This paper identifies four basic economic characteristics underlying the evolution of the motion picture industry. First, the importance of endogenous sunk costs led to a quality race in the 1910s that left European companies behind. Second, the fact that marginal revenues equalled marginal...

In 1987, the UK Conservative Party was re-elected promising to transform the electricity industry into a privatised competitive industry and to promote an expansion of nuclear power. Fulfilling both objectives was not possible. The nuclear plants were withdrawn from the sale and plans to build...

Abstract: Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the factors influencing the business performance of estate agency in England and Wales. Design/methodology/approach – The paper investigates the effect of housing market, company size and pricing policy on business performance in the estate...

This thesis traces the development of the copper industry, mining and smelting, located mainly in Cornwall and South Wales respectively, between 1760 and 1820, and the interaction between them. It is especially concerned with the impact on the mining industry of new sources of ore, technological...

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of 'informality', It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to...

A key feature of British enterprise development policies is the launch in 1992 of a network of business link partnerships to rationalize the local provision of business support services for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across England. This article examines the ways in which...

Multinational corporations employ millions of people in Europe, and over 70 million worldwide. Through their role in foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade, they are the motors of the "globalization" of the international economy. This chapter considers their impact on employment...

This article uses various micro data sets to study entrepreneurship. Consistent with the existence of capital constraints on potential entrepreneurs, the estimates imply that the probability of self-employment depends positively upon whether the individual ever received an inheritance or gift....

The roles and responsibilities of business in society, in particular global business, are being defined more broadly by an expanding range of stakeholders. This paper aims to review these changes and their implications in order to understand better the likely future expectations of business in...

This paper examines workplace restructuring in three department stores in the Czech Republic in early 1994. All had previously belonged to the state-owned store chain of Czechoslovakia; one which we call Shop, was a major Prague store still in state ownership at the time of research, although it...