Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-11T07:10:03.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Business and the Development of British Electrical Manufacturing, 1886–1929

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Robert Fitzgerald
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

British electrical manufacturing provides important insights into international business history and demonstrates the key role of cross-border networks and agreements in its emergence. This article analyzes the factors that shaped phases in the industry's development and international operations. In doing so, the article reappraises electrical manufacturing's early decades in Britain; it shows how a changing political landscape transformed the strategies and ownership of firms, and reevaluates the industry's restructuring during World War I and its immediate aftermath. Further, the article questions accounts of British electrical manufacturing's failure in the 1920s and discusses the return to strategies of cross-border networks and agreements. Finally, it considers the lessons of British electrical manufacturing's emergence and subsequent consolidation, weighing the influences of firm-level, national, and international factors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 91 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 31 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Whyte, Adam G., Forty Years of Electrical Progress: The Story of G.E.C (London, 1930)Google Scholar; Price-Hughes, Harold, B.T.H. Reminiscences: Sixty Years of Progress (Rugby, 1946)Google Scholar; Dummelow, John, 1899–1949: Metro-Vick Electrical Co. Ltd (Manchester, 1949)Google Scholar; Scott, John D., Siemens Brothers 1858–1958 (London, 1958)Google Scholar.

2 Wilson, John F., Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864–1930 (Manchester, 1988)Google Scholar; Byatt, Ian C. R., The British Electrical Industry, 1875–1914: The Economic Returns to a New Technology (Oxford, 1979)Google Scholar; Jones, Robert and Marriott, Oliver, Anatomy of a Merger: A History of G.E.C., A.E.I., and English Electric (London, 1970)Google Scholar.

3 Hughes, Thomas P., Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930 (Baltimore, 1983)Google Scholar.

4 Hausman, William J., Hertner, Peter, and Wilkins, Mira, Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878–2007 (Cambridge, U.K., 2008)Google Scholar.

5 Hughes, Networks, 66–70, 178–85; Whyte, Forty Years, 18–20, 35–36, 44, 55–65.

6 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, T. D. Callender, witness, 2 June 1904; and Minutes of evidence, Hugo Hirst, witness, 13 Oct. 1904, both in Hugo Hirst Papers (hereafter HHP), part of Marconi Archives, in Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (hereafter MA); R. W. Clark, “Everything Electrical: A Century of GEC,” manuscript, 56–59, MA; Minutes of evidence, Electrical Trades Committee (ETC), D. Sinclair, witness, 12 July 1916, BT/55/20, National Archives, London (hereafter NA); Wilkins, Mira, The History of Foreign Investment in the U.S. to 1914 (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), 166, 842Google Scholar.

7 Feldenkirchen, Wilfried, Werner von Siemens: Inventor and International Entrepreneur (Columbus, Ohio, 1994)Google Scholar; Feldenkirchen, Wilfried, Siemens 1918–1945 (Columbus, Ohio, 1999)Google Scholar.

8 “The Coordination of British Industry and Finance,” text of speech, 1916, HH/E7, HHP.

9 Electrical Review, 3 Mar. 1917. See Gall, Lothar, The Deutsche Bank 1870–1995 (Princeton, 1995), 32–37 Google Scholar.

10 Fitzgerald, Robert, Rise of the Global Company: Multinational Enterprise and the Making of the Modern World (Cambridge, U.K., 2015), 152Google Scholar. See also Hausman, Hertner, and Wilkins, Global Electrification.

11 Board of Trade Committee on Commercial Intelligence, report, C.8181; and Summaries of Evidence, (London, 1916), C.8275, both NA; Schröter, Harm, “Continuity and Change: German Multinationals since 1850,” in ed. Jones, Geoffrey and Schröter, Harm, The Rise of Multinationals in Continental Europe (Basingstoke, 1993)Google Scholar.

12 Wilson, John F., “A Strategy of Expansion and Combination: Dick, Kerr & Co., 1897–1914,” Business History 27, no. 1 (1985): 26–41 Google Scholar.

13 Electrical Review, 15 Oct. 1909; Minutes of evidence, ETC, A. H. Pearce, witness, 24 May 1916; Minutes of evidence, T. O. C. Callender, witness, 21 June 1916; Minutes of evidence, W. W. Blunt, witness, 12 July 1916 and A. W. Tait, witness, 13 July 1916; and British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association (BEAMA), memorandum, 4 Oct. 1916, all in BT55/20, NA.

