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The contribution of the Stephenson Company, engine manufacturers to the genesis of the British railway industry c.1823-1840 1823年至1840年，发动机制造商斯蒂芬森公司对英国铁路工业起源的贡献

2区历史学 Q1 Arts and Humanities

Business History

Pub Date : 2023-09-22 DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2023.2255140

Neveen Abdelrehim, Tom McGovern, Tom McLean, David Oldroyd, Thomas N. Tyson

AbstractThe paper investigates the Stephenson Company’s contribution to genesis of the railway industry by exploring its business model in its formative years. The Company capitalised on a well-developed business and technological infrastructure in the North-east of England that provided the building blocks for the creation of a new industry. It gained from its linkages with two social networks which provided it with a financial safety-net during the locomotive development phase and the mechanical expertise it required: the closed Quaker network and the regional network of colliery and mechanical engineers. Whilst bridging between and across these social networks facilitated the Company’s development, it was not central to its strategic decision-making. This was shaped by the externalities of market conditions, which the Company sought to influence by producing a viable product that would convince customers of its utility, and investors of the potential gains to be had through investing in railway construction.Keywords: Early railway developmentengineeringaccounting evidencesocial capitalsocial networkscapital conversionsintangible assets Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 The quest to gain competitive advantage by producing larger steam locomotives with greater tractive potential than their predecessors continued right through to the demise of steam in the 1950s (Fleming et al., Citation2000), but from the 1840s these improvements were incremental.2 In terms of accounting and finance research alone, Bianchi et al. (Citation2023) identified 162 articles involving social network analysis between 2000 and 2021.3 In the USA, for example, it was the Baldwin Company which dominated.4 According to Usselman (1991, p. 1050), “American railroads always exhibited a high degree of cooperation in technical affairs…In technical matters, railroads harbored no secrets”. Sinclair (Citation1974, p. 7) noted that, “the mechanics’ institute began simultaneously in Britain and the United States.”5 “Other men of business were partners or employees in a single fixed enterprise, went to the counting-house … or factory in the morning and returned home in the evening. For the Stephensons, [home] was only the base from which they were conducting a range of large-scale undertakings that had no parallel at the time. Some were short-term jobs, others lasted for several years. In supervising or inspecting these projects, they were often only home for brief periods” (Ross, Citation2010, p. 158).6 The variation in selling price could not simply have been the result of an extra allowance from the customer for interest due to delays in the settlement of bills of exchange as Bailey (Citation1999, p. 294) suggests, as sometimes it was the other way round with the contract price exceeding the final selling price.7 This was also the case at Baldwin Locomotive Works in the U.S., until the financial crisis known as the Panic of 183

他的研究兴趣还包括可持续发展报告和国际财务报告准则的保证。

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引用次数: 0

The metamorphosis of China’s automotive industry (1953–2001): Inward internationalisation, technological transfers and the making of a post-socialist market 中国汽车工业的蜕变(1953-2001):内向国际化、技术转让和后社会主义市场的形成

2区历史学 Q1 Arts and Humanities

Business History

Pub Date : 2023-09-11 DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2023.2247366

Yuan Jia-Zheng, Carles Brasó Broggi

引用次数: 0

Sustaining Empire: Venezuela’s Trade with the United States during the Age of Revolutions, 1797–1828 维持帝国:革命时期委内瑞拉与美国的贸易，1797-1828