Managerial Development in Retailing: The Department and the Chain Store, 1890-1940

J. Perkins and D. Meredith

Working Papers from New South Wales - School of Economics

Abstract: Alfred Chandler has advanced the notion that afetr the First World War successful diversifying concerns shifted from centralised ("U" form) management structures to multi-divisional ("M" form) product-based organisation. Precisely the opposite occured in the retail sector, where the rate of growth of department store turnover - a form of retailing based on the "M" form of organisation - slowed considerably form the second decade of this century and that of chain stores - as examplars of the "U"form - expanded rapidly. Various factors contributed to this phenomenon. However, this paper argues that the distinctive forms of organisation of the two retailing concepts made a major contribution to the different experiences of the two forms of retailing in the interwar era.

Keywords: HISTORICAL ANALYSIS; RETAIL TRADE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L81 M10 N77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:nesowa:96/8

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from New South Wales - School of Economics THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, P.O.B. 1 KENSINGTON, NEW SOUTH WALES 2033 AUSTRALIA.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().