14 Hugo Hirst, “The Manufacturer and the State,” speech, Feb. 1910, HH/C3, HHP.

15 Hugo Hirst, “Speech at BEAMA Dinner,” 3 July 1928, HH/C3, HHP; Electrical Review, 15 Jan. 1909 and 29 Jan. 1909; Sub-committee on Commercial Intelligence, report (London, 1916), C.8181, NA; Sub-Committee on Commercial Intelligence, C.8275, Summaries of Evidence, (London, 1916), C.8181, NA.

16 Hugo Hirst, speech, n.d., HH/C3, HHP; Electrical Review, 1 Jan. 1909.

17 Minutes of evidence, ETC, D. Sinclair, witness, 12 July 1916, BT/55/20, NA.

18 Committee of Board of Trade on the Engineering Trades after the War, report, 1918, C.9073, NA.

19 Minutes of evidence, ETC, D. Sinclair, witness, 12 July 1916, BT55/20, NA; Panayi, Panikos, “German Business Interests in Britain during the First World War,” Business History 32, no. 2 (1990): 252–53Google Scholar; Däbritz, Walter, Fünfzig Jahre Metallgesellschaft 1881–1931 (Frankfurt am Main, 1931)Google Scholar; Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1990), 486–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilkins, Mira, The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914 (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), 270Google Scholar; “Metallgesellschaft AG,” International Directory of Company Histories (London, 1997)Google Scholar.

20 Bade, Klaus J., Migration in European History (London, 2003), 176–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Panayi, “German Business Interests”; Panayi, Panikos, “‘The Hidden Hand’: British Myths about German Control of Britain during the First World War,” Immigrants and Minorities 7, no. 3 (1988): 253–72Google Scholar; Panayi, Panikos, Enemy in Our Midst: Germans in Britain during the First World War (London, 1991)Google Scholar. See also Bade, Klaus J., ed., Population, Labour and Migration in 19th and 20th Century Germany (Leamington Spa, U.K., 1987)Google Scholar.

21 See Panayi, “German Business Interests”; Bade, Migration in European History.

22 Scott, Siemens Brothers, 45–93; Feldenkirchen, Werner von Siemens, 67–155; Pole, William, The Life of Sir William Siemens (London, 1888), 80, 83, 158–63Google Scholar, 206–10.

23 Thane, Pat, “Financiers and the British State: The Case of Sir Ernest Cassel,” Business History 28, no. 1 (1986): 80–95 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Broadberry, Stephen, “Anglo-German Productivity Differences, 1870–1990: A Sectoral Analysis,” European Review of Economic History 1, no. 2 (1997): 247–67Google Scholar; Broadberry, Stephen, The Productivity Race: British Manufacturing in International Perspective, 1850–1990 (Cambridge, U.K., 1997)Google Scholar.

25 Byatt, British Electrical Industry, 259–61.

26 “Transcript of Notes,” 1 July 1911, HH/C2, HHP; Clark, “Everything Electrical,” 6, 23–25.

27 Hughes, Networks, 47–78.

28 Clark, “Everything Electrical,” 25, 28, 30–33, 56, 61; Whyte, Forty Years, 9, 12–14, 20–28, 39–43, 75–76.

29 Clarke, “Everything Electrical,” 31–33, 56, 61;, BEAMA, The Electrical Industry of Great Britain: Organization, Efficiency in Production and World Competitive Position, 1929, Institute of Electrical Engineers Archive, London (hereafter IEE); Tariff Commission, The Engineering Industries (London, 1909), 78, 84; “GEC in Southern Africa, 1903–1933,” memorandum, and T. W. Heather, “GEC: Its History, Structure, and Future,” memorandum, 1953, both in GEC Miscellaneous (hereafter GEC Misc), MA.

30 J. Woof, “History of the Witton Works, Birmingham,” GEC Misc.

31 Ibid.; “GEC Ltd,”  memorandum, n.d., GEC Misc.

32 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, Hugo Hirst, witness, 13 Oct. 1904, HHP.

33 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission,  J. D. Bergtheil, witness, 7 Nov. 1905, HHP; Electrical Review, 19 Mar.1909.

