ExamTests with Business History complexities and comparisons by Amatori and Colli

These questions are based on Business History by Amatori 2011. The answers you can find in the respective chapters. You can also help your fellow students by writing down your aswers in the feedback section at the bottom of this page

Chapter 2

1. Explain the difference between the exogenous force and the endogenous force that Chandler considered in his studies.
2. On which theories of which researchers did the two American economists Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter build their concept of routines upon?
3. What did the transaction cost theory explain?
4. Explain the concept of dynamism.
5. Why is the neoclassical perspective so particularly relevant to the business history of the First Industrial Revolution? 

Chapter 3

1. Why is the term entrepreneurship so difficult to define clearly, and what does Mark Casson have to do with this?
2. Who is Joseph Schumpeter and what was he known for?
3. Who were Max Weber, Werner Sombart and Friedrich Nietzsche, and what did they all have in common?
4. Why is an entrepreneur sometimes looked upon as a kind of translator?
5. If you had a spectrum with classical on one side and neoclassical on the other side, where would you put Schumpeter and where would you put Adam Smith?
6. Why did Edward Denison reject entrepreneurship?
7. What stands out in the Traité d’economie politique that was written by Jean-Battiste say?
8. What creates the entrepreneurial paradox?
9. How was Chandler different from other theorists in his studies on organisations?

Chapter 4

1. Why and in what ways was preindustrial Europe not a homogenous entity?
2. What was the main downside of the preindustrial European economy depending almost exclusively on agriculture?
3. What was the main reason for the European economy to become gradually more dynamic? Explain.
4. Explain the putting-out system, and what where the hidden costs within this system?
5. How does the craft-production differ from the putting-out system, and why did it still play an important role?
6. How did the craft system differ in between different types of areas (more urbanized, less urbanized)?
7. How come the population of guild members remained relatively small?
8. Why were guilds more inclined to constrain output?
9. Explain why the percentage of people that were employed in manufactories was probably slightly lower than in domestic industries.
10. What was the main purpose of the establishment of the Manufacure royale de glaces de miroirs?

Chapter 5

1. What made Great Britain’s economic performance so outstanding during the decades following the Napoleonic wars?
2. Mention a few reasons why the degree of export specialization had increased.
3. What were the advantages of productive specialization and manufacturing?
4. Describe the impact of the introduction and the diffusion of the steam engine.
5. Explain ‘’industrial enlightenment’’ en what its results were.
6. Which countries offered the best environment for entrepreneurs and why?
7. What incentives encouraged entrepreneurship?
8. Explain the term ‘’merchant-entrepreneurs’’ and what they did. 

Chapter 6

1. How did modern factories differ from previous workplaces and other methods of production. Give short descriptions.
2. Why was the location of a factory so important?
3. Why did some people think of the emergence of factories as a good development, and others as a bad development?
4. What type of lifestyle changes did a factory worker have to undergo?
5. To what extend did the emergence of factories do any good to society?
6. What did some factories offer to make life for the workers easier?
7. What is ‘’paternalism’’?
8. What does Joseph Schumpeter have to do with industrial capitalism?

Chapter 7

1. Why was it necessary to adopt some form of governance via salaried managers who had specific technical skills?
2. What developments were critical to the growth of large corporations?
3. Describe three developments in the second half of the nineteenth century and explain their effects.
4. What was so special about the Claremont?
5. Name the three characteristics that made the difference between railroads and other transportation methods seem so big.
6. What was so special about railroads that made them so beneficial to companies?
7. How were railroads usually financed?
8. What effects did the emergence of railroads have on management?
9. In what ways did railway companies face classic issues of industrial relationships?

Chapter 8

1. What were the major changes as a result of new transportation and communication systems in the end of the 1800s?
2. How was the ‘’Second Industrial Revolution’’ different from the previous phase of industrial change?
3. In what industry sectors did the new technologies of the SIR have most impact and why?
4. Which two considerations were decisive in determining costs and profits in analyzing investments?
5. Describe and explain two examples of the importance of pursuing economies of scale and scope.
6. Why did it become necessary to make a significant investment in distribution activities?

