British IPO directors, 1891–1911

Fjesme, Sturla Lyngnes; Galpin, Neal; Moore, Lyndon

doi:10.1080/00076791.2019.1569629

Business History

2019

DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2019.1569629

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British IPO directors, 1891–1911

Sturla Lyngnes Fjesme

Neal Galpin

Lyndon Moore

Abstract: Company directors in Victorian Britain have a somewhat dubious reputation. There are claims that directors had little business experience with the directorships obtained mainly via social connections. However, a little experience goes a long way, and boards with experienced directors can place their securities in an initial public offering (IPO) at better prices and can obtain more dispersed ownership than inexperienced boards. We find evidence of network effects-directors attracted investors from firms they h… Show more

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Cited by 5 publications

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“…However, the authors argue that these directors were not just ornamental, as previously literature has suggested. A closely related article by Fjesme et al. examines British company boards engaged in initial public offerings (IPOs) of their securities.…”

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confidence: 99%

Review of periodical literature for 2021

Varian

2022

The Economic History Review

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Occasionally, several articles published in the same year converge upon a quite specific theme. Sometimes, the convergence may be attributed to newly available data, for example, from population censuses, or to a significant anniversary, for example, the centenary of the First World War. Other times, it may arise from an ambitious programme of research having come to fruition. Yet, especially for the heavily studied period from 1850 to 1945, there are occasions when the clustering of articles around a closely circumscribed theme happens, seemingly, by chance. These serendipitous convergences afford readers of economic and social history a more comprehensive treatment of topics than would have been expected. One of the purposes of this review (and one of the joys of the reviewer) is to bring these convergences to the attention of economic and social historians.In 2021, no less than five articles converged, serendipitously, on the topic of British emigration to Australasia. These articles spanned six authors and three journals, viz. Australian Economic History Review, Historical Research, and Social History of Medicine. Relying on shipping records, Ward estimates that, during the period from 1852 to 1915, approximately 20 per cent of British emigrants to the colony of Victoria eventually returned to Britain. The returning migrants, who were mostly women, were strongly influenced by social networks. Ward's article includes both quantitative analysis and biographical vignettes of returning migrants. One of these migrants was Annie Martlew, who emigrated from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1884, only to return two decades later as a widow with five young children, motivated by the existence of a stronger support network in Britain. Social networks are a potential explanation for a paradox identified by Hatton in his study of emigration from the United Kingdom to the Anglosphere during the late nineteenth century. Surprisingly, he finds that emigrants to Australia and New Zealand were, on average, more skilled than emigrants to Canada and the United States, despite wages exhibiting a higher skill premium in North America. Hatton speculates that the lower skill content of emigrants from the United Kingdom-importantly, including Ireland-to the United States (vis-à-vis migrants to Australasia) might be due to the presence of greater networks of previous migrants there. Leaving aside the skill content of migrants, the sheer number of migrants to Australasia was positively influenced byThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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2022

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Beyond the Elite: Corporate Directors and Their Networks in Britain, ca. 1880s–1910s

van Lieshout,

Bennett,

Smith

2024

Enterp. Soc.

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This paper examines the population of corporate directors of Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Over the period 1881-1911 the corporate form became the most common mode of business organisation for large businesses. As their number increased, the population of directors expanded and reflected an increasingly diversified corporate landscape. Based on a large-scale dataset, this paper analyses the characteristics and networks of this wider population of directors. The study goes beyond previous work, which has mainly focused on elite directors or prominent companies, and shows three key findings. First, the population of directors was very connected into a large network, complete isolation from this network was rare. Second, over 1881-1911 director interlocks with banks became less important for most sectors, while interlocks with other financial institutions such as trusts became increasingly important. Insurance companies stood out as the most connected sector spanning smaller local companies and larger international ones. Third, during the period studied there was a shift from director clusters that were mainly based on proximity, to those that were connected through industries.

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Elite directors, London finance, and British overseas expansion: Victorian railway networks, 1860–1900^†

Amini

Toms

2020

The Economic History Review

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This article considers how international economic expansion impacts on the composition of elite groups on boards of companies. We examine, why, at the height of the British Empire, boards of national, imperial, and international railway companies, financed from London, were dominated by elites drawn differentially from the aristocracy, the military, finance, and politics. To investigate the reasons for these differences, we conduct a social network analysis of railway company boards in three countries during the second half of the nineteenth century. Results reveal that aristocratic directors were dominant in Britain, military directors in India, and financier directors in Argentina, suggesting that their influence drew on local knowledge, resource access, and network connections. They did not serve on boards for merely ornamental purposes.

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British IPO directors, 1891–1911

Cited by 5 publications

References 52 publications

Review of periodical literature for 2021

Review of periodical literature for 2021

Beyond the Elite: Corporate Directors and Their Networks in Britain, ca. 1880s–1910s

Elite directors, London finance, and British overseas expansion: Victorian railway networks, 1860–1900^†

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British IPO directors, 1891–1911

Cited by 5 publications

References 52 publications

Review of periodical literature for 2021

Review of periodical literature for 2021

Beyond the Elite: Corporate Directors and Their Networks in Britain, ca. 1880s–1910s

Elite directors, London finance, and British overseas expansion: Victorian railway networks, 1860–1900†

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Product

Resources

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Elite directors, London finance, and British overseas expansion: Victorian railway networks, 1860–1900^†