European family firms in international business: British and Greek tramp-shipping firms

Business History

Volumn 46, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 219-255

  Harlaftis, Gelina ^a   Theotokas, John ^b  

^a IONIAN UNIVERSITY   (Greece)

^b UNIVERSITY OF THE AEGEAN   (Greece)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FIRM OWNERSHIP;

EID: 2942648429     PISSN: 00076791     EISSN: 17437938     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0007679042000215115     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. The Story of Shipping, London, Sports and Sportsmen (1920), p.114.
2. See F.M. Fisser, Ramp Shipping (Bremen, 1957).
3. A.S. Svendsen, Sea Transport and Shipping Economics (Bremen, 1958).
4. H. Gripaios, Ramp Shipping (London, 1959).
5. S. Sturmey, British Shipping and World Competition (London, 1962).
6. B. Metaxas, The Economics of Tramp Shipping (London, 1972).
7. G. Harlaftis, A History of Greek-owned Shipping (London, 1996).
8. According to Martin Stopford, it can be estimated (from the available statistics for 1994) that out of a total seabome trade of 4,506 million tons, approximately two-thirds was bulk cargo and one-third was general cargo. See M. Stopford, Maritime Economics (London, 1997), p. 18.
9. See also G. Harlaftis and V. Kardasis, 'International Bulk Trade and Shipping in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea', in J. William on and S. Pamuk (eds.), The Mediterranean Response to Globalisation (London, 2000).
10. Robin Craig stands out as the only important exception to this rule. See R. Craig, The Ship: Steam Tramps and Cargo Liners, 1850-1950 (London, 1980).
11. idem,'Trade and Shipping in South Wales - The Radcliffe Company, 1882-1921', in C. Baber and L.J. Williams (eds.), Modern South Wales: Essays in Economic History (Cardiff, 1986), pp. 171-91, 303-5.
12. idem,'William Gray and Company: A West Hartlepool Shipbuilding Enterprise, 1864-1913', in P.L. Cortrell and D.M. Aldcroft (eds.), Shipping, Trade and Commerce: Essays in Memory of Ralph Davis (Leicester, 1981), pp.165-91.
13. idem, British Tramp Shipping, 1750-1914 (St. John's, Newfoundland, 2003).
14. See also M.P. Rowlinson, 'The Decline of UK Merchant Shipping 1975-90: Beyond the Market View' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London Guildhall University, London, 1995).
15. E. Green, 'Very Private Enterprise: Ownership and Finance in British Shipping, 1825-1940', in T. Yui and K. Nakagawa (eds.), Business History of Shipping: Strategy and Structure (Tokyo, 1985).
16. One of the prominent post-war maritime economists was Basil Metaxas, author of The Economics of Tramp Shipping (London, 1972). Metaxas (Greece) along with Richard Goss (Great Britain) and Arnold Svendsen (Norway) laid the foundations of maritime economics in the second half of the twentieth century. Stanley Sturmey stands out from the rest, because he is the only economist who has given a historical perspective and ample information on both tramp and liner shipping. One of the harshest critics of British management, predicting its contraction in the years to come, his views have been regarded by both British economists and historians as 'controversial'. Nevertheless, his British Shipping and World Competition, a classic book offering an overall history of British shipping, from the nineteenth century to the 1960s, is still the most complete and comprehensive history of that era.
17. A.M. Goulielmos, A. Alexopoulos and I.N. Theotokas, 'Organisational Culture as a Source of Competitive Advantage in Bulk Shipping Industry', in D.K. Despotis and C. Zopounidis (eds.), Integrating Technology and Human Decisions: Global Bridges into the 21st Century: Proceedings of DSI '99 Athens (Athens, 1999) pp.1531-34.
18. There are some important exceptions to the rule. For Norway, Stig Tenold stands out, with his doctoral thesis 'The Shipping Crisis of the 1970s: Causes, Effects and Implication for Norwegian Shipping' (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Bergen, Norway, Dec. 2000), which was largely supervised by the prominent maritime economic historian Professor Helge Nordvik. On the Greek side, J. Theotokas, 'The Greek-owned Shipping Companies of Piraeus: Organisational and Managerial Methods, 1969-1990' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Piraeus, 1997.
