Purpose – To publicise the little known work of Eli Devons (1950) as a source of practical operations management “know how”, collated by an economist but of direct interest to wider academe. Design/methodology/approach – Evaluation of World War II UK aircraft production procedures...

Purpose – This paper aims to offer a conceptualization of how and why corporate level strategic change may build on historical differentiation at business unit level. Design/methodology/approach – Methodologically, an historical case study of Nokia Corporation's drastic business model...

Decision‐making institutions evident in today’s small businesses display remarkable similarities to medieval feudalism. This paper presents: (1) the institutions of feudalism as applied to small business, (2) a theoretical framework as a foundation for explaining obvious parallels, and (3)...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify how the socio-economic trends caused by the economic deregulation of the last four decades have led to a high-net-worth strata of individuals and families that conspicuously consumes luxury items and are the main customers in the luxury yacht...

Looks at the development of producing organizations, stretching from the earliest sole craftsman through to the modern day. Notes that “two‐dimensional” organizations have evolved over the last 200‐300 years ‐ the dimensions representing hierarchical and process elements. Suggests that...

Quality has a long tradition in industry. In and after the Second World War we all focused on quality control. In the 1980s, quality management systems, as given in the ISO standards 9000 series, paved the way for a quality‐related business management. Advanced companies today are in a...

Purpose – In this paper aims to interview Walter Kiechel III about his book, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World , and the lessons it offers for today's managers. Design/methodology/approach – In this interview, Strategy & Leadership asked Walter...

The aim pursued in this business history study is to assess whether LOEWE - an originally German-Jewish producer of consumer electronics - had the possibility as well as the capacity to build and preserve a learning base throughout the national-socialist period. Learning base is understood here...

In this study, the authors examine how societal and industrial sector-specific peculiarities moderate the translation of intra-organizational openness into innovativeness. A sample comprising N = 24 subsystems from privatized Romanian natural gas companies and N = 26 subsystems from privatized...

Sound energy and environmental policies require reliable forecasts of production and pollution, as well as supply response to policy actions. In this study, we describe a model for forecasting long-term production and pollution in the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico under...