 The rise of professional asset management: The UK investment trust network before World War IDimitris P. Sotiropoulos, Janette Rutterford and Carry van Lieshout Business History, 2021, vol. 63, issue 5, 826-849 Abstract: This article analyses the network of UK closed-end investment trust companies, the early pioneers of diversification before World War I, compiling data from different original sources with regard to their directors’ backgrounds and their characteristics as listed companies. Our results reveal that the majority of these early asset managers were merchants, bankers, lawyers, or accountants. The structure of the network is centralised around a few firms with high board sizes and a few directors with many interlocking directorships within the sector. This is a purely structural effect and cannot be explained by individual firm or director characteristics. Our results also show that investment trusts could not be grouped according to their performance. This means that interlocking directorships were equally possible between good and weak performing investment trusts, suggesting that successful asset management was due to team work and was an outcome of collective decision making at board level. Date: 2021 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:bushst:v:63:y:2021:i:5:p:826-849 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2019.1656197 Access Statistics for this article Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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