Robert J. Bennett

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Full) at University of Cambridge

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 landsca...

The article links the digital records of individual proprietors in the manuscript censuses 1851–81 for the whole of England and Wales using the BBCE database to identify career changes of employers and own account proprietors. It investigates continuing proprietorship, entry to business from previous activity, and switching out of business. The art...

Newly available digital resources from the British census identify employers and their workforce size. However, there was a non-response rate of about 2.3% for smaller firms, rising to over 10% for firms over about 300 employees, and higher for the largest manufacturing firms. Non-responses are largely random except for different forms of business...

New data on profit heterogeneity of small- and medium-sized firms for 1861–81 in England and Wales are used to reinterpret Marshall's contemporary insights. Profit level differences are chiefly explained by location, mainly urbanisation effects. But profitability (profit per worker) is mainly explained by sectors, at both 1-digit and 5-digit level....

This study presents the first available—and near-complete—list of large UK manufacturers in 1881, by complementing the employer data from that year's population census (recovered by the British Business Census of Entrepreneurs project) with employment and capital estimates from other sources. The 438 largest firms with 1 000 or more employees accou...

The administrative structure of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom (UK) is summarised, for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (which are NUTS 1 units—Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, Level 1), as well as the Crown Dependencies of the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Devolution to the country level was est...

This article uses the British Business Census of Entrepreneurs (BBCE) to examine the history of entrepreneurship in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scotland. The BBCE identifies every business proprietor listed in the 1851–1901 Scottish censuses, correcting for non-response issues. The BBCE, therefore, allows the whole population of Scottis...

The full population of England and Wales employers and own-account business proprietors is estimated using population censuses 1851–1911. The main contribution of the article is a method of mixed single imputation to overcome the challenge of non-responses to the census 1851–1881. This method is compared with alternatives. Downloads of all data all...

The chapter follows the historical and current development of British chambers of commerce from their beginnings as organisations of the private-law type with voluntary membership and presents the evolution of their services and organisation over the last 250 years. Central to this development have been the respective service packages that they hav...

It has long been argued that the economic structures of Birmingham and Manchester in the nineteenth century were fundamentally different, with Birmingham characterized by small workshops and high levels of social mobility and Manchester by factories and entrenched contrasts between workers and capitalists. This article uses new data to examine the...

This article uses the British Business Census of Entrepreneurs (BBCE) to examine the relationship between the household and entrepreneurship in England and Wales between 1851 and 1911. The BBCE allows three kinds of entrepreneurial households to be identified: those where an entrepreneur employs co-resident family members in their business, those w...

The British Business Census of Entrepreneurs provides data on all employers and self-employed sole proprietors between 1851 and 1911. This chapter uses those data to provide the first whole-population study of female entrepreneurship in England and Wales during that period. It gives the aggregate totals of female business proprietors as well as the...

This paper presents a binary classification of entrepreneurs in British historical data based on the recent availability of big data from the I-CeM dataset. The main task of the paper is to attribute an employment status to individuals that did not fully report entrepreneur status in earlier censuses (1851–1881). The paper assesses the accuracy of...

The British census asked employers to record their workforce numbers. The responses to this instruction provide a unique resource on firm size. While the responses were digitized and included in the Individual Census Microdata (I-CeM) deposit, their format limits their utility. A further data deposit, the British Business Census of Entrepreneurs (B...

This article offers a new perspective on what it meant to be a business proprietor in Victorian Britain. Based on individual census records, it provides an overview of the full population of female business proprietors in England and Wales between 1851 and 1911. These census data show that around 30% of the total business population was female, a c...

This article examines the history of immigrant business proprietors in England and Wales between 1851 and 1911. The newly available electronic version of the Census (I-CeM) allows all business proprietors in each Census year to be identified, and provides birthplace information that allows entrepreneurs from different countries to be compared to ea...

This paper provides the first full-population analysis of changes in the entrepreneurial status of farmers during the mid-nineteenth century: between being employers or sole proprietors with no workforce. Using a unique dataset of all farmers and workforces in the 1851-81 English and Welsh censuses, this paper explores the effects of changes in agr...

