Forms of Organising in Industrial History

John F. Wilson is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Law) at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He has published widely in the fields of business, management, and industrial history, including ten monographs, six edited collections, and over seventy articles and chapters. Steven Toms is Professor of Accounting at the University of Leeds. He is a former editor of Business History. His research interests are focused on accounting and financial history and the history of the textile industry. Ian G. Jones is a Senior Research Assistant at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, and won the John F. Mee Best Paper Award at the Academy of Management in 2018 for his contribution to the Management History Division.

Introduction 1. Debates and speculations: The competitive and institutional advantages of holding companies: British businesses in the inter-war period Robert Fitzgerald 2. Debates and speculations: Reflections on Robert Fitzgerald on holding companies John Quail 3. Corporate structures and holding companies in Britain: Evidence, comparison and appraisal Robert Fitzgerald Retrospective: Large firms, organizational structures and comparisons within business history Robert Fitzgerald 4. The tank producers: British mechanical engineering in the Great War John Singleton Retrospective: The tank producers John Singleton