Was Marshall Right? Managerial Failure and Corporate Ownership in Edwardian Britain

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Michael Aldous, Queen's University Belfast; Philip Tadelle Fliers, Queen's University Belfast; John Turner, Queen's University Belfast

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
AldousFliersTurner - Was Marshall Right - Replication kit (JEH).zip application/zip 1.3 MB 11/16/2022 06:26:AM

Project Citation: 

Aldous, Michael, Fliers, Philip Tadelle, and Turner, John. Was Marshall Right? Managerial Failure and Corporate Ownership in Edwardian Britain. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-11-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/E182996V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary This is a replication package for Aldous, Fliers and Turner (2023).

Alfred Marshall argued that the malaise of public companies in Edwardian Britain was due to the separation of ownership from control and a lack of professional management. In this paper, we examine the ownership and control of the c.1,700 largest British companies in 1911. We find that most public companies had a separation of ownership and control, but that this had little effect on their performance. We also find that manager characteristics that proxy for amateurism are uncorrelated with performance. Ultimately, our evidence suggests that, if Marshall was correct in identifying a corporate malaise in Britain, its source lay elsewhere.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Leverhulme Trust (United Kingdom) (RPG-2018-099)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Ownership; Control; Agency problems; Family firms; Managerial failure
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United Kingdom
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1911 – 1911 (1911)
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2019 – 2021
Universe:  View help for Universe Circa 1,700 of the largest public companies listed on UK stock exchanges in 1911
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) observational data

Methodology

Response Rate:  View help for Response Rate Not applicable
Sampling:  View help for Sampling Circa 1,700 of the largest public companies listed on UK stock exchanges in 1911
Data Source:  View help for Data Source Bassett, Herbert H. Men of Note in Finance and Commerce, With Which Is Incorporated Men of Office. London: Effingham Wilson, 1900.

Bassett, Herbert H. Businessmen at Home and Abroad: A Biographical Directory of Partners, Principals, Directors, and Managers of Important Business Firms and Institutions at Home and Abroad, 1912-13. London: St Paul’s Chambers, 1912.

Dictionary of Business Biography.

Financial Times Historical Archive.

Investor’s Monthly Manual, Dec. 1910.

Register of Defunct Companies, 1979.

Register of Defunct Companies, 1990.

The Times Digital Archive.

The Investors’ Four Shilling Yearbook. 1912. London: Charles Letts and Co.
Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) other
Scales:  View help for Scales Not applicable
Weights:  View help for Weights Not applicable
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation Firms
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit National

Related Publications

This study is un-published. See below for other available versions.

Published Versions

V2 [2025-08-11]

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