19. see alos idem, 'Organisational and Managerial Patterns of Greek-Owned Shipping Enterprises and the Internationalisation Process from the Interwar Period to 1990', in D.J. Starkey and G. Harlaftis (eds.), Global Markets: The Internationalisation of the Sea Transport Industries since 1850 (St. John's, Newfoundland, 1998), pp.303-18.
20. See also H. Wan, 'British and Chinese Shipping Companies: A Comparative Study of Organisation and Management' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, 1988).
21. G. Harlaftis, 'Greek Maritime Business in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A Paradigm for Comparative Studies on Family Capitalism and Diaspora Networks', in F. de Goey and J.W. Veluwenhamp (eds.), Entrepreneurs and Institutions in Europe and Asia, 1500-2000 (Amsterdam, 2002).
22. M. Casson, 'Entrepreneurial Networks: A Theoretical Perspective', in M. Moss and A. Slaven (eds.), Entrepreneurial Networks and Business Culture: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Economic History Congress (Madrid, 1998) p.15.
23. H. Barty-King, The Baltic Exchange (London, 1977).
24. Ch. Wright and C.E. Fayle, A History of Lloyd's Register of Shipping (London, 1928).
25. G. Blake, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1760-1960 (Sussex, 1962).
26. B.N. Metaxas, The Economics of Tramp Shipping (London, 2nd edn. 1981), p.197. For a detailed discussion of flags of convenience see idem, Flags of Convenience (London, 1985).
27. See also G. Harlaftis and J. Theotokas, 'Maritime Business during the 20th Century: Continuity and Change', in C.Th. Grammenos (ed.), Handbook of Maritime Economics and Business (London, 2002).
28. For more on the substitution relationship of the tramp with the liner see B.N. Metaxas, The Economics of Tramp Shipping (London, 2nd edn. 1981), pp.111-16.
29. The first researcher to compare Greek shipping firms with multinational enterprises was C.C. Carvounis, 'Efficiency Contradictions of Multinational Activity: The Case of Greek Shipping' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, New School of Social Research, 1979).
30. G. Jones, Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Oxford, 2000), p.6.
31. Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping.
32. G. Boyce, Information, Mediation and Institutional Development: The Rise of Large-Scale Enterprise in British Shipping, 1870-1914 (Manchester, 1995).
33. J.M. Valdaliso, 'The Rise of Specialist Firms in Spanish Shipping and their Strategies of Growth, 1860 to 1930', Business History Review, Vol.74 No.2 (2000), pp.268-300.
34. M.P. Rowlinson and B.M. Leek, 'The Decline of the Regionally Based UK Deepsea Tramp Shipping Industry', Journal of Transport Geography, Vol.5 No.4 (1997), pp.277-90.
35. E. Green, 'Very Private Enterprise: Ownership and Finance in British Shipping, 1825-1940', in T. Yui and K. Nakagawa (eds.), Business History of Shipping: Strategy and Structure (Tokyo, 1985).
36. R. Craig, 'Trade and Shipping in South Wales - The Radcliffe Company, 1882-1921', in C. Baber and L.J. Williams (eds.), Modern South Wales: Essays in Economic History (Cardiff, 1986).
37. A. and R. Long, A Shipping Venture: Turnbull Scott and Company, 1872-1972 (London, 1974).
38. H.S. Appleyard, Turnbull, Scott & Company (Kendal, 1978).
39. L. Gray, The Ropner Fleet, 1874-1974 (Kendal, 1975).
40. For the Hogarths see F. Munro and T. Slaven, 'Networks and Markets in Clyde Shipping: The Donaldsons and the Hogarths, 1870-1939', Business History, Vol.43 No.2 (2001), pp.19-50,
41. A.A. McAlister and L. Gray, H. Hogarth & Sons Limited (Kendal, 1976). For the Burrells,
42. see R.A. Cage, A Tramp Shipping Dynasty - Burrell & Son of Glasgow, 1850-1939 (London, 1997).
43. See Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping, chapter 2.
44. G. Harlaftis, Greek Shipowners and Greece (1945-1975) (London, 1993), chapter 1.
45. Interview with G. Angelicoussis, Surveyor, March 1992.
46. About shipbuilding in the UK, see S. Ville (ed.), Shipbuilding in the United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century: A Regional Approach (St. John's Newfoundland, 1993).
