Large-Scale Business Enterprise Research Articles

Business Purpose and the Objective of the Corporation

There is evidence that purpose-driven businesses outperform competitors. A traditional business planner’s question that arises in response to this evidence – namely, which enterprise form is best suited to a purpose-driven business? – contains deep conceptual insights. In this chapter, I explore the business planner’s question in order to draw a sharp conceptual distinction between “business purpose” and “the objective of the corporation.” “Business purpose” should be understood to be a property of business enterprises, however they are organized. “Corporate objective,” by contrast, is best understood as a characteristic of a particular enterprise form (the general corporation) and not as a description of what actual businesses do on a day to day basis. Confusing these two concepts under the heading “corporate purpose” limits our ability to understand what sort of organizational form is best suited to a particular enterprise, and leads to confusion in the management debates over how to build successful businesses and the political debates over the social role and obligations of large scale business enterprises.

The limitations and opportunities to use lean based continuous process management techniques in Nigerian manufacturing industries – a review

The philosophy governing mass production is still a dominant philosophy in industries situated in Nigeria. But, lean concept has long succeeded mass production in most developed economies. This review exposes the constraints and potential benefits of using lean techniques in the transformation of industries in Nigeria based on field experiences elsewhere, where those techniques were used. The review uses method of searching questions or keywords for gathering useful information on the subject at hand from different journals, conferences papers, professional articles, and student thesis, spanning over the period of 1988-2018. However, in evaluating the prospects of implementing lean concepts, the review identified a number of tested lean techniques for possible application in the process and non-process industries. There is suggestive evidence from the article review that no Nigerian small or even large-scale business enterprise is practicing lean. It is expected that transition from the traditional method of manufacturing to lean, if implemented with enabling techniques, will engender sustainable manufacturing and higher productivity for industries in Nigeria.

Big Business and White Insecurities at the End of Empire in Southern Africa, c.1961–1977

ABSTRACTThis paper examines popular and widespread mistrust of large-scale capitalism, and its potential for disloyalty to the post-1965 Rhodesian state, by the white middle class and small-scale capitalists in Rhodesia. It focuses on the relationship between Roland ‘Tiny’ Rowland, managing director of the multinational Lonrho company, and Wilfred Brooks, the editor of the largest business/trade journal in Rhodesia, Rhodesian Property & Finance. This case is augmented with observations on the role and actions of other multinationals such as the Anglo American Corporation and the newspaper conglomerate of the Argus Press, which illustrate how white, urban, small-scale capital responded to the political changes underway. A close reading of Property & Finance in the early 1960s suggests there was a general fear of large-scale business enterprise without firm Rhodesian roots. As the 1960s progressed, this fear morphed into concerns of big businesses’ relationship with African nationalists and the pan-African movement. Many saw these companies as too friendly with new African political entities. In particular, Rowland’s willingness to work with independent Africa, and particularly the Organisation of African Unity, was of crucial importance in shaping the way in which Property & Finance engaged with Lonrho’s business activities. These findings illustrate key divisions within the white community during a time of radical change. Furthermore, they cast light on the contested, and often contradictory, role played by these multinational companies during the era of decolonisation and political change in southern Africa.

Battling for the Soul of the Corporate Leader: Ida Tarbell and the Progressive Governance Model

Debating, advocating, and contesting the appropriate role of the large-scale business enterprise in a democratic society has been an ongoing activity since the advent of industrial capitalism. For some, corporate behemoths are fundamentally and irretrievably incongruent with democratic institutions. Others hold out the possibility of responsible behaviors on the part of corporate leaders. The debate over what constitutes responsible behavior is typically conceptualized around a dispute between shareholder primacy and stakeholder plurality. Through an examination of the writings of Ida Tarbell, a leading early 20th century journalist, we explore a progressive option, one that rejects the possibility of moral self-governance and places greater emphasis on how to govern society than on how to govern the corporation. Tarbell is one of the many women whose contribution to the development of management and organization studies has been neglected. She makes for a particularly useful representative figure because of her massive history of one of the first and most significant manifestations of early corporate enterprise: Standard Oil. By analyzing Tarbell’s body of work, we offer a ‘progressive’ paradigm that insists that the question of how to govern the corporation is secondary to the more fundamental question of how to govern society. For Tarbell and her fellow progressives, answering the corporate governance question without addressing the matter of societal governance was futile. Corporations were conceived not as stand-alone institutions but as part of a larger society. No business leader, no matter how well-meaning, would be sufficient to ensure the enhancement of democracy and the stability of open markets, competition, and fairness.

