Strategy and Structure

Abstract This investigation into the changing strategy and structure of the large industrial enterprise in the United States began as an experiment in the writing of comparative business history. The initial thought was that an examination of the way different enterprises carried out the same activity-whether that activity was manufacturing, marketing, procurement of supplies, finance, or administration-would have as much value as a study of how a single firm carried on all these activities. Such a comparative analysis could permit deeper probes into the nature of the function studied, and so provide more accurate interpretations and more meaningful evaluations of the performance of several different enterprises in that activity than could a whole series of histories of individual firms. It could thus indicate more clearly the ways in which American businessmen have handled that activity over the years.