Profile

Biography

As an undergraduate I read economics and economic history at Aberdeen University and graduated with First Class Honours in 1987.  I then went to St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, and was awarded an M. Phil (1988) and a PhD (1991) in economics. My PhD, supervised by Professor Barry Supple, CBE, FBA,  was on the structure and performance of Lancashire spinning firms in the post-1945 period.  After a spell working as an investment analyst in the City I moved to Sheffield University where I was a lecturer and then senior lecturer in economics. In 2004 I was appointed to a 40th Anniversary Readership at York. In 2007 I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and in 2010 I was promoted to a personal chair in business history and managerial economics.

Professional Activities

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Member of the Economic History Society
Member of the Association of Business Historians
Member of the Business History Conference (BHC)

Have acted as an ad hoc referee for British Journal of Management, Economic History Review and Business History, and sit on the editorial board of Business History.

Departmental roles

Chair of Board of Studies

Research

Overview

My main research interests are modern British business and economic history, with particular reference to the following:

• Industrial and corporate performance in the 19th and 20th centries
• Protection of intellectual property - from the 19th centry, especially trademarks and merchandise mark
• Corporate governance (especially mergers and acquisitions)

Some of this work has been financed by grants from the ESRC, Leverhulme Trust and the Nuffield Foundation.

I am happy to supervise doctoral students in any of these areas as well as in the general field of business and economic history.

Publications

Full publications list

(2013) 'Employment change after takeovers: the role of executive ownership', forthcoming, British Journal of Industrial Relations (with A. Kuvandikov and A. Pendleton).

(2012) 'Forgotten Heroes and Forgotten Issues: Business and Trade Mark History during the Nineteenth Century', Business History Review, 86, pp. 261-285.

(2011) 'Explaining corporate success: The structure and performance of British firms, 1950-1984',  Business History, 53, pp. 85-118  (with S.Toms).

(2010) 'Oil on the Water: government regulation of a carcinogen in the twentieth century Lancashire cotton spinning industry.' Business History, 52, pp. 695-712 ( with G. Tweedale).

(2010) "Trick or Treat?" The Misrepresentation of American Beef Exports in Britain during the Late Nineteenth Century', Enterprise & Society, 11, pp.203-241  (with D. Gangjee).

(2009) 'The business of protection: Bass & Co, and trade mark defence, c.1870-c.1914.' Accounting, Business & Financial History, 19  pp. 1-19  (with S. Verma).

(2008) Reputation and Export Performance: Danish Butter Exports and the British Market, c. 1880-c.1914.' Business History, 50, pp.185-204. (with Mads Mordhorst).

(2007) 'Avoiding Conscription to the Interwar "Army" of the Unemployed: Short-time working in the iron and steel industry', Labour History Review, 72, pp. 5-25, (with S. Bowden and C. Price).

(2006) 'Financial Institutions and Corporate Strategy: David Alliance and The Transformation of British textiles, c.1950-c.1990', Business History, 48 (2006), pp. 453-78. (with S. Toms).

(2006) 'A very peculiar practice: Under-employment in Britain during the interwar years' , European Review of Economic History, 10, pp. 89-108 (with S. Bowden and C. Price).

(2004) 'Mutton Dressed as Lamb? The Misrepresentation of Australian and New Zealand Meat in the British Market, c.1890-c.1914', Australian Economic History Review , 44, pp. 161-184.

(2003a) 'Financial Distress, Corporate Borrowing and Industrial Decline: The Lancashire Cotton Spinning Industry, 1918-1938', Accounting, Business and Financial History , 13, pp. 1-26. (with S.Toms).

(2003b) 'British Manufacturing Financial Performance, 1950-79: Implications for the Productivity Debate and the Post-War Consensus', Business History , 45, pp. 52-71.

(2002) '"Made in Britain"? National Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks: the British experience from the late 19 th Century to the 1920s', Journal of Industrial History 5, pp. 50-70.

(2001) 'Capital Ownership, Capital Structure, and Capital Markets: Financial Constraints and the Decline of the Lancashire Cotton Textile Industry, 1880-1965', Journal of Industrial History 4, pp. 48-64. (with S.Toms).

(2000a) 'Public Subsidy and Private Divestment: The Lancashire Cotton Textile Industry, c.1950-c.1965', Business History 42, pp. 60-85 (with S.Toms).

(2000b) 'Competition, Conflict, and Compromise: The Lancashire weaving industry during the inter-war years,' Textile History, 31, pp. 54-76.

(2000c) 'Quiet successes and loud failures: the UK textile industries in the interwar years', Journal of Industrial History , 3, pp. 91-111. (with S.Bowden).

(1999) 'Productivity on the cheap: the 'More Looms' experiment and the Lancashire weaving industry during the inter-war years', Business History 41, pp. 21-41 (with S. Bowden).

(1998) 'Short-time working and price maintenance: collusive tendencies in the cotton spinning industry, 1919-1939', Economic History Review 51, pp. 319-343. (with S. Bowden).

(1997) 'Firm structure and financial performance: the Lancashire spinning industry, c1880-c.1960', Accounting, Business and Financial History , 7 pp. 195-232 (with S. Toms).

(1996) 'The Trade Marks Question and the Lancashire Cotton Textile Industry, 1870-1914', Textile History ,. 27, pp. 207-228 (with G. Tweedale).

(1995) 'Asset or liability? Trademarks in the Sheffield cutlery and tool trades', Business History, 37, pp. 1-27. (with G. Tweedale).

(1993a) 'Rings, mules and structural constraints in the Lancashire textile industry c.1945 to c.1965', Economic History Review , 46, pp. 342-362.

(1993b) 'Re-equipment as a strategy for survival in the Lancashire textile industry, c.1945 to c.1965', Textile History , 24, pp. 211-234.

Contributions to books

(2010) 'Trademarks and Infringement in Britain, c.1875-c.1900', in Trademarks, Brands and Competitiveness, pp. 102-118, eds Teresa da Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid (London: Routledge).

(2009) 'Was the Lancashire cotton textile industry competitive? An alternative analysis', in King Cotton: A Tribute to Douglas A. Farnie, pp.83-92, ed J. Wilson (Lancaster: Crucible).

(2008) 'The making of modern trade mark law: the UK, 1860-1914 - A business history perspective', in L. Bently, J. Davis and J. Ginsburg (eds), Trade Marks and Brands: An Interdisciplinary Critique, (forthcoming, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(2007) 'The firm in history: city industry relations: a case study of the engineering sector in the UK economy during the interwar years', in M.Dietrich (ed), Economics of the Firm: Analysis, Evolution and History (London: Routledge, 2007), pp.209-227. (with S. Bowden and C. Price).

(2004) 'British Industry during the inter-war years', in R. Floud, and P. Johnson, (eds), The Economic History of Britain Vol 2, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 374-402 (with S. Bowden).

(2003) 'Much ado about nothing? Regional business networks and the performance of the cotton and woollen textile industries, c.1919-c.1939 ', in A. Popp and J. Wilson, eds. Industrial Clusters and Regional Business Networks , pp. 90-111. (Aldershot: Ashgate), (with S. Bowden).

(1997) 'Made in Sheffield' : Trade Marks, The Cutlers' Company and the Defence of 'Sheffield', c1850-c.1995,' in C. Binfield and D.Hay, eds . A History of the Cutlers' Company in Hallamshire, pp. 85-114. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).