34 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, Hugo Hirst, witness, 13 Oct. 1904, HHP.

35 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, T. D. Callender, witness, 2 June 1904, HHP.

36 Reich, Leonard S., “General Electric and the World Cartelization of Electric Lamps,” in ed. Kudo, Akira and Hara, Terushi, International Cartels in Business History (Tokyo, 1993)Google Scholar; Hughes, Networks, 134–35.

37 Heerding, Andries, The History of N.V. Philips' Gloeilampfabrieken, vol. 2, A Company of Many Parts (Cambridge, U.K., 1988), 93, 123, 217Google Scholar.

38 C. C. Paterson, “Confidential History of the Research Laboratories,” 1945, GEC Misc; Feldenkirchen, Siemens 1918–1945, 297–300.

39 Minutes of evidence, ETC, W. Rutherford, witness, 28 June 1916, BT55/20, NA; “Short History of the Tungsten Lamp Association,” memorandum, 17 Nov. 1916, HH/E4, HHP.

40 “Short History of the Tungsten Lamp Association,” memorandum, 17 Nov. 1916, HHP; Sub-Committee on the Electric Lamp Industry, report, (London, 1920), C.622, British Parliamentary Papers (hereafter BPP), NA; Reich, “General Electric”; Rees, J. Morgan, Trusts in British Industry, 1914–1921: A Study of Recent Developments in Business Organisation (London, 1923)Google Scholar; Fitzgerald, Patrick, Industrial Combinations in England (London, 1927)Google Scholar.

41 Sub-Committee on the Electric Lamp Industry, report, (London, 1920), 3–4, 14–15; and Standing Committee of Trusts on the Electric Lamp Industry, report, (HMSO, 1920), both in C.622, BPP.

42 Hugo Hirst, “The Higher Aspects of Business,” speech, 30 Jan. 1914, HH/C2, HHP; Whyte, Forty Years, 59–73.

43 System: The Magazine of Business, Nov. 1923, D2, HHP.

44 Board of Trade, Memorandum on Combines, 1927, BT55/49, 7–8, NA; Sub-Committee on the Electric Lamp Industry, report, (London, 1920), C.622, 3–4, 14–15, BPP; Sub-Committee on Electrical Cable Industry, report, (London, 1921), C.1332, BPP.

45 Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company, 228–29.

46 Census of Production (London, 1907, 1924, 1930, 1935), NA.

47 Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy after the War, report, (London, 1918), C.9035, BPP.

48 Wilson, “Strategy of Expansion and Combination”; Macrosty, Henry W., The Trust Movement in British Industry: A Study of Business Organisation (London, 1907)Google Scholar.

49 English Electric, Board Meeting (hereafter BM), 19 Dec. 1918 and 14 Feb. 1919, MA.

50 Hugo Hirst to Hugh Quigley, 21 Aug. 1925, D1, HHP; Institute of Electrical Engineers, “The Story of Callender's, 1882–1932,” NAEST26/2, IEE; Morgan, R M., Callender's, 1882–1945 (Prescot, U.K., 1982), 43–48 Google Scholar; Times Engineering Supplement, 10 Oct. 1906, 316–18; P. Fitzgerald, Industrial Combinations, 122–24; Electrical Review, 2 Oct. 1917.

51 Baker, William J., A History of the Marconi Company 1874–1965 (London, 2002)Google Scholar.

52 Corley, T. A. B., Domestic Electrical Appliances: A Study in British Industry (London, 1966)Google Scholar.

53 Sub-Committee on Electrical Cable Industry, report, (London, 1921), C.1332, BPP.

54 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, Hugo Hirst, witness, 13 Oct. 1904, HHP.

55 Renato Gianetti, “The Power Equipment Cartels: The International Agreement and the Italian Case in the 1930s,” in Kudo and Hara, International Cartels; Hausman, Hertner, and Wilkins, Global Electrification.

56 British Westinghouse, Special Meetings of Directors (hereafter SMD), 26 Jan. 1905, 8 Jan. 1912, 7 Apr. 1912, and 11 July 1912, MA; Dummelow, 1899–1949: Metro-Vick Electrical Co. Ltd.

57 Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, Hugo Hirst, witness, 13 Oct. 1904, HHP.