Chapter 9

1. What is a Zaibatsu?
2. How was Germany different from the US in terms of the emergence of big businesses? Explain.
3. How was France different from the US/Germany in terms of the emergence of big businesses? Explain.
4. Name two characteristics of the first large industrial corporations in Russia.
5. What position did the Italian Government take in the emergence of big businesses?
6. What were the views of consumers in the US market?
7. How did the newer, more modern firms in the US differ from the previous forms of enterprises? Explain. 

Chapter 10

1. Describe the difference between a U-form and a M-form.
2. What happened to General Motors during 1956-1958 when the performance started to decline?
3. What was the attitude of Berle/Means towards managers and why?
4. Who should be held responsible in an organisation according to Berle and Means? Describe three situations.
5. To what extent did Rathenau agree with Berle and Means?
6. Which two problems did Berle and Means struggle with? Explain.

Chapter 11

1. What was so special about the London Stock Exchange after the Second World War and what was its function?
2. In what ways were Italy and Spain similar after 1930?
3. How was foreign investment affected by the World War I and the end of the ‘’first globalization’’?
4. What was an advantage of a cartel, and why did they quickly spread during the interwar years?
5. In what areas was the government very often the main customer for large concerns?
6. How did America and Europe differ in the composition of managerial class?

Chapter 12

1. Name a few distinctive economic features of Japan which might have influenced its process of modernization.
2. Explain the catching-up strategy what was introduced in Japan in several areas.
3. What was the real function of the so-called ‘’pilot plants’’?
4. How were the zaibatsu different from the American M-form corporations and the European H-form businesses?
5. Name and describe an example of a small entrepreneurial enterprise in Japan, and explain how this type of enterprises were often not fully independent.
6. Explain why the zaibatsu were crucial to Japan’s unique style of industrial modernization, and what they achieved. 

Chapter 13

1. Name and explain a few results of the process of institutionalization of innovation.
2. Name three features of the large corporation that stood out.
3. Why is it that R&D became so popular in the period of 1920-WWII, and how was it used?
4. How did WWII influence the manufacturing industries?
5. How does the Third Industrial Revolution differ from the first and the second one, and in which three clusters of businesses was it at least present?
6. Explain why the General Purpose Technologies was so important during the Third Industrial Revolution.
7. Explain how a company such as IBM could become so big during the TIR.
8. To what extent were structural reorganisations needed in firms during the TIR?

Chapter 14

1. Explain why, in the US, there was an atmosphere of confidence with regards to the economy, and how this could have a negative impact?
2. Describe the slowdown of the economy during the 1950s in the US.
3. What are conglomerates?
4. Explain how the strategy of diversification could sometimes also be challenging.
5. Name four factors that stimulated the growth of conglomerates.
6. Describe the term ‘’stagflation’’ and how it relates to an economic crisis.
7. Why was there such a big decline in the amount of American Conglomerates?
8. How did strategies of de-conglomeration become more popular?

Chapter 15

1. What is communism and who were the people that were very important in this social order?
2. Why did Marx take Russia as an incubator of the communist transformation? Explain.
3. Name 4 revolutionary movements that helped to establish Communism in Russia. Be specific, name the years, people involved, and how it was important.
4. Which three fractions came to the forefront within the Soviet Communist party and what were their beliefs/thoughts?
5. What was ‘’The plan’’ and how did it help the Soviet Union to become a major industrial player?
6. What is the sovnarkhozy and why was it not successful? What replaced it?
7. What were the four main types of strategy for a firm in the west?

Chapter 16

1. Describe the two forms of Keiretsu. What were their characteristics, what was the goal of them and how do they differ? Can you give an example?
2. What was the role of banks in the Keiretsu?
3. Who or what controlled the Keiretsu?
4. Why and in what ways did the state play an essential role in maintaining and increasing the competitive section of Japan?
5. When the managers of Japanese steel industries were allowed to make own investment decisions, what steps did they follow?

