INTRODUCTION

In this chapter it is asked to what extent industry in small and developed European nations showed patterns similar to those worked out by Alfred D. Chandler in his volume Scale and Scope for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.1 The period of investigation starts at the turn of the century and covers the time up to the 1980s. The focus is on Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The special problems of the war economies are not presented here. However, during both world wars enterprises situated in one of the neutral but developed states had a special potential for growth, which a number of firms exploited well. Of this special potential for growth, Belgian firms were excluded, since the country was occupied by German troops in both wars. During World War II only Switzerland and Sweden were not directly involved and could enjoy a certain potential of special growth.

The following section presents a short recapitulation of Chandler's three types of capitalism with emphasis on those characteristics which are dealt with in this chapter. It is followed by a discussion on the extent to which the Chandlerian approach can be made useful in the case of small developed nations and their large enterprises.

In the third section the three different types of doing business are applied to the firms of the small states.