Youssef Cassis presents a major comparative study of big business in the three leading European nations over the course of the 20th century. Drawing on a carefully constructed sample of leading companies from the UK, France, and Germany, the author analyzes the relationship between corporate and national economic performance, the impact of national difference on business performance and practice, and the composition and influence of the business elites in each country. Big Business is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of European business and the links between business practice and its wider social and political environment.

• Part I: Big Business


• 1: The World of Big Business before 1914


• 2: From the 1920s to the 1950s


• 3: Recent Developments


• Part II: Performances


• 4: Profits and Profitability


• 5: Survival


• Part III: Business Leadership


• 6: Competences


• 7: Decision-making


• Part IV: Business, Society, and Politics


• 8: Wealth, Status, and Power before 1914


• 9: Business Elites in Contemporary Europe


• Conclusion


• Appendix


• References

Youssef Cassis is joint editor of the Financial History Review (CUP). He is Visiting Research Fellow in the Business History Unit at the London School of Economics and is Professor in the Department of Economic History at the University of Grenoble.