Managerial Development in Retailing: The Department and the Chain Store, 1890-1940.

Alfred Chandler has advanced the notion that afetr the First World War successful diversifying concerns shifted from centralised ("U" form) management structures to multi-divisional ("M" form) product-based organisation. Precisely the opposite occured in the retail sector, where the rate of growth of department store turnover - a form of retailing based on the "M" form of organisation - slowed considerably form the second decade of this century and that of chain stores - as examplars of the "U"form - expanded rapidly. Various factors contributed to this phenomenon. However, this paper argues that the distinctive forms of organisation of the two retailing concepts made a major contribution to the different experiences of the two forms of retailing in the interwar era.