Combining agency-theoretical with organisational population ecology approaches, this article analyses which factors drive the survival probabilities of organisations of the same type - listed stock corporations - facing the same institutional environment over a long period of time. It presents...

In 1900 US business corporations were dominated by plutocratic family owners, while British and French quoted companies showed higher levels of divorce of shareholding owners from management controllers. Distinctive European 'democratic' corporate governance rules explain some of Europe's...

We provide a critical reflection of Toms and Wilson's 'new paradigm of British business history' by focusing on the logical consistency of their model, the robustness of its predictive powers, and its explanation of transitional change related to stages of business capitalism. For example,...

The role of 'opaque' networks are analysed within the context of an infant economy with low levels of corporate governance. A period of economic expansion is studied, documenting the effects of credit liberalisation. This article outlines the significance of networks, emerging business cliques,...

Recent studies of the innovation process have viewed it as the outcome of organizational dynamics rather than as the product of technological developments exogenous to the governance of firms. We apply this approach to our examination of British coastal shipping companies during the early...

We describe the legal rules underlying corporate governance of banks in Germany during the 1870s as well as the rules of governance fixed in corporate charters collected from a sample of 202 charters for the year 1872. Governance standards were - on average - below the legal default. In...

We investigate the impact of universal banks on the dividend policy of affiliated companies, in an environment characterised by poor investor protection, booming stock markets and strong banks. Our results, based on a unique sample of 428 listed companies in pre-World War I Belgium, are...