47. See also M.J. Daunton, Coal Metropolis: Cardiff, 1870-1914 (Leicester, 1977).
48. The Story of Shipping (London, 1920), p.122.
49. See note 4.
50. Boyce, Information.
51. D.J. Starkey, 'Ownership Structures in the British Shipping Industry: The Case of Hull, 1820-1916', International Journal of Maritime History, Vol.8 No.2 (1996), pp.71-95.
52. F. Munro and T. Slaven, 'Networks and Markets in Clyde Shipping: The Donaldsons and the Hogardis, 1870-1939', Business History, Vol.43 No.2 (2001), pp.19-50.
53. Rowlinson and Leek, 'Decline'.
54. For a detailed description of Greece's maritime regions and its top shipowning families on each island and port city, see G. Harlaftis, M. Haritatos and E. Beneki, Ploto: Greek Shipowners from the Late l8th Century to World War Two (Athens, 2002).
55. S. Chapman, Merchant Enterprise in Britain: From the Industrial Revolution to World War I (Cambridge, 1992), pp.113, 115.
56. See Munro and Slaven, 'Networks and Markets in Clyde Shipping'.
57. R. Davis, The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London, 1962), pp.82-3.
58. S. Palmer, 'Investors in London Shipping, 1820-1850', Maritime History, Vol.2 (1973), pp.46-68.
59. H. Nordvik, 'The Shipping Industries of the Scandinavian Countries', in L.R. Fischer and G.E. Panting (eds.), Change and Adaptation in Maritime History: The North Atlantic Fleets in the Nineteenth Century (St. John's, Newfoundland, 1985).
60. R. Caty and E. Richard, Armateurs Marseillais au XIXe siècle (Marseilles, 1986), pp.45-46.
61. J.M. Valdaliso, 'Spanish Shipowners in the British Mirror: Patterns of Ownership and Finance in the Bilbao Shipping Industry, 1879-1913', International Journal of Maritime History, V61.5 No.2 (1993). As all authors point out, the vessel's ownership was divided among a number of individuals, generally merchants and mariners. Co-owners or partners in a ship were called parcineveli in the Greek nautical argot.
62. R. Craig, The Ship: Steam Tramps and Cargo Liners, 1850-1950 (London, 1980), pp.40-41.
63. These were often sold by salesmen commissioned by prospective shipowners, house to house. One firm specialised in women and ran photographic slide shows encouraging uneducated public to invest into shipping. The above methods had of course negative aspects and it ended up being a much criticised system. It encouraged speculative shipbuilding in booms and many 'managing owners' established several companies in which the managers held few if any shares themselves. The unsavoury reputation of some Cardiff speculators induced a number of reputable Cardiff shipowners to open London offices or branches. By the same token, in Greece, on the island of Andros, the shipowner Moraitis, who tried to bypass the traditional model of the Greek equivalent of the 64thers and open up to the limited savings of hundreds of co-islanders, was led to financial ruin, and impersonal joint-stock companies ended before they started in the maritime areas of the country.
64. P.L. Cottrell, 'The Steamship on the Mersey, 1815-80: Investment and Ownership', in P.L. Cottrell and D.H. Aldcroft (eds.), Shipping, Trade and Commerce: Essays in Memory of Ralph Davis (Leicester, 1961), pp.137-63.
65. R.A. Cage, 'The Structure and Profitability of Tramp Shipping, 1850-1920: Some Evidence from Four Glasgow-based Firms', The Great Circle, Vol.17 No.1 (1995), pp.1-15.
66. For the Greek case see Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping, chapter 4.
67. For the British case see also Green, 'Very Private Enterprise',
68. Cottrell, 'The Steamship on the Mersey, 1815-80'.
69. Detailed evidence of owners of 64ers of Turnbull vessels in 1881, for example, are found in Turnbulls' Shipping Register, 1882.
70. see also Long and Long, A Shipping Venture, pp.83-97.
71. 'Runciman, Walter', in the Dictionary of British Biographies (London, 1984).
72. Cage, A Tramp Shipping Dynasty, p.11.
73. Ibid., pp.14-15.
74. R. Craig, 'Hain, Sir Edward', Dictionary of British Business Biography (London, 1984), vol.III. In the case of Hain, however, the local banking institution proved also important. Hain was heavily supported by the Bolitho Bank in Cornwall; as a youngster he briefly worked in their office.
