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Economics, Politics and Nations: Resistance to the Multidivisional Form in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, 1983–1993*
Author(s) -
Mayer Michael,
Whittington Richard
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00466.x
Subject(s) - politics , diversification (marketing strategy) , resistance (ecology) , government (linguistics) , political science , political economy , economics , business , marketing , law , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
This paper assesses economic, political and national institutional explanations for continued resistance to the multidivisional form in France, Germany and the United Kingdom during the 1980s and 1990s. It finds that the economics of different diversification strategies play a significant but changing role in the structural choices of large corporations. The political interests of personal, banking and government owners are exercised variably. There remain strong national influences on structural choices, with resistance to the multidivisional form particularly pronounced in Germany. Overall, our results call for an increased contextual sensitivity in management research while acknowledging the possibility of convergent processes in business organization, represented here by the slow progress of the multidivisional firm.