2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
On Free-standing Companies as British Multinationals
| Project/Area Number |
20530294
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Economic history
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2008 – 2010
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| Keywords | フリースタンディング・カンパニー / イギリス型国籍企業 / クラスター / イギリス商社 / 海外直接投資 / 企業者活動 / 系列企業 / ゴム栽培会社 |
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| Research Abstract |
Since M. Wilkins described the free-standing companies as an important type of pre-1914 British foreign direct investors or pre-1914 multinational enterprise, business historians have started to pay attention to this phenomenon. However, the concept of free-standing companies by M. Wilkins gave rise to much controversy for lack of enough evidence. I analyzed the rubber producing companies in British Malaya which was regarded as typical free-standing companies, and found the characteristics of free-standing companies and C-type clusters (see my article in 2007 for a C-type cluster)consisted of a British trading company and rubber producing companies. My analysis with historical evidence resulted in three articles in The Keizai Gaku (Tohoku University)in 2011. In these three articles, I (1)corrected the main characteristics of free-standing companies presented by M. Wilkins and elaborated the concept of free-standing companies,(2)proved that a C-type cluster could be formed only when any institution which would be a governing center had the ability to manage rubber producing companies besides the entrepreneurial ability to be a promoter,(3)found that the characteristics of financial resource transactions between a British trading company and rubber producing companies within a C-type cluster was very similar to the transactions within a keiretsu group.
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