Après de nombreux livres consacrés à "l'américanisation" des entreprises européennes, ce colloque doit évaluer "l'européanisation" des entreprises américaines.

Helsinki Congress of the International Economic History Association

(21-25 August 2006)

Session 93 (with two blocks): Thursday 24 August, 14.00-17.30

“US Firms in Europe (from the 1890s to the 21st century): Strategy, Identity, Performance, Reception, Adaptability.”

The organisers

· Pr. Hubert Bonin (Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux & Centre Montesquieu d’histoire économique-ifrede-Bordeaux 4)

· Pr. Ferry De Goey (Erasmus University, Rotterdam)

· Pr. Patrick Fridenson (École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris)

Postal Correspondance:

Hubert Bonin
3 allée Frédéric Chopin, 33120 Arcachon, France
Tel : 00 33 0 673 990 779
Fax: 00 33 556 844 178
Mail: h.bonin@sciencespobordeaux.fr

A two-block session: Session 93

The session will take place just before the General Assembly on Thursday 24 August afternoon, from 14.00 to 17.30.

That will allow our fourteen paper givers to express their conclusions, to our discussants to tell their opinion and to the audience to question conclusions and raise issues.

Deadlines for the papers

The first drafts of the papers have to be collected up to 31 May 2006 in order to deliver them on the website of the congress.

The publishing of the papers

The proceedings will be published in English by an international publisher. The papers will appear in a revised version and will take into account the discussants’ critics and the opinions collected among colleagues through the circulation of the papers. We hope that our team will be able to send me the definitive version of the papers on the midst of December 2006.

US Firms in Europe (from the 1890s to the 21st century):

Strategy, Identity, Performance, Reception, Adaptability

Research purposes

Our workshop is deliberately conceived within an international frame, so as to follow a comparative approach and present a complex set of data as a leverage for international discussions. Thanks to the large-scale studies of Mira Wilkins (The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise and The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise) and through several books about the Americanisation of the European economy, we know better the main features of American investments in Europe. Our panel intends to focus on concrete and precise case-studies, either national or sectorial, in order to determine how American companies tailored their insertion into European nations and markets, how they “conceptualised” their European development and tried to get their subsidiaries or sister companies “Europeanised”. The whole range of economic history’s notions and methods, some aspects of cultural studies (about cultural aspects of management), the analysis of firms’ strategies and several aspects of industrial relations will be mobilised for this session.

Strategies

Firstly, we intend to reconstitute the strategy, scope and managerial structure of these firms’ commitment to a European development. Did they choose to take profit from their competitive edge on technologies or to invest deeply in the building of commercial networks, adapted to each specific market? Why did these firms decide to establish themselves in Europe? Was it the wish to increase profits and markets? Was it the willingness to introduce in Europe unknown and innovative products (if we consider, for instance, the strategy of a Thomas Edison as a paradigmatic one)? Did the managers of these firms rely on local networks of engineers or Americanophile managers (if we consider the fascination exerted by American business on German businessmen before the First World War, for example)?

Structures & Identity

Secondly, our approach questions the very notion of “Europeanisation”. Did American firms consider single national markets or a market on a European level? Did they get involved with national business life? How did they manage to appear as “national” firms in each country (advertisement, public relations campaigns, corporate communication, adjustment to local habits in industrial relations)? How did they build a national identity in each country (contribution to employment, management from national origins, investment in local research & development entities, etc.)? Did companies get committed to national policies of “regional development” and become partners to regional business communities (e.g. ibm or Ford in Aquitaine)?

Reception

Thirdly, we intend to determine how these companies were perceived by national authorities, opinion, medias and customers: Did they benefit from their American outlook? From their technological edge? or from their commercial skills? Were clients lured by the public image of America? Or had they to struggle against prejudice towards Transatlantic inputs considered as unsuitable to local moods and uses? Or perceived as rivals capable of destabilising national industries and of reaping profits and market shares? How did they spur pressure groups to resist to their offensive? How did governments act? Were they questioned by the national professional organisations?

Performance

Fourthly, comparative studies will gauge the commercial, industrial and financial performance of these American companies all over Europe. How did they succeed in each country where they had footholds? How did their strategy take into consideration some failures? We wish to debate whether these American firms were hegemonic and to balance their successes with an analysis of their failures or limits. We shall therefore question the irresistible upward move of these companies in Europe. Comparative studies will also help to analyse the different patterns of learning: how did these firms appreciate European markets? Did they transfer in America what they learnt from European markets? We might use here the concept of “hybridisation” in a comparative purpose.


The Session 93 Panel

Outline of the session 93

Alain Beltran (Institut d’histoire du temps présent-ihtp, Paris)
The case of us oil companies in France

Hubert Bonin (Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux & Centre Montesquieu d’histoire économique-Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux 4)
How us TransEuropean companies tried to become French from the 1950s (heavy equipment, electrotechnics, airspace equipment, consumer products, etc.)[ibm, hp, itt, John Deere, Caterpillar, Massey Ferguson, Case, McCormick, Boeing, General Electric, Westinghouse, Bendix, Hoover, Singer, United Technologies, Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Mattel, etc.]

