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‘Si vis pacem, para bellum'—the construction of business cooperation in the Swiss machinery industry

Eichenberger, Pierre ; Ginalski, Stephanie

In: Socio-Economic Review, 2017, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 615-635

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    Titre
    • ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum'—the construction of business cooperation in the Swiss machinery industry
    Auteur
    • Eichenberger, Pierre. Forschungsstelle für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Historisches Seminar, University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 64, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland
    • Ginalski, Stephanie. Institute of Political, Historical, and International Studies, University of Lausanne, UNIL-Mouline, Géopolis, Lausanne, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Inglese
    Publié dans
    • Socio-Economic Review, 2017, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 615-635. Oxford University Press
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:331278
    Summary
    This article addresses the historical emergence of business cooperation. We resort to Höpner's (2007) concepts of organization and coordination in order to analyze how firms progressively engaged in Business Interest Associations (BIAs) and interlocking directorates during the first part of the 20th century. Our inquiry is based on a network analysis on large firms of the Swiss machine, electrotechnical and metallurgy (MEM) sector. Our results show that before the First World War, only major firms were promoting coordination and organization through, respectively, interlocking directorates and BIAs. Although many firms were reluctant to cooperate in the first place, interests beyond the firm level (organization) and the economic needs of firms (coordination) had cumulative effects, and most firms progressively engaged in both mechanisms of cooperation from the interwar period. We argue that differentiating between organization and coordination contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the emergence of non-liberal capitalism.