Course Content
Module 1. CAPITALIST INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE
Module 2. SOCIALIST INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE
- Topic 8. Large Enterprises as a Basis of Soviet Economy
- Topic 9. Improving Labor Productivity: Scientific Management and Stakhanovism in the Soviet Union
- Topic 10. Finding Workers to Build Socialism
- Topic 11. Industrial Enterprise and Townscape: the Kharkiv Tractor Factory Case
- Topic 12. Marketing for Socialism
- Topic 13. Cooperation between Socialist and Capitalist Enterprises
- Topic 14. Industrial Enterprise and Environmental Hazard
- Topic 15. Environmental Degradation and Human Health Problems
- Topic 16. Heritage of Industrial Enterprise in the Postindustrial Period
FINAL PAPER
Topic 3. Foreign Entrepreneurship in Russia
Read: McKay, John P. “John Cockerill in Southern Russia, 1885–1905: A Study of Aggressive Foreign Entrepreneurship.” The Business History Review 41, no. 3 (1967): 243-256.
The story of two ventures undertaken by the Belgian company John Cockerill reveals some of the major challenges experienced by foreign enterprises in the late period of the Russian Empire. Comparing histories of The South Russian Dnieper Co. and The Almaznaia Coal Co., the author concludes that advanced technology was crucial. However, to achieve entrepreneurial success, it had to be combined with connections to the local business and political groups. The author argues that the story of Cockerill’s triumph and defeat in Russia represents all foreign entrepreneurship in the country in miniature. The case study explains the Russian context in which foreign entrepreneurs and investors operated.
Questions for preparation:
1. How did Cockerill Co. use technologies (information technology, technology transfer, state-of-the-art processes and equipment, advanced job configurations) to its advantage in the Russian Empire?
2. How did foreign companies exploit the opportunities and overcome the problems of operating outside their home country?
3. What business strategies did foreign industrialists use to become rich?
4. What role did the Russian government play in attracting and controlling foreign companies?
5. What was the role of financial institutions, domestic and foreign, and of foreign investment in the economic development of Russia in 1870–1914?