The paper explores the frequency and size distributions of firm-size in a novel dataset for the mid-Victorian era from a recent extraction of the England and Wales population censuses of 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1881. The paper contrasts the hypothesis of the Power Laws against the Lognormal model for the tails of the distributions using maximum likel...

This article uses population censuses to provide the first consistent counts of the population of business proprietors for 1891–1911. After appropriate adjustments for imperfect Census design the article confirms the persistence of own account self-employed as the most common businesses throughout the period. However, it identifies a turning point...

This article describes the creation of a new urban classification based on the 1891 census of England and Wales. It is the first attempt to use the recently available electronic version of the census (I-CeM) to classify all large towns in late Victorian England and Wales on their economic structure. Where previous scholars were restricted by the fo...

This article describes the creation of a new urban classification based on the 1891 Census of England and Wales. It is the first attempt to use the recently available electronic version of the census (I-CeM) to classify all large towns in late-Victorian England and Wales on their economic structure. Where previous scholars were restricted by the fo...

This book is the first systematic collection of documents for the history of early chambers of commerce. The documents cover all local chambers founded 1767-1839 as well as those that were unsuccessful in establishment. It covers all chambers in the UK and Ireland, and the significant developments in the early USA, Canada, and Jamaica. This provide...

This paper examines portfolio entrepreneurs: those who operate more than one business at any one time. It focuses on the conditions that influence the occurrence of multiple businesses as compared with single business. Empirical evidence on the choice between portfolio entrepreneurship and a single occupation are scarce. In particular, most previou...

This paper examines portfolio entrepreneurs: those who operate more than one business at any one time. It focuses on the conditions that influence the occurrence of multiple businesses as compared with single business. Empirical evidence on the choice between portfolio entrepreneurship and a single occupation are scarce. In particular, most previou...

Die britischen Chambers of Commerce sind freiwillige und privatrechtliche Körperschaften. Anhand der Entwicklung ihrer Dienstleistungen seit dem späten 18. Jahrhundert kann gezeigt werden, wie seit den 1980er Jahren markt-getriebene Dynamiken die Mitgliedernachfrage in einem größeren Ausmaß betonen und eine Veränderung des Leistungsportfolios mit s...

This paper seeks to fill an important gap in literature on institutional adaptation, using Irish chambers of commerce services to examine how managers of business associations adjust long-term balances in services, and respond to short-term challenges. The paper uses the theoretical expectations from collective action theory, transactions cost econ...

No abstract is available for this article.

This article gives the first large-scale assessment of business partnerships in England and Wales using business records within the population census for 1881. It seeks to understand the variety of ways that 'partnership' was used: explicit partnership, 'de facto' partnership, 'joint' activity, and asset ownership together. The article confirms tha...

This article presents the method and first results of using the 1881 England and Wales Census Enumerators9 Books (CEBs) to identify and extract employer records using occupational information. Over 230,000 employers are identified\ of which about four fifths employ others. Important sub-groups are also identified of the own account self- employed,...

A chamber of commerce in Kingston was a response to defects in local projections of the British imperial state. It met immediate needs to organise naval convoys and liaise with the local naval commander in the face of breakdown of effective government resulting from conflicts between Governor John Dalling and Jamaica's Assembly. The efforts of coll...

Objectives: This paper reviews the arguments for a Small Business Administration (SBA) in the England, which chiefly derive from Labour Party reports, and assesses their strengths and weaknesses, concluding on suggestions for what may be a useful addition to policy support. Prior work: The paper reviews the extensive and long-running experiences...

'Searching for New Models of Business Representation: The Liverpool Committee or Board of Trade, 1775-1794'. A committee of trade established in Liverpool in 1775 responded to local demands for a new form of local business representation. Its main campaigns resisted the opening of Irish trade in 1778-79, and defended the slave trade in 1788-89. It...

The first full text to focus in-depth on government policies for entrepreneurship and small businesses across the world. It provides a balanced account, presenting the case for policies and their limitations. Theoretical rigour is complemented by detailed assessments of current policies in the USA, UK, the EU, Japan, S. Korea, China since the 2013...