Applicability of Homomorphic Encryption and CryptDB in Social and Business Applications: Securing Data Stored on the Third Party Servers while Processing through Applications

Confidentiality in third party services like cloud computing has become a major concern. IT industry and government organizations are very serious about security factor in cloud computing, because its usage has reached all the way from a common man having a mobile phone to large scale business enterprises. In this paper, we present security threats in social and business applications accessing the data stored in cloud computing scenario. Also, we critically discuss homomorphic encryption and CryptDB schemes which are applicable to protect data from malicious third party service environments (cloud computing) and also from insiders for these applications. We also present empirical results of partial homomorpic encryption algorithms over one lakh 10-digit numbers, using Linux virtual machine on VirtualBox, VMPlayer and KVM. The result for four algorithms (namely Paillier, ElGamal, RSA and Benaloh) as performed on the above four different platforms are computed to show their respective overhead values as compared to plain data operations. In case of Paillier Algorithm the overhead is 17, 15, 22 and 12 times for addition operation and 278, 399,518 and 346 times for multiplication operation respectively. Similarly, in case of Elgamal algorithm 1.72, 1.6, 11.7 and 8.9 times for multiplication operation; in case of RSA algorithm 1.79, 1.5, 3.48 and 1.5 times for multiplication operation and in case of Benaloh algorithm is 5.6, 5.36, 5.48 and 3.5 times for addition operation respectively. These performances clearly indicate that these algorithms are quite feasible enough to be used in context of social and business applications by third party service providers

The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise: The Furness Interest 1892–1919

The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise: The Furness Interest 1892–1919

Reviews of Gordon Boyce, The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise: The Furness Interest 1892–1919 with a Response by Gordon Boyce

Reviews of Gordon Boyce, <i>The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise: The Furness Interest 1892–1919</i> with a Response by Gordon Boyce

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERS IN FAMILY BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS

This research reports the findings of an empirical study into the behavioural attributes of the Chinese transformational leader in Singapore. The literature review reveals that the current research on transformational leadership only focuses on Western organisations. This research design used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative research used the case study strategy as a primary instrument. This case study approach was to search for new themes and patterns across eight Chinese Chief Executives of medium to large-scale business enterprises. In the quantitative part of the research, the subordinates of the selected leader were identified to participate in the questionnaire survey – to rate their leaders' based on the presence and intensity of practice of the identified behavioural attributes. The six factors rotated uncovered a common list of behavioural attributes of the Chinese transformational leader that will facilitate the transformation process. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Corporatist discourse and heavy industry in Wilhelmine Germany: Factory culture and employer politics in the Saar

During the decade before 1914, the central coordinates of factory culture and employer politics in the heavy industrial Saar entered into a process of transformation. In a marked departure from the familial metaphors and representations long associated with the paternalist factory regime in this region of coal mining and iron and steel production in southwest Germany, many Saar industrialists began to reimagine identities and the relations of factory production in distinctively corporatist terms. In their industry newspaper, journal publications, and internal reports after the turn of the century, they increasingly referred to a new social aristocracy of labor in the productive economy and a harmonious of work in the large-scale business enterprise. They also began to link these definitions of and identity to a larger imaginary that articulated a corporatist vision of a world composed of occupational estates (Berufsstande). In this new ideological idiom, Saar employers began to call for the political organization of a wider Occupational Estate of Industry and Trade (Gewerbe- und Handelsstand) and the formation of a corporative state (Standestaat). Accordingly, the language of Saar employers during the prewar years became corporatist in a dual sense: it articulated a worldview in a vocabulary that invoked forms of address, natural hierarchy, and community that seem reminiscent of the old regime corporate order; and it formed the basis of programmatic political aims calling for the direct representation of economic interests in the realm of party politics and the state. Until very recently, historians have interpreted the meaning of nineteenthand twentieth-century corporatist terminology in the context of debates about Germany's lack of modernity and the long-term origins of Nazism. Postwar in

