The chapters confront theoretical issues, national stories, comparative case studies from the past to the present and issues, about: The strategies of corporate and investment banking divisions within specialised investment banks or universal banks; the management of middle-term risks fostered by investment banking; investment bankers and markets.
Focusing on three concessions in China, the book examines the commercial and banking systems established by French bankers and merchants. It assesses their successes and limitations, aiming to evaluate the true impact of French entrepreneurialism and influence in these regions shaped by French capitalism. Through this investigation, the work sheds light on the complexities of foreign business ventures in China during this period.
Exploring the role of banking systems during the European annexation of Asia, this collection of essays presents original research utilizing primary sources in multiple languages, including English, French, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese. It offers fresh perspectives on the financial dynamics of imperial Asia and serves as a foundation for further scholarly inquiry.
Many books have addressed the economic and financial history of Hong Kong, and the imperialist conflicts in the key Chinese port-cities but very few books have explored French initiatives and performance in this area, beyond diplomacy, geopolitics or cultural issues. In this book, Hubert Bonin confronts arguments about "the great divergence", "the first globalisation", and forms of "economic patriotism". He gauges the competitive edge of French companies and banks, their struggle with British domination (HBSC, Chartered, shipping, trade houses/hongs) and their resistance against competitors from other countries (Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, USA, or Russia). The book delves into studies of management abroad, therefore mixing broad geo-economic issues with precise business history and deep banking history. The connections between French interests in China and Hong Kong and the colony of Indochina are established too. A second part of the book is dedicated to the case study of Hong Kong, as the British colony acted as a hub for Asian and European interests at the heart of connections with mainland China and some neighbouring territories (Indochina, etc.). This is essential reading for academics interested in banking and business history, the history of entrepreneurship, as well as, those involved in the contemporary history of China and Hong Kong, in the assessment of world-wide geo-economic competition between European powers in Asia (Great-Britain, and France), and in the first stages of economic "modernity", along European models, in emerging modern China
The aim of this book is to explore and compare the welfare strategies of businesses, including the various forms of «paternalism», over two centuries and across a number of countries. Specifically, the book examines differentiation and variation among the social mindsets of companies. Business history inevitably involves the study of social policies, including analysis of the societal influence of companies and their response to workforce demands concerning living conditions. In this book, historical forms of patronage are considered (old paternalism), as well as structured social policies aimed at stabilizing and appeasing labour relations (new paternalism). Issues of «post-paternalism» are then studied, opening the door to an assessment of the differences between the various types of paternalism and an exploration of the «fad» of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE). This concept, which gained prominence among transnational companies around the turn of the 1980s and the beginning of the third industrial revolution, involved the design of an entrepreneurial strategy to identify, analyse, organise, create and manage a venture to initiate sustainable and systematic socio-economic change.
This book investigates the adaptation of companies to the trend towards Europeanisation, through the renewal of their business values, their corporate culture, their portfolio of skills and their transnationalisation. It also considers the spillover effects in terms of knowledge management, accountability and commercial opportunities.The examination of case studies involving several different European countries and corporations leads to stimulating arguments about the steady building of a European culture of management, fuelled by local experiences and cross-over corporate cultures. The writers in the volume consider how individual managers contribute to the outline of a European business culture, taking advantage of new methods of management and the converging mobilisation of human resources. Another important issue examined in the book is that of brands, which have to be managed according to their perceptions in different European countries.
L'affaire Boulin et ses rebondissements ont trouble l'image de celui qui fut ardent compagnon gaulliste et ministre pendant 20 ans (1961-1979). Ce livre analyse et evalue les politiques economiques, financieres et sociales que Boulin a menees dans ses divers postes ministeriels ou furent mis en avant son savoir-faire, son talent a conduire des debats parlementaires et sa maitrise des dossiers de budgets et de reformes. Voici enfin etabli un bilan precis et rigoureux de l'action de l'une des principales figures politiques des deux premieres decennies de la Ve Republique. A travers la carriere politique de Boulin, son parcours electoral et ses mandats municipaux et legislatifs, c'est toute l'histoire du gaullisme qui est ici retracee.