
Appendix I: Strategic and Structural Classification of French, German, and United Kingdom Firms	226	(19)
Appendix II: Methodology	245	(6)
References	251	(12)
Index	263