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...

There is now a considerable body of theoretical literature on the comparative efficiencies of mutual and stock forms of corporate organisation in financial services. However this question has received comparatively little attention from business historians. This article examines the factors...

The growth of the Atlantic economy during the eighteenth century has been associated with developments in business networking to mitigate the hazards of communication in long-distance trade. Such social capital-based mechanisms reduced transaction costs, but also proved to have their limitations...