The Coupling of Ownership and Control and the Allocation of Financial Resources: Evidence from Hong Kong

Theoretical and empirical research regarding the impact of corporate ownership on the behaviour and performance of firms have typically focused on consequences stemming from the separation of ownership and control. While large scale business enterprise characterized by such a separation is dominant in the US, Japan and the UK, firms in which ownership and control is coupled in the hands of individuals and their families are apparent in many other large developed economies and are dominant in most emerging markets. This paper examines consequences regarding the generation and allocation of financial resources stemming from the coupling of ownership and control among Hong Kong based firms. In doing so, we join insights from the economics literature regarding the incentive and risk bearing consequences of coupled ownership and control with the extant management, sociology and history literatures regarding Chinese family business groups and develop and six hypotheses pertaining to patterns in the allocation of financial resources. Results indicate that coupled ownership and control is positively related with dividend payout levels and financial liquidity while it is negatively related to investments in capital expenditures. Consistent with these results, we also find that coupled ownership and control is positively related to short‐term (accounting) profitability.

The Role of Managerial Enterprise in Post-War Japan's Economic Growth: Focus on the 1950s

In pre-war Japan, large-scale business enterprises tended to become managerial enterprises, but around 1930 this transformation was still in a stage of transition. Managerial enterprises developed rapidly due to the militarisation of the economy during the Second World War, and, after 1945, following the dissolution of the zaibatsu by the occupying US forces. The purge of businessmen that had co-operated with the military, and tax and land reforms which affected the wealthiest, were other contributory factors. Economic growth after 1950 assisted the development of managerial enterprise, just as managerial enterprise accelerated economic growth by facilitating investment and the expansion of business capability. The majority of post-war Japan's most important executives were promoted from within their companies. They were already acquainted with their workforces, especially their engineers, and fully understood their capabilities. This knowledge and the support they enjoyed amongst their employees were critical to the strategic decision-making that guided the investments that brought rapid growth, and, with these organisational assets, they won the confidence and support of banks, business allies, and government. It was those managerial enterprises controlled by salaried managers promoted from within and the emergence of new entrepreneurial enterprises which led Japan's post-war economic growth.

The Growth and Dissolution of a Large-Scale Business Enterprise: The Furness Interest, 1892–1919

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Institutional Integration: An Approach to Comparative Studies of the History of Large-Scale Business Enterprise

Institutional Integration: An Approach to Comparative Studies of the History of Large-Scale Business Enterprise

Institutional Integration : an Approach to Comparative Studies of the History of Large-Scale Business Enterprise

Cet article, du au maitre de l'histoire de l'entreprise aux Etats-Unis, conteste vigoureusement la representation usuelle selon laquelle la croissance des firmes se ferait par division et specialisation. Pour l'auteur, cette representation est une extrapolation mal fondee des considerations applicables au processus de division du travail humain. Pour ce qui est de la firme, bien, au contraire, l'etude histo­rique revele qu'aux Etats-Unis, dans toutes les grandes branches industrielles, y compris le transport, le developpement s'est opere depuis 1840 par agregation et integration. La grande industrie n'est jamais passee par un stade de pure competition et les premiers oligopoles ont ete tout en meme temps les premieres multinationales. En conclusion, l'auteur emet l'hypothese que le meme schema est largement applicable aux autres pays industriels, y compris le Japon, mais que l'etude fine des differences nationales serait du plus grand interet pour une meilleure comprehension des processus du developpement industriel. ; [