This book examines the evolving strategies and structure of large European firms in comparative and historical context. Although European corporations still differ in terms of ownership and management, they are adopting increasingly similar organizational structures and diversification strategies. The authors explain recent corporate developments by extending Alfred Chandler's original model of strategy and structure to include conglomerate diversification and the more integrated 'networked multidivisional' structure.

• 1: Change, Context, and the Corporation


• 2: Chandler and Context


• 3: Scale, Scope, and Structure


• 4: Corporate Careers and Control


• 5: Changing Strategies


• 6: Changing Structures


• 7: Strategy, Structure, and Politics


• 8: Concluding for the Corporation


• Appendix I: Strategic and Structural Classification of French, German, and United Kingdom Firms


• Appendix II: Methodology

Richard Whittington is University Reader in Strategy at the Saïd Business School and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He was formerly Lecturer in Organizational Analysis at Imperial College and Reader in Marketing and Strategic Management at the University of Warwick. He is author of 'Corporate Strategies in Recession and Recovery' (Unwin Hyman) and 'What is Strategy-and Does it Matter?' (Routledge), as well as articles in a variety of journals. He is Associate Editor of the British Journal of Management and on the editorial boards of Long Range Planning and Organization Studies.; Michael Mayer is a Lecturer in Strategic and International Management at the University of Glasgow. He has published articles in Organization Studies, the European Management Journal, and Industrial and Corporate Change.