Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte (ZUG) – Inhalt 1/2006

Aufsätze (Articles)

Hans-Werner Niemann: Kontinuitätssicherung durch Transformation. Die Entwicklung des Bramscher Familienunternehmens Sanders vom protoindustriellen Leinenhandel zur industriellen Weberei. S. 3-25.

Peter Borscheid: Systemwettbewerb, Institutionenexport und Homogenisierung. Der Internationalisierungsprozess der Versicherungswirtschaft im 19. Jahrhundert. S. 26-53.

Kenneth Bertrams: Of Men and Platforms: Social Networks and the Organization of Industrial Innovation in Belgium (1900-1970). S. 54-69.

Ralf Stremmel: Von der «Treue» zum «Vertrauen»? Friedrich Alfred Krupp und seine Beschäftigten (1887-1902). S. 70-92.

Mathias Mutz: «Ein unendlich weites Gebiet für die Ausdehnung unseres Geschäfts». Marketingstrategien des Siemens-Konzerns auf dem chinesischen Markt, 1904 bis 1937. S. 71-93.

Abstracts

Hans-Werner Niemann: Kontinuitätssicherung durch Transformation. Die Entwicklung des Bramscher Familienunternehmens Sanders vom protoindustriellen Leinenhandel zur industriellen Weberei

Securing continuity through transformation. The development of the Bramsche based family firm Sanders from proto-industrial trade to industrial mill.

This essay deals with the Bramsche (North West Germany) based textile firm Sanders which started in the linen trade in the 17th century and, after undergoing several transformations, still exists today, albeit in only one of its three trading sectors.

The article examines the functioning of the proto-industrial linen trade and its potential for organizational transformation in response to changing circumstances. It uses a set of theoretical approaches from Contingency Theories, New Institutional Economics, and Evolutionary Economics in an attempt to explain the «hidden logic» behind the historical sources and to provide an analytical framework for future studies of similar cases.

Peter Borscheid: Systemwettbewerb, Institutionenexport und Homogenisierung. Der Internationalisierungsprozess der Versicherungswirtschaft im 19. Jahrhundert

The causes of the acceleration of globalization in the 19th century are primarily due to the application of new technologies, techniques and organization forms. The modern insurance industry, as a new technique of collective provision and risk management, was also an integral part of this process. As a new system the insurance industry was compelled to prevail against established systems.

The international cooperation of insurance industry experts and the rules worked out by them proved to be decisive competitive advantages. The process of globalization was accelerated since the export of insurance was accompanied by an export of economic institutions, which on a worldwide scale resulted in a standardization of the insurance industry and the economic system.

Kenneth Bertrams: Of Men and Platforms: Social Networks and the Organization of Industrial Innovation in Belgium (1900-1970)

The interactions between industrial enterprises, universities, and the State in Belgium have constituted key mechanisms in the launching of a national science policy, which strived to raise the levels of industrial innovation.

Against the perception of stable partners driven by common objectives and rational negotiations, this article argues that the origins of this policy lay rather in a series of informal interpersonal initiatives, channelled by technical-scientific «platforms», which were eventually institutionalized after World War II. This awkward system, based on the dynamics and tensions of social networks, ended up by becoming the legitimate «default» model up to the early 1970s.

Ralf Stremmel: Von der «Treue» zum «Vertrauen»? Friedrich Alfred Krupp und seine Beschäftigten (1887-1902)

For quite a time now the term «trust» has been intensively discussed by historians. This contribution inquires into the part trust played in the relationship between Friedrich Alfred Krupp and his employees (1887-1902). In particular the case of a protest and walkout in a forge in 1912 is held up as an example of Krupp’s effort to set up a relationship of mutual trust between him and his employees. By this he even took the risk of coming into conflict with his management.

On the other side the effort of the unions to tie the workers to their organization was only of very limited success. Although the trust-based corporate culture which was aimed at by Friedrich Alfred Krupp reverted to certain elements of the former patriarchal culture maintained by his father, it laid the stress on a new basis: trust took the place of faithfulness, discipline and control. This is one of the reasons for the fact that there were actually no strikes in the Krupp cast steel works (Gußstahlfabrik) up to the First World War.