Chapter 17

1. In the early 1970s, Harvard Business School’s Research Division did research on the postwar economic ‘miracle’ in Europe. What did they try to find out about this, and what were the findings?
2. Explain which role Americanisation of the European culture had on firms in Europe.
3. After there was a period of steady growth in demand in Europe, the firms had to conquer a few challenges. What were these challenges and come up with a possible solution.
4. Explain how the implementation of the M-form occurred kind of randomly in Europe. Distinguish between different countries.
5. At some point, European firms started to rethink their competitive strategies, and implemented different types of structures, explain how this process went for Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy.
6. When the ‘activist States’’ initiated programs of intervention at the end of the reconstruction years, what kind of instruments did they use?
7. What is the difference between nationalization and privatization? Explain by giving the definitions of the two terms.
8. Explain how the privatization process was different for Great Britain, France and Italy.
9. Name three types of ownership that are inconsistent with strategies of diversification.
10. What is the European hybrid business system, and of what is it an alternative?

Chapter 18

1. Name two similarities between the economy of South Korea and Argentina.
2. Describe the development of the South Korean economy in the 1970s. Be explicit.
3. What is the Chaebol? Explain and name two examples.
4. Give two examples of weaknesses of the Korean system.
5. In what way does Argentina differ from South Korea, and by what is it characterized?
6. What are grupos?
7. Pick one time frame between 1946 and 1990 in Argentina and describe what happened in this period of time.

Chapter 19

1. In what ways were all the advanced industrialized economies involved in the process of multinationalization?
2. Why is it that the largest multinational companies were able to adapt rather easily to international expansion by making use of the M-form?
3. Name a few incentives to go abroad and relate them to John Dunning’s theories.
4. Distinguish between ‘’ownership advantages’’ and ‘’location advantages’’.
5. Define ‘’internalization’’.
6. What does the OLI framework capture and what does it describe? Explain and illustrate.
7. Explain why around the 1970s America began to lose its dominance.
8. Describe and explain each organisational model in Bartlett and Goshal’s framework.

Chapter 20

1. Describe some developments in the 1960s and 1980s which are related to the TIR.
2. Explain the terms deverticalisation, outsourcing and hollowing-out, and explain how they are related to the TIR.
3. What is modularity?
4. Explain what business networks are and what its aim is.
5. Describe how the processes mentioned above can also have drawbacks. 

Chapter 21

1. Name 7 key contributors to the American success. Choose two of them and elaborate further on those by giving a description.
2. Also name three exogenous factors that contributed to the success of the American business system. Which president embraced these factors?
3. What is venture capital?
4. What is re-engineering when did it first start? Was it a positive development in companies?
5. What made it possible for entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to become so successful and influential?
6. What share did institutions such as pension funds and insurance companies have in companies?

Chapter 22

1. Explain why people started to doubt the economic and social model in Europe. Give examples.
2. Describe how privatization had such a big impact on many industries.
3. Why is it that privatization and market liberalization go hand in hand?
4. What caused the bubble to burst in Japan during the banking crisis? Explain.
5. Describe the effect on the keiretsu companies when the bubble burst in Japan.
6. What does Witt have to do with the crisis in Japan?

Chapter 23

1. Name a Schumpetarian and describe his career.
2. Name three differences between Japan, other emerging Asian nations and China. Explain them.
3. What is so special about the year 1978 and what effects did it have on the Chinese economy?
4. What were the consequences of the new open-door policy in china? Were they positive or negative?
5. Explain why the English language is so important for some industries in India.
6. Why does the Indian government encourage successful Indian scientists to return to India?
7. How does social entrepreneurship influence the Indian economy?

Chapter 24

1. Explain the concept of the technological system.
2. What is a paradigm, and why is it so important in the context of this book?
3. Why did the term ‘’firm’’ start to become unwieldy after the SIR?
4. How was Germany different when compared to British individualistic capitalism?
5. The US superiority was apparent after the WWII, but how did it change in the 1960s?
6. How was the TIR different from the other two?