Sophie Chauveau (Université de Lyon 3) & Viviane Quirke (Brookes University, Oxford; Wellcome Institute)
The case of us pharmaceutics companies in Great Britain and in France: a comparative perspective

Ferry De Goey (Erasmus University Rotterdam) & Ben Wubs (Research Institute for History and Culture, Utrecht)
The case of us companies in The Netherlands (Ford, Texaco, Esso, etc.)

Thomas Fetzer (European University, Florence)
The reception of General Motors and Ford by European labour unions, especially in Great Britain and Germany

Patrick Fridenson (Ecole des Hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris)
The case of us electronics andcar companies in France, 1880-1992

Andrew Godley (Reading University)
The case of us companies in Great Britain (Ford, Singer, etc.)

Thierry Grosbois (Université libre de Bruxelles)
The positions of the Ford Motor Company in front of the European idea and integration after the Second World War

Enrique de Miguel Fernandez (Universidad Politechnica de Valencia) & Vicente Sanz Rozalén (Jaume I de Castellón Universidad)

The case of us companies in Spain

Margrit Müller (Universität Zurich)

The case of us companies in Switzerland

Irina Potkina (Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow) & Boris Shpotov (Institute of World history, Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow)
The case of US companies in Russia-USSR, 1890s - 1930s (Singer, Ford)

Emanuela Scarpellini (Universita degli Studi, Milano) & Andrea Colli (Bocconi University)
The case of us firms in Italy (from the 1890s)

Peter Sorensen (Aarhus School of Business)
The case of Ford and other us companies in Scandinavia

Paul Thomes (Aachen Universität) & Suzanne Hilger (Düsseldorf Universität)
The case of us companies in Germany

Discussant 1: Mira Wilkins (Florida International University)
The us point of view

Discussant 2: Steven Tolliday (Leeds University)
The European point of view


@mail addresses of participants:

degoey@fhk.eur.nl
patrick.fridenson@ehess.fr
s.w.tolliday@leeds.ac.uk
shpotovb@mail.ru
thierry.grosbois@belgacom.net
;edemigu@omp.upv.es
jsv@asb.dk
paul.thomes@wiso.rwth-aachen.de
marmu@unizh.ch
sophie.chauveau@wanadoo.fr
wilkinsm@fiu.edu
a.c.godley@reading.ac.uk
emanuela.scarpellini@unimi.it
alain.beltran@ihtp.cnrs.fr
viviane@quirkez.freeserve.co.uk
h.bonin@sciencespobordeaux.fr
jsv@asb.dk
thomas.fetzer@iue.it
peter.s@dlgtele.dk
vquirke@aol.com
potka@inbox.ru
ben.wubs@let.uu.nl


POSTAL ADRESSES

Alain Beltran (Institut d’histoire du temps présent-ihtp, Paris)
12 rue de Beaujeu, 94100 Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

Hubert Bonin (Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux & Centre Montesquieu d’histoire économique-Université Montesquieu-Bordeaux 4)
3 allée Frédéric Chopin, 33120 Arcachon

Sophie Chauveau (Université de Lyon 3)
17 rue Malesherbes, 69006 Lyon

Viviane Quirke (Brookes University, Oxford; Wellcome Institute)

Ferry De Goey (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Fhkw, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Pays-Bas

Ben Wubs (Research Institute for History and Culture, Utrecht)
Research Institute for History & Culture, 66 Kromme Nieuwegracht, 3512 HL Utrecht, Pays-Bas

Thomas Fetzer (European University, Florence)

Patrick Fridenson (Ecole des Hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris)
31 rue Campagne Première, 75014 Paris

Andrew Godley (Reading University)
University of Reading Business School, Reading RG6 6AA, Royaume-Uni

Thierry Grosbois (Université libre de Bruxelles)
249 rue des Halles, 5621 Morialmé, Belgique

Enrique de Miguel Fernandez (Universidad Politechnica de Valencia)
Faculta de Ade, Dipartimento Organizacion de Empresas, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera S/N, cp 46071 Valencia, Espagne

Vicente Sanz Rozalén (Jaume I de Castellón Universidad)

Margrit Müller (Universität Zurich)
Département d’histoire économique, Université de Zurich, Suisse

Irina Potkina (Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow)
Kv 28, 180 Prospekt Mira, Moskva, 129366 Russia

Boris Shpotov (Institute of World history, Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow)
Kv 129, 16 Baryshikha Street, 125222 Moscow, Russie

Emanuela Scarpellini (Universita degli Studi, Milano)
Dipartimento di scienze della storia e della documentazione storica, Universita degli Studi di Milano, 7 via Festa del Perdono, 20122 Milano, Italie

Andrea Colli (Bocconi University)

Peter Sorensen (Aarhus School of Business)
66 Haaselhaven, 8520 Lystrup, Danemark

Paul Thomes (Aachen Universität)
9 Ingeborg Bachmann Strasse, 52146 Würselen, Allemagne

Suzanne Hilger (Düsseldorf Universität)
Heinrich Heine Universität, Abteilung für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1 Universität Strasse, 40225 Düsseldorf, Allemagne

Discussant 1: Mira Wilkins (Florida International University)
Department of Economics, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, Etats-Unis

Discussant 2: Steven Tolliday (Leeds University)
18 Springwood Road, Leeds LS8 2QA, Royaume-Uni