Mathias Mutz: «Ein unendlich weites Gebiet für die Ausdehnung unseres Geschäfts»
Marketingstrategien des Siemens-Konzerns auf dem chinesischen Markt, 1904 bis 1937

The German electronic manufacturer Siemens has been active in the Chinese market since the 1870s and established its first office in Shanghai in 1904. This article analyses these business activities from a marketing perspective. Referring to the contributions of «product», «price», «place» and «promotion» to the enterprise’s development it emphasises the close connection between marketing
and internationalisation.

The Chinese market has always been associated with high expectations which could not be fulfilled in
the short run. On a limited market with growing international competition business depended on a
flexible price and product policy. Here Siemens could only partially adjust. Instead, the company concentrated on customer service and developed an extensive distribution network with offices in all major cities. Public relation activities emphasised product quality and presented the company as a «good corporate citizen». Siemens established multiple connections with its Chinese customers, which included the delegation of engineers to private and state enterprises, the consulting of the government’s standardization activities and the education of Chinese engineers in Berlin.
The growing importance of international markets affected the development of the Siemens company as a whole and fostered the necessity for marketing activities. Therefore, not only can marketing and internationalisation be attributed to similar logics of «scale and scope», but working in an international context must also be seen as an important field for the development and transfer of marketing concepts.

Buchbesprechungen

Jeffrey Fear, Organizing Control, August Thyssen and the Construction of German Corporate Management (Kim Priemel)

Stephan Wegener (Hrsg.), August und Joseph Tyssen. Die Familie und ihre Unternehmen, Klartext (Kim Priemel)

Paul Erker, Vom nationalen zum globalen Wettbewerb. Die deutsche und die amerikanische Reifenindustrie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Friederike Sattler)

Susan Becker, «Multinationalität hat verschiedene Gesichter». Formen internationaler Unternehmenstätigkeit der Société Anonyme des Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille Montagne und der Metallgesellschaft (Harm G. Schröter)

Wolfgang Mühlfriedel/Edith Hellmuth, Carl Zeiss. Die Geschichte eines Unternehmens ( Kilian Steiner)

Detlef Krause, Die Commerz- und Disconto-Bank 1870-1920/23 – Bankgeschichte als Systemgeschichte (Beiträge zur Unternehmensgeschichte, Bd.19) (Carsten Burhop)

Christoph Kreutzmüller, Händler und Handlungsgehilfen. Der Finanzplatz und die deutschen Großbanken (1918 – 1945) (Friederike Sattler)

Martin Tabaczek, Kulturelle Kommerzialisierung. Studien zur Geschichte des Verlages und die deutschen Großbanken (1918-1945) (Florian Triebel)

Florian Kain, Das Privatfernsehen, der Axel Sringer Verlag und die deutsche Presse. Die medienpolitische Debatte in den sechziger Jahren (Frank Bösch)

Jörg Feldkamp/Achim Dresler (Hrsg.), 120 Jahre Wanderer 1885-2005. Ein Unternehmen aus Chemnitz und seine Geschichte in der aktuellen Forschung (Armin Müller)

Frank Konersmann, Die Tenges. 400 Jahre Unternehmer in Osnabrück und Ostwestfalen (Harald Wixforth)

Annette Christine Vogt, Ein Hamburger Beitrag zur Entwicklung des Welthandels im 19. Jahrhundert. Die Kaufmannsreederei Wappäus im internationalen Handel Venezuelas und der dänischen sowie niederländischen Antillen (Alexander Engel)

Alfred Chandler, Jr., Shaping the Industrial Century. The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries (Tobias Straumann)

Christina Brede, Das Instrument der Sauberkeit, Die Entwicklung der Massenproduktion von Feinseifen in Deutschland 1850 bis 2000 (Andrea Schneider)

Holger Menne/Michael Farrenkopf (Bearb.), Zwangsarbeit im Ruhrbergbau während des Zweiten Weltkrieges (Kim Priemel)

Eduard Gaugler/Richard Köhler (Hrsg.), Entwicklungen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre. 100 Jahre Fachdisziplin (Jan Ottmar Hesse)