Outline the Main Types of Business Structure that Existed in Britain Research Paper

Outline the Main Types of Business Structure that Existed in Britain Between the World Wars, Indicating their Strengths and Weaknesses - Research Paper Example The different types of business structures in Britain between World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) included family firms, personal capitalism, cartelization, a formation of mergers, diversification, and growth of modern industrial empires. The purpose of this paper is to outline the main types of business structures during the inter-war years, indicating their strengths and weaknesses. During the early period of the interwar years, many British product markets were characterized by fragmentation, as companies attempted to differentiate their product separately from others’ products. Managerial and supervisory systems were weak, managers were poorly educated and trained, and the levels of managerial hierarchy were inadequately demarcated resulting in poor coordination and efficiency. According to Westall, late nineteenth century businessmen had the usual three strategy options: competition, collusion or integration. Each option had further choices for example, competition could be by non-price means such as a differentiation of products to make them more appealing to consumers. Collusion referred to cooperation between businesses to raise prices and profitability. Integration was the process by which companies joined together to accommodate larger shares of economic activity internally rather than rely on market mediation. The term family firm refers to various types of owner-managed firms.