This article challenges previous interpretations of the Manchester Committee of Trade, and examines interest alignment among its subscribers. Its origins have close interrelation with the contemporaneous chamber of commerce in Liverpool, and between its business leaders: Manchester's Thomas Butterworth Bayley and Liverpool's John Dobson and Benjami...

Interlocking between the earliest 20 chambers of commerce in the British Isles and the partners of local provincial banks relied on similar needs for networks and trust. Two-thirds of banks and 40% of bank partners were members of their local chambers. Bank partners formed 8% of chamber memberships, and 39% held offices, indicating strong interlock...

From an initial foundation in London in 1776, Trade Protection Societies grew in numbers to reach a peak of about 120 in 1910. They provided inter-business and some consumer credit assessment, debt management and recovery. From the 1850s they coordinated activities through a national association that covered Britain and Ireland. The societies were...

Local Business Voice provides the first scholarly and systematic history of the Chambers of Commerce from early historical origins in the eighteenth century up to the present date. Based on new archival information, it provides exhaustive coverage of all UK and Irish chambers, as well as detailed examination of early Chambers in the U.S., including...

This chapter assesses the form of market gap for external advice, focusing on how SMEs select advisors, what they expect, and how outcomes are evaluated. Using Britain as an example, the chapter reviews the history of policy to provide advisory support to SMEs. It looks at the expectations that small business have for government-based services, the...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This book is the first scholarly and systematic history of chambers of commerce. It challenges academic commentary on the early chambers by showing they were more numerous, persistent, and active than previously recognized. It demonstrates common origins in protest leading to a reform agenda, with diffusion down the size spectrum of cities, eventua...

This article examines how the services offered by sector business associations are used and the impact that they offer. A large-scale survey of small- and medium-sized businesses is used to infer how association services operate. An important focus is to determine the level at which the fixed costs of association services are covered: this defines...

It should search its own field for unifying and facilitating ideas and paradigms which will advance the field and make the assimilation of other materials more fruitful and simpler. Human geographers will find it easy to stray into other closer related fields like regional development and international affairs; such movements whether they are digre...

This paper discusses methods of simulating two-dimensional surfaces that satisfy certain mathematical properties. Central to this discussion is the generation of surfaces that possess the property of spatial autocorrelation. The simulation of spatially autocorrelated surfaces has two primary objectives. The first objective is to generate surfaces w...

Business Link (BL) in Britain provides a unique opportunity to examine a government policy support to small firms which has targeted fee income as a major part of its management objectives in order to increase the 'sense of value' of the services offered. This article examines the influence of fees on client impact and satisfaction. It finds that f...

The process of journal publishing is under unprecedented pressure and external scrutiny in Britain. This is in part the result of research assessment exercises for academics, but also the rapid development of e-publishing, and perhaps erosion of the traditional moral suasion that has underpinned peer review. A recent assessment of peer review in th...

Current British government economic development policy emphasises regional and sub-regional scale, multi-agent initiatives that form part of national frameworks to encourage a 'bottom up' approach to economic development. An emphasis on local multi-agent initiatives was also the mission of Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs). Using new survey e...

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to assess an expectations‐based approach to service evaluation by small and medium sized companies (SMEs) of government advice services. These are often criticised for providing what politicians think SMEs need rather than what SMEs want. Little analysis has gone into assessing the expectations of these ser...

This article assesses the motives for membership of associations by established SMEs with one or more employee. The article concludes that membership motives span a complex ‘bundle’ of services, ranging from individual supports to collective lobbying. Bundling gives advantages of scale and scope to specialist providers, but also combines individual...

This paper estimates forecast equations and real rates of return for 16–19-year-olds from different vocational qualifications in Britain. The data used for estimation are the individual responses in the General Household Survey for the years 1985–1988. The earnings equations are estimated separately for males and females. The research suggests that...

This paper investigates the relationship between the type of business advisors used by SMEs and the level of impact and satisfaction a SME receives. The role of other influences, such as the intensity and cost of the service, and the level of commitment to an advisor by the client are also investigated. A structural equation path model is estimated...