58 Ibid.

59 MSS242/BIO/2, A. P. Young Papers, in Modern Records Centre, Warwick University (hereafter MRC); Institute of Electrical Engineers, “The Story of Callender's 1882–1932,” IEE; Reich, Leonard S., The Making of American Industrial Research: Science and Business at GE and Bell, 1876–1926 (Cambridge, Mass., 1985), 62–128 Google Scholar.

60 Reich, “General Electric”; Hausman, Hertner and Wilkins, Global Electrification, 91–92.

61 Electrical Review, 2 Mar. 1917; Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company, 128–29, 157–59; Hertner, Peter, “German Multinational Enterprise before 1914: Some Case Studies,” in ed. Hertner, Peter and Jones, Geoffrey, Multinationals: Theory and History (London, 1986)Google Scholar.

62 Feldenkirchen, Werner von Siemens, xviii–xxv, 67–155; Feldenkirchen, Siemens 1918–1945, 35–39; Scott, Siemens Brothers, 45–93; Feldenkirchen, Wilfried, “Siemens in the US,” in ed. Jones, Geoffrey and Gálvez-Muñoz, Lina, Foreign Multinationals in the United States (London, 2001), xiii–xxv Google Scholar, 89–104.

63 Feldenkirchen, Werner von Siemens, xviii–xxv, 67–155; Feldenkirchen, Siemens 1918–1945, 22–27, 35–39, 66, 198.

64 Minutes of evidence, ETC, W. Roberts, witness, 28 June 1916; “Report on Siemens Dynamo,” 1 Jan. 1917; and “On Siemens Companies in England,” 2–4, all in BT55/20, NA.

65 Minutes of evidence, ETC, W. Roberts, witness, 28 June 1916, BT55/20, NA.

66 Hirst to Quigley, 21 Aug. 1925, D1, HHP.

67 Minutes of evidence, ETC, W. T. Glover, witness, 21 June 1916, 12 July 1916, BT55/22, NA; Electrical Review, 23 Apr. 1926; Morgan, Callender's, 1882–1945, 43–48; Scott, Siemens Brothers, 45, 54, 158–63, 193.

68 Electrical Review, 12 July 1918; GEC, Everything Electrical, 6, MA.

69 L. Griffiths, “A Chronicle of the BTH Coventry Works,” 1961, MSS.242/BT/9/11, MRC; “History of the Bosch Magneto,” memorandum, ETC, Mar. 1916, BT55/21, NA; Electrical Review, 21 June 1918.

70 Committee to Board of Trade on Commercial Intelligence, report, (London, 1916), C.8181, NA; Summaries of Evidence, (London, 1916), C.8275, NA.

71 Harold Nockolds, Lucas: The First Hundred Years, vol. 1, The King of the Road (London, 1976).

72 Minutes of evidence, ETC, A. H. Pearce, witness, 24 May 1916; and Minutes of evidence, C. H. P. Sparkes, witness, 31 May 1916, both in BT55/20, NA.

73 Minutes of evidence, ETC, D. Sinclair, witness, 12 July 1916, BT55/20, NA.

74 “Memorandum by British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association (BEAMA),” 4 Oct. 1916, BT55/20, NA.

75 Bade, Migration in German History, 176–77; Panayi, “German Business Interests”; Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company, 168–75; Ferrier, Robert W., The History of the British Petroleum Company, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1982), 217–20Google Scholar.

76 Minutes of evidence, ETC, G. von Chauvin, witness, 19 Oct. 1916, BT55/20, NA.

77 Ibid.; Scott, Siemens Brothers, 134, 223; Löhr, Isabella and Wenzlhuemer, Roland, eds., The Nation State and Beyond: Governing Globalization Processes in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Berlin, 2013), 118Google Scholar; Hansard House of Commons Debates, 1 July 1918, vol. 107, cols. 1396–97.

78 Minutes of evidence, A. C. Roberts, witness, 29 Aug. 1916, BT55/20, NA.

79 Special Meeting on Siemens Brothers, ETC, 19 Oct. 1916, BT55/21, NA; “Memorandum on Siemens Companies,” ETC, 29 Aug. 1916; and “Memorandum by BEAMA,” ETC, 4 Oct. 1916, both in BT55/20, NA; Electrical Review, 12 Jan. 1923.