75. The 'Radcliffe Share Register', from Robin Craig's private collection.
76. Craig, 'Trade and Shipping in South Wales'.
77. R. Craig and M. Robson, 'Ropner, Sir Robert', Dictionary of British Biographies (London, 1984), Vol.IV.
78. Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping, p.136.
79. The conversion or merger of the 64thers into a single fleet-owning firm was called 'consolidation' by the shipowners at the end of the nineteenth century. See Craig, The Ship, and Boyce, Information, chapter 4.
80. Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping, p.95.
81. G. Harlaftis, Greek Shipowners and Greece. From Separate Development to Mutual Interdependence (London, 1993), p.33.
82. McAlister and Gray, H. Hogarth & Sons Limited.
83. Cage, A Tramp Shipping Dynasty, p.35.
84. Munro and Slaven, 'Networks and Markets in Clyde Shipping'.
85. Cage, A Tramp Shipping Dynasty, p.35.
86. Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping, pp.197-9.
87. See I.P. Minoglou, 'The Greek Merchant House of the Russian Black Sea: A Nineteenth Century Example of a Traders' Coalition', International Journal of Maritime History, Vol.10 No.1 (1998), pp.1-44.
88. See M.-C. Chatzioannou and G. Harlaftis, 'From the Levant to the City of London: Mercantile Credit in the Greek International Commercial Networks of the 18th and 19th Centuries', Conference of the European Association for Banking History e.V. Nordea & SEB, 'Centres and Peripheries in Banking', 30 May-1 June 2002, Stockholm.
89. Harlaftis, Greek Shipowners.
90. Ibid., pp.67-8.
91. Carvounis, 'Efficiency and Contradictions of Multinational Activity', pp.33, 94, 111-32.
92. See also Harlaftis, Greek Shipowners, chapter 4.
93. McAlister and Gray, H. Hogarth & Sons Limited.
94. See G. Sletmo, 'Shipping's Fourth Wave: Ship Management and Vernon's Trade Cycles', Maritime Policy and Management, Vol.16 No.4 (1989), pp.293-303.
95. M. Wilkins, 'The Free Standing Company Revisited', in M. Wilkins and H. Schroter (eds.), The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830-1996 (Oxford, 1998), p.51.
96. G. Jones, Merchants to Multinationals (Oxford, 2000), p.11.
97. See also Harlaftis, 'Greek Maritime Business in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'.
98. S. Douma and H. Schreuder, Economic Approaches to Organisations (Hertfordshire, 1998), p.142.
99. M. Casson, 'Entrepreneurship and Business Culture', in J. Brown and M.B. Rose (eds.), Entrepreneurship Networks and Modern Business (Manchester, 1993), pp.44-5.
100. K. Keasy and R. Watson, Small Firm Management: Ownership, Finance and Performance (Oxford, 1993).
101. Casson, 'Entrepreneurship and Business Culture', p.42.
102. N. Nikitakos and I. Thoetokas, 'Network Centric Organisations in Shipping', Management Sciences and Regional Development (MSPD), No.3 (2001), pp.183-96
103. P. Lorange, 'Strategic Re-Thinking in Shipping Companies', Maritime Policy and Management, Vol.28 No.1 (2001), pp.23-32.
104. Harlaftis, History of Greek-owned Shipping, pp.196-8; Appendix, pp.6-8.
105. 'The Tsakos Group: 30 Years in Shipping, 1970-2000', A Lloyd's List Supplement (2002).
106. P.M. Panayides and K.P.B. Cullinane, 'The Vertical Disintegration of Ship Management: Choice Criteria for Third Party Selection and Evaluation', Maritime Policy and Management, Vol.29 No.1 (2002), pp.45-64.
107. By ship management we mean the 'contracted and professional supply of all on board services, together with their shore supervision ... by a management company usually separate form the vessel's ownership': J. Spruyt, Ship Management (London, 1990), p.1.
108. Sletmo, 'Shipping's Fourth Wave'.
109. M. Willingale, Ship Management (London, 3rd edn. 1998), p.40.
110. Acomarit was acquired at the end of 2001 by the ship management company VShips. After the acquisition VShips is by far the largest independent ship management company worldwide.
111. Rowlinson and Leek, 'Decline'.
112. I b i d.