Abstract
“If European integration is really to be achieved, there must develop European corporations” maintained the famous American economist Charles Kindleberger already in the 1960s.1 And Professor Franco Amatori, from Italy’s most distinguished business school, Università Bocconi, is convinced that “corporations are essentially the genetic code of European economic integration.” But did this genetic code lead to European enterprise? Or is the genetic code of European economic integration empty? Is Europe to be constructed without Europeans? Of course not! In fact, the European Union has sought for decades to construct a European economy without a key potential actor: European enterprise. However, we can at least read books on the on it.2 Firms even buy professional advice on it, provided by distinguished consultancies. All over the world we can get information or comments on European enterprise — except in Europe. The largest sceptics on this question are the Europeans themselves. Well-known scholars suggest the European enterprise never existed, and probably never will.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
C. Kindleberger, European integration and the international corporation, Columbia Journal of World Business, Vol. 1 No. 1 (1966), p. 68.
Among first ones which published on the topic were Dyas and Thanheiser already 30 years ago (Dyas, Gareth P. and Heinz T. Thanheiser, The emerging European enterprise. Strategy and structure in French and German industry, London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1976).
Collomb, Bertrand, Foreword, in: Calori, Roland and de Woot, Philippe (eds.), A European management model. Beyond Diversity, Prentice Hall: New York 1994, p. xix.
For instance, Whittington, Richard & Mayer, Michael, The European Corporation. Strategy, structure and social science, OUP: Oxford, 2000, or Lessem, Ronnie / Neubauer, Fred, European management systems. Towards unity out of cultural diversity, McGraw-Hill: London, 1994.
The New York Times, 25.12.2003.
Powell, Walter W. and Paul J. Di Maggio, The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields, in: idem (eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1991, pp. 63–82, p. 64.
Hayward, Jack, Europe’s endangered industrial champions, in: Hayward, Jack (ed.), Industrial Enterprise and European integration. From national to international champions in Western Europe, Oxford University Press: Oxford 1995, pp. 1–20, p. 3.
See Whitley, Richard, Divergent Capitalism. The social structuring and change of business systems, OUP: Oxford, 1999; Idem (ed.), The Changing European Firm: Limits to Convergence, Routledge, London, 1996. Hall, Peter A and David Soskice (eds.), Varieties of capitalism: the institutional foundations of comparative advantage, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Another example is the contribution of Macharzina, Oesterle and Wolf, who in search of common European ground compared only European countries with each other (Macharzina, Klaus & Oesterle, Michael-Jörg & Wolf, Joachim, Europäische Managementstile — eine kulturorientierte Analyse, in: Berger, Roland & Steger, Ulrich (eds.), Auf dem Weg zur europäischen Unternehmensführung. Ein Lesebuch für Manager und Europäer, Munich: C.H.Beck, 1998, pp. 137–166).
See the respective discourse which started with Coase, Ronald H., The nature of the firm, in: Williamson and Winter, 1991 (1937) and Penrose, Edith, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, New York 1959.
See Stråth, Bo (ed.), Europe and the Other and Europe as the Other, Peter Lang: Brussels, 2000; Malmberg, Mikael and Stråth, Bo (eds.), The Meaning of Europe. Variety and Contention within and among Nations, Berg: Oxford, 2002.
E.g. Dritsas, Margarita and Gourvish, Terry (ed.), European Enterprise, Strategies of Adaptation and Renewal in the Twentieth Century, Athens, 1997. Whitley and Kristensen do stress that there is no such thing as a European firm, but still used the term in their title (Whitley, Richard & Kristensen, Peter Hull (eds.), The changing European firm. Limits to convergence, Routledge: London & New York, 1996).
For example: Francesca Carnevali published a book titled “Europe’s advantage”. In the book she presents the importance of small firms in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK without using a comparative concept, or taking into account European countries apart from these four, or referring to the non-European world. While the book’s subtitle is precise the main headline seems to be just a seller’s appeal, an advertising which works because it plays with an un-reflected good-will connected to Europe. (Carnevali, Francesca, Europe’s advantage. Banks and small firms in Britain, France, Germany, and Italy since 1918, Oxford, OUP, 2005).
Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques, Le défi américain, Paris: Denöel, 1967.
Mira Wilkins & Schröter, Harm u. (eds.), The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998.
Turcq, Dominique, Is there a US company management style in Europe? in: Calori and de Woot, pp. 82–111, p. 106.
Von Bredow, Vendeline, Colbert versus competition, in: The Economist, The World in 2007, p. 114.
Slater, Ian S., Ford. Ein amerikanischer Riese: Europäische Identität im globalen Kontext, in: Schmidt, Klaus (ed.), Corporate identity in Europe, Campus: Frankfurt / New York, 1994, pp. 87–98, p. 92.
Clifton, Judith and Francisco Comin and Daniel Diaz Fuentes (eds.), “Transforming Public Enterprises”, Palgrave, 2007; Hausman, Will and Peter Hertner and Mira Wilkins
Schröter, Harm G., Foreign Direct Investment and Mentality: The Nearby Factor in Austrian, German and Swiss Investment, in: Pohl, Hans (ed.),: Transnational Investment from the 19th Century to the Present, Stuttgart, 1994, pp. 205–226.