80 Electrical Review, 19 July 1917, 22 Feb. 1918, 10 May 1918, and 26 Aug. 1927.

81 Hansard House of Commons Debates, 1 July 1918, vol. 107, cols. 1396–97.

82 Feldman, Gerald D., “Foreign Penetration of German Enterprises after the First World War: The Problem of Überfremdung,” in ed. Teichova, Alice, Levy-Leboyer, Maurice, and Nussbaum, Hilga, Historical Studies in International Comparative Business (Cambridge, U.K., 1986), 87–110 Google Scholar.

83 English Electric, BM, 19 Dec. 1918 and 14 Feb. 1919, MA; English Electric Journal, Jan. 1920, MA; Electrical Review, 10 Apr. 1919, 30 April 1920, and 1 Jan. 1927.

84 English Electric Journal, 14 Nov. 1918; English Electric, BM, 2 July 1919, 20 Mar. 1920, MA.

85 English Electric, BM, 20 July 1919, MA.

86 Electrical Review, 30 Apr. 1920 and 12 May 1922; English Electric Journal, Jan. 1920, MA.

87 “GEC Ltd,” n.d., GEC Misc.

88 Woof, “History of the Witton Works, Birmingham,” GEC Misc; Hugo Hirst to Edward Hirst, 23 Oct. 1915, HHP.

89 GEC, Directors Minute Book (hereafter DMB), 3 May 1915 and 3 Nov. 1915, GEC Misc; Cable, 4 July 1916; and letter, 5 Sept. 1916, both in C1, HHP; C. C. Paterson, “Confidential History of the Research Laboratories,” 1945, GEC Misc.

90 GEC, DMB, 1 Feb. 1915, GEC Misc; “Empire Industrial Cooperation,” 19 Nov. 1930, C3, HHP.

91 GEC, Annual General Meeting (hereafter AGM), Chairman's speech, 1917, GEC Misc.

92 GEC, DMB, 20 Nov. 1916, 4 Dec. 1916, 5 Mar. 1917, 8 Oct. 1917, and 29 Jan. 1918, MA; and GEC, AGM, Chairman's speech, 1917, GEC Misc.

93 GEC, DMB, 26 June 1918, 7 Nov. 1918, and 3 Apr. 1919; GEC, “The Story of the Lamp,” n.d.; and Heather, “GEC: Its History, Structure and Future,” speech, 1953, all in GEC Misc; Minutes of evidence, Tariff Commission, Hugo Hirst, witness,  27 Jan. 1921, D1, HHP.

94 C. C. Paterson, “Confidential History of the Research Laboratories,” 1945, GEC Misc.

95 British Westinghouse, SMD, 7 May 1917, MA.

96 British Westinghouse, SMD, 7 May 1917, 2 Aug. 1917, 10 Jan. 1919, and 8 July 1919, MA; British Westinghouse, Extraordinary General Meeting, 21 May 1917, MA; British Westinghouse, AGM, 6 Apr. 1916, 24 Apr. 1917, and 16 May 1919, MA; Electrical Review, 25 May 1917 and 23 Mar.1928; Scott, John D., Vickers: A History (London, 1982): 140–42Google Scholar, 167.

97 British Westinghouse, AGM, 6 May 1918 and16 May 1919, MA.

98 British Westinghouse, AGM, 6 May 1918 and 16 May 1919, MA; British Westinghouse, SMD, 10 Jan. 1919, 2 Apr. 1919, 4 Apr. 1919, and 8 July 1919, MA; Metro-Vick, Executive Committee (hereafter EC), 20 May 1920, 10 July 1924, 29 Jan. 1929, MA.

99 Board of Trade, Committee on Industry and Trade, “Memorandum on the Engineering Industry,” 1927, BT55/49, 853, NA; BEAMA, The Electrical Industry of Great Britain (London, 1929), 74–75 Google Scholar, 223–29; League of Nations, The Electrical Industry (Geneva, 1927), 76–78 Google Scholar.

100 Wilson, Thomas, “The Electronics Industry,” in ed. Burn, Duncan, The Structure of British Industry: A Symposium (Cambridge, U.K., 1958)Google Scholar; Stone, Richard and Rowe, D. A., The Measurement of Consumers' Expenditure and Behaviour in the United Kingdom (Cambridge, U.K., 1966), 21Google Scholar.

