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The article reports on the diversity of business history and related periodical literature in Great Britain from 2005 to 2007. The author focuses on the international banking and financial business sectors of business. Contributing factors, including corporate governance, industrial relations, and trade, are examined. Europeanization is discussed. Studies related to corporate social responsibility, occupational safety, as well as a study comparing the business history of the U.S. to that of Great Britain are also mentioned.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the management of one of Britain's most important multinational companies, J. & P. Coats Ltd, in the period 1890-1960, a topic which has not hitherto been examined in detail. In particular, the article examines the system of committees that the enterprise used to control and direct its disparate empire over the time period concerned. As a theoretical focus, the study compares what is found in the writings of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., who held that, in general, British family capital and management inhibited business growth and development, especially when compared with firms in the USA. The article concludes that Coats did not fit this interpretation. It provides the first in-depth study of the management of one of Britain's largest and most successful multinational companies, clarifying the relationships between organizational structure and financial arrangements, concluding that Coats' approach to management, although in some ways unique, was appropriate to its aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]