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Family Enterprise in an Industrial City: Strategies for the Family Organization of Business in Detroit, 1880

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Melanie Archer
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Extract

While families have historically provided the basis of business organization in the United States, in the late nineteenth century the development of corporations and managerial capitalism weakened their role in business, especially in management (Bell 1962; Chandler 1977; Farber 1972; Hall 1977,1988; Kanter 1978; Mills 1956; Shammas et al. 1987). Chandler (1977) has postulated a historical decline in family management, control, and decision making in firms with the growth of industrial capitalism; others have asserted a continued presence of the family in business ownership (Davis and Stern 1980; Lansberg et al. 1988).

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Type
Research Article
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Social Science History , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , Spring 1991 , pp. 67 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1991 

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