This article uses a study of industrial firms in the Scottish burgh of Kirkcaldy to demonstrate high and rising survival rates among family firms during the first half of the twentieth century. Survival rates, however, were not constant and trends are linked to the evolving relationship between...

This article looks at the role of business culture in a business failure. Using the extensive records of the Scottish engineering firm of Douglas & Grant Ltd., it explores how the choices made by the firm's leaders were shaped by their values and assumptions. The article argues that the failure...