We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2021
The political hazards that host country governments pose multinational companies are multifaceted and persistent. This study focuses on the experience of the Canadian subsidiary of British retailer W.H. Smith and Son in order to examine how host country policy can influence a multinational operating in the cultural industries. While bargaining models have previously provided the principal analytical lens for analyzing the interaction between multinationals and host governments, I argue that such frameworks lack the necessary nuance in order to explain fully the interaction between the Canadian government and W.H. Smith. In order to address the intricacy of these relations, it is necessary to integrate insights from new institutional economics with conventional bargaining frameworks.
I would like to thank the editor, Walter Friedman and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and support during the review process. Earlier versions of this paper were presented in a PDW at AIB-UK&I Birmingham 2018, and at the European Business History Association 2018 Congress in Ancona. I am particularly grateful for comments from, and conversations with, Mark Casson, Teresa da Silva Lopes, Sarianna Lundan, Andrew Smith and Alex Wright. Last, but by no means least, thanks are due to the staff and archivists at the University of Reading's Museum of English Rural Life. Any errors are the author's own sole responsibility.
1 Behrman, Jack N. and Grosse, Robert E., International Business and Governments: Issues and Institutions (Columbia, SC, 1990)Google Scholar; Grosse, “The Bargaining View of Government–Business Relations,” in International Business and Government Relations in the 21st century, ed. Grosse (Cambridge, U.K., 2005), 273–90; Kobrin, Stephen J., “Testing the Bargaining Hypothesis in the Manufacturing Sector in Developing Countries,” International Organization 41, no. 4 (1987): 609–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vernon, Raymond, Sovereignty at Bay: The Multinational Spread of U.S. Enterprises (London, 1971)Google Scholar.
2 Eden, Lorraine and Molot, Maureen Appel, “Insiders, Outsiders and Host Country Bargains,” Journal of International Management 8, no. 4 (2002): 359CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Vernon, Sovereignty at Bay, 46–59; Müllner, Jakob and Puck, Jonas, “Towards a Holistic Framework of MNE–State Bargaining: A Formal Model and Case-Based Analysis,” Journal of World Business 53, no. 1 (2018): 15–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nebus, James and Rufin, Carlos, “Extending the Bargaining Power Model: Explaining Bargaining Outcomes among Nations, MNEs, and NGOs,” Journal of International Business Studies 41, no. 6 (2010): 996–1015CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vachani, Sushil, “Enhancing the Obsolescing Bargain Theory: A Longitudinal Study of Foreign Ownership of US and European Multinationals,” Journal of International Business Studies 26, no. 1 (1995): 159–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 Grosse, Robert E. and Aramburu, Diego, “A Bargaining View of Government/MNE Relations: The Latin American Case,” International Trade Journal 6, no. 2 (1991): 209–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Robert E. Grosse, “Introduction,” in Grosse, International Business and Government Relations, 7.
6 North, Douglass C., Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance: The Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions (Cambridge, U.K., 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Williamson, Oliver E., The Economic Institutions of Capitalism (New York, 1985)Google Scholar; Medina, Luis Fernando, Bucheli, Marcelo, and Kim, Minyoung, “Good Friends in High Places: Politico-economic Determinants of the Expropriation and Taxation of Multinational Firms,” Journal of International Business Policy 2, no. 2 (2019): 119–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Henisz, Witold J., “The Institutional Environment for Multinational Investment,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 16, no. 2 (2000): 334–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Slangen, Arjen H. L. and Beugelsdijk, Sjoerd, “The Impact of Institutional Hazards on Foreign Multinational Activity: A Contingency Perspective,” Journal of International Business Studies 41, no. 6 (2010): 980–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 North, Douglass C., “The New Institutional Economics,” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 142, no. 1 (1986): 230–37Google Scholar.
10 Alexander, Nicholas, “British Overseas Retailing, 1900–60: International Firm Characteristics, Market Selections and Entry Modes,” Business History 53, no. 4 (