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Governance at Points of Corporate Transition: Networks and the Formation of the United Alkali Company, 1890–1895

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Andrew Popp
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Abstract

This article examines the formation in 1890 of the United Alkali Company in order to explore new perspectives on the transition to a corporate economy. Its starting point is the process of transition itself, highlighting the role played by networks. This perspective promotes an emphasis on institutional environments and on patterns of relationships and behavior, as opposed to those of formal structure. Thus, the archives of the company are probed for evidence of how key agents conceived of the firm. Finally, governance systems are seen as interacting in a dynamic fashion with the institutional environment, and in particular with the balance of internal and external economies.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2006 , pp. 315 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2006. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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