Pesmazoglou, Vassilis (1997),The European Union and the Firm: Modes of Interaction, in: Dritsas and Gourvish eds, European Enterprise, p. 285
For instance: Phelps, N. A., Multinationals and European integration. Trade, investment and regional development, London & Bristol, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1997.
Borner, Silvio and Porter, Michael and Weder, Rolf and Enright, Michael, Internationale Wettbewerbsvorteile. Ein strategisches Konzept für die Schweiz, Frankfurt, M./ New York 1991.
See Whittington & Mayer and the contributions to L’entreprise Européenne, special no. of Entreprises et Histoire, vol. 33, October 2003.
Schröter, Harm G., Americanization of the European Economy, a compact survey of American economic influence in Europe since the 1880s, Springer / Kluwer: Dordrecht, 2005.
See also in the following: Meller, Eberhard, Unternehmen und Politik im europäischen Umfeld, in: Berger & Steger, pp. 65–85, p. 74. The remainder was made up by pressure groups, such as Greenpeace, lawyers, consultancies, agents, and so on (see: ibid.).
Mayer, Michael & Whittington, Richard, The survival of the European holding company. Institutional choice and contingency, in: Whitley and Kristensen, pp. 87–112, p. 87.
Gerybadze, Alexander, Die Europäisierung von Kompetenz: Neue Organisationsmodelle für Forschung und Entwicklung, Produktion und Umweltschutz, in: Berger, pp. 225–249, p. 225.
Meller, p. 83.
Collomb, p. xix.
Van der Haas, H., The enterprise in transition. An analysis of European and American practice, Travistock Publications: London, 1967.
Hofstede, Geert, Intercultural conflict and synergy in Europe, in: Hickson, David J. (ed.), Management in Western Europe. Society, culture and organization in twelve nations, Walter de Gruyter: Berlin & New York, 1993, pp. 1–8, p. 5.
Kristensen, Peer Hull, Variations in the nature of the firm in Europe, in: Whitley and Kristensen, pp. 1–38, p. 2.
Lessem and Neubauer, p. 268.
Scullion, Hugh, Creating international managers. Recruitment and development issues, in: Kirkbride, pp. 197–211, p. 198.
Companies and persons in 1993: Agfa André Leysen, Bosch Hans Merkle, BP Robert Horton, BSN — Antoine Riboud, Coca-Cola — Raph Cooper, Fiat — Umberto Agnelli, Fuji Bank — Keisuke Yoshitomi, Nestlé — Helmut Maucher, Nokia — Simo Vuorilehto, NTT — Kageo Nakano, Philips Wisse Dekker, Pilkington Sir Anthony Pilkington, Siemens Walter Schusser, Texaco Bob Solberg, Unilever Floris A. Maljers, Volvo Per Gyllenhammar, to mention only part of the group (Calori and de Woot, pp. xff).
Calori Roland, Valla, Jean-Paul, and deWoot, Philippe, Common characteristics: the ingredients of European management, in: Calori and de Woot, pp. 31–78, p. 31.
deWoot, Philippe, Common characteristics: the ingredients of European management, in: Calori and de Woot Ibid. pp. 45ff.
Owen, Geoffrey, Succès et échecs dans l’industrie électronique: les lecons ont-elles été apprises? In: Entreprise et Histoire, Vol. 33, Octobre 2003, pp. 57–75.
Interview in Mobil (edited by Deutsche Bahn, Kommunikation), No 2, 2003, pp. 52–54, p. 54.
Azimont, Frank and Seidel, Fred, Marketing und Vertrieb in Europa, in: Berger and Steger, pp. 201–224.
Christian Scholz provides an overview over several approaches to study consumer pan-7 els in Europe (Scholz, Christian, Organisations und Personalarbeit in Europa von operativer Oberflächlichkeit zur eurostrategischen Grundausrichtung, in: Berger and Steger, pp. 181–199).
Die Welt, 06.06.2006.
Schöter, Americanization (2005) Chap. 7: pp. 193–204; Idem, La partecipazione dei lavoratori: idee americane ed europee, in: Imprese e storia, Vol. 29, 2004, pp. 71–99.
Flecker, Jörn and Schulten, Thorsten, Arbeitsbeziehungen in Europa und die Zukunft des “europäischen Sozialmodells”, in: Berger and Steger, pp. 103–136.
Schröter, Harm G., European Integration by the German Model? Unions, Multinational Enterprise and Labour Relations since the 1950s, in: Olsson, Ulf (ed.), Business and European Integration since 1800. Regional, National, and International Perspectives, Göteborg, 1997, pp. 85–99.
International Herald Tribune, February 10, 2005.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schröter, H.G. (2008). The European Enterprise. Its Relevance and Problems. In: Schröter, H.G. (eds) The European Enterprise. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74038-4_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74038-4_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-74036-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74038-4
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)