Directions for Future Research

The papers presented at the Management History Conference in June 1975, and their discussion, provoke a number of thoughts concerning the possible direction of future research in this general field. Some of them have already been adequately considered either in the editorial introduction or in the observations by Dr Alford and therefore require no repetition here; others deserve further emphasis, and several additional issues — the nature of which doubtless reflect our own particular interests — are most appropriately dealt with in these concluding remarks. For clarity, they have been roughly divided into three groups. The first is concerned with the organisation and performance of the individual firm; the second with the relationships between firms and how such relationships affect innovation, competitiveness, and other aspects of the behaviour of the firm; and the third with the way in which firms’ activities are influenced by general economic factors, in particular, capital markets, macroeconomic policies and conditions, legal practices, and the social environment.