Harold James, Family Capitalism: Wendels, Haniels, Falcks and the Continental European Model (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2006, xii-434 pp. $ 39.95)

摘要

This is an ambitious book by Harold James, for many reasons. First, it is a detailed reconstruction of the history of three of the most important European dynasties in the steel industry, over two hundred years. The research is based on a vast array of sources, primary and secondary, and succeeds in giving a complete account of the complex and dynamic relationships between the stories of the families and those of the three business groups from the first industrial revolution to the present times. Second, the story told here is a comparative one. The three dynasties are analysed inside their national contexts (respectively France, Germany and Italy), and confronted in terms of their linkages with institutions and policies, of technological evolution, of strategies and market relationships. Not surprisingly, the comparative effort highlights many differences, but also a high number of similarities, as far as for instance the entrepreneurial creativity of the first generation is examined, the relationships with the state and the political power, the management of succession, the training of new generations, the strategies of growth and expansion of the business activity.