Entrepreneurship and technological change: the Birmingham and district cut-nail trade, c. 1811-1913

Sjogren, Fredrik Guy Neville (2020). Entrepreneurship and technological change: the Birmingham and district cut-nail trade, c. 1811-1913. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the evolution of the nineteenth-century Birmingham and district machine-cut nail trade through the lenses of entrepreneurship and technological change. Cut-nail manufacture was a small but economically-significant and technologically-advanced West Midlands industry, and yet it has been largely ignored by historians. The lack of academic record can, in part, be explained by the absence of a discrete business archive for the trade. This research, however, shows that there are substantial surviving records to enable an evaluative history to be written. Guided by its two main themes, on the one hand, and by product life-cycle theory, on the other, the thesis analyses the development of the West Midlands trade from its origins in the United States to its decline at the turn of the twentieth century caused by, among other things, competition from American producers. In doing so, it crosses the disciplinary boundaries of economic, business and social history, as well as venturing into the realms of print and material culture.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):