101 Broadberry, Productivity Race, 13–15, 26–31; BEAMA, Electrical Industry of Great Britain, 74–75, 223–29; League of Nations, Electrical Industry, 76–78; Plummer, New British Industries.

102 Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission (hereafter MRPC), Supply of Electrical Lamps (London, 1951); Board of Trade, Survey of International Cartels (London, 1944); Board of Trade, Survey of Internal Cartels (London, 1946).

103 Board of Trade, Committee on Industry and Trade, “Memorandum on Combines in Industry and Trade,” (1927), BT55/49, 7–8, MA; Sub-Committee on the Electric Lamp Industry, report, (London, 1920), C.622, 3–4, 14–15, NA; Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company, 196–201.

104 Reich, Making of American Industrial Research, 213–228; Hughes, Networks, 65; Reich, “General Electric”; Heerding, Company of Many Parts, 331–34; Schröter, Harm, “A Typical Factor of German International Market Strategy: Agreements between the U.S. and the German Electrotechnical Industries up to 1939,” in ed. Teichova, Alice, Levy-Leboyer, Maurice, and Nussbaum, Helga., Multinational Enterprise in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, U.K., 1986)Google Scholar; League of Nations, Review of the Economic Aspects of Several International Industrial Agreements (Geneva, 1930), 70Google Scholar.

105 Hexner, Ervin, International Cartels (Chapel Hill, 1946), 358Google Scholar; Gianetti, “Power Equipment Cartels”; Kudo and Hara, International Cartels; MRPC, Collective Discrimination: A Report on Exclusive Dealing, Collective Boycotts, Aggregated Rebates, and other Discriminatory Trade Practices (London, 1955)Google Scholar; Federal Trade Commission, International Electrical Equipment Cartels (Washington, D.C., 1948)Google Scholar.

106 Committee of Board of Trade on Engineering Trades after the War, report, 1918, C.9073, NA.

107 Ibid.

108 Electrical Review, 27 Feb. 1925, 20 Mar. 1925, and 8 July 1927.

109 Minutes of evidence, Board of Trade, Committee on Industry and Trade, D. N. Dunlop, witness,  1927, BT55/123, NA; Whyte, Forty Years, 108–10.

110 Census of Production (London, 1930, 1935), NA.

111 GEC, “System or Men?” Nov. 1923, C2, HHP; Hugo Hirst, speech, 21 Mar. 1929, C1, HHP; Hugo Hirst, speech, 9 Dec. 1931, HH/D2, HHP.

112 Metro-Vick, EC, 15 Apr. 1919, MA; “The Graduate in Industry,” NAEST70/63, IEE; “Metro-Vick Business Organization,” 10 Nov. 1931, NAEST70/III/4, IEE; Electrical Review, 23 Mar. 1927; “An Engineer Looks at Industry,” MSS242/BT/41, A. P. Young Papers, MRC; “My Autobiography: Rugby Works Manager, 1928–45,” MSS242/BIO/1, A. P. Young Papers, MRC.

113 “Recommendations on the Origins of Research,” 23 Jan. 1929, NAEST, 70/III/2, IEE; “Metro-Vick Business Organization,” 10 Nov. 1931, NAEST, 70/III/4, IEE; Metro-Vick, EC, 15 Apr. 1919, MA.

114 GEC, “Confidential History of the Research Laboratories,” 1945, GEC Misc; Electrical Review, 22 Feb. 1927.

115 GEC, DMB, 15 May 1920, 3 Feb. 1921, 14 Dec. 1922, 13 Nov. 1924, and 14 Oct. 1926.

116 Nockolds, Lucas, 123–93.

117 BEAMA, Combines and Trusts in the Electrical Industry: The Position of Europe in 1927 (London, 1927), 195; Feldenkirchen, Siemens 1918–1945, 199–200.

118 Metro-Vick, EC, 22 May 1928, MA; Associated Electrical Industries (hereafter AEI), EC, 13 Nov. 1924, 8 Jan. 1925, 13 Aug. 1929, 7 Mar. 1930, 3 Apr. 1930, 7 May 1930, 24 June 1930, 25 Nov. 1930, 1 Jan. 1931, 5 Jan. 1931, 12 May 1931, 8 Sept. 1931, 28 July 1931, and 25 June 1935, MA; GEC, DMB, 13 Nov. 1924, 17 Sept. 1925, and 11 Feb. 1926, GEC Misc.

119 English Electric, BM, 13 May 1932, 17 May 1932, 10 Oct. 1933, 14 Oct. 1935, 13 May 1937, and 20 May 1938, MA.

120 GEC, DMB, 1 June 1922, 13 Nov. 1924, 17 Sept. 1925, 11 Feb. 1926, 26 Sept. 1926, 20 June 1928, and 27 Aug. 1928, MA.

121 Metro-Vick, EC, 13 Nov. 1924 and 8 Jan. 1925, MA; GEC, DMB, 10 Jan. 1929, 1 Mar. 1929, 4 Apr. 1929, 16 Apr. 1929, and 12 Sept. 1935, MA.

122 Hausman, Hertner, and Wilkins, Global Electrification, 92; Hughes, Networks, 70.

123 Metro-Vick, Directors' Minutes (hereafter DM), 2 Nov. 1922, MA; Metro-Vick, EC, 4 Oct. 1918, 15 Apr. 1919, 12 July 1923, and 18 Oct. 1923, MA; Scott, Vickers, 167.

124 Metro-Vick, EC, 22 May 1928, MA; Metro-Vick, DM, 11 June 1928, MA; AEI, EC, 13 Aug. 1929, MA.

125 Electrical Review, 23 Mar. 1928.

126 English Electric, BM, 3 May 1922, 5 May 1922, 3 Oct. 1923, and 30 May 1928, MA; Metro-Vick, DM, 11 Mar. 1926, 9 Apr. 1926, 6 Mar. 1929, MA; Metro-Vick, EC, 13 Oct. 1927 and 16 Nov. 1927, MA; AEI, EC, 3 Apr. 1930, 7 Oct. 1930, 21 July 1931, and 7 Oct. 1930, MA.

127 Teece, David J., “Technology Transfer by Multinational Firms: The Resource Cost of Transferring Technological Know-How,” The Economic Journal 87 (June 1977): 242–61Google Scholar.

128 Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company, 422–23.

129 Dunning, John H. and Lundan, Sarianna M., Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy (Cheltenham, 2008)Google Scholar.

130 Ghoshal, Sumantra and Westney, D. Eleanor, eds., Organization Theory and the Multinational Corporation (London, 2005)Google Scholar.

131 See Kostova, Tatiana and Roth, Kendall, “Adoption of an Organizational Practice by Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations: Institutional and Relational Effects,” Academy of Management Journal 45, no. 1 (2002): 215–33Google Scholar.

132 For example, Geppert, Mike and Mayer, Michael, eds., Global, National and Local Practices in Multinational Companies (Basingstoke, 2005)Google Scholar.

133 For example, Contractor, Farok J. and Lorange, Peter, Cooperative Strategies and Alliances (Oxford, 2002)Google Scholar.

134 See Kogut, Bruce and Zander, Udo, “Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology,” Organization Science 3, no. 3 (1992): 383–97Google Scholar.

135 Inkpen, Andrew C. and Tsang, Eric W. K., “Social Capital, Networks, and Knowledge Transfer,” Academy of Management Review 30, no. 1 (2005): 146–65Google Scholar.

136 Hausman, Hertner, and Wilkins, Global Electrification; Hughes, Networks of Power.

137 Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company, 49, 123, 128, 135, 167, 194, 200, 242–45.

138 For example, Morgan, Glenn, Kristensen, Peer H., and Whitley, Richard, eds., The Multinational Firm: Organizing across Institutional and National Divides (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar.

139 Edgerton, David, “The Decline of Declinism,” Business History Review 71, no. 2 (1997): 201–6Google Scholar.

140 See Feldenkirchen, Siemens 1918–1945; Fitzgerald, Rise of the Global Company; Wilkins, Mira, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970 (Cambridge, Mass., 1974)Google Scholar; Hannah, Leslie, Electricity Before Nationalisation: A Study of the Development of the Electricity Supply Industry in Britain to 1948 (Princeton, 1989)Google Scholar.

141 Todd, Daniel, The World Electronics Industry (London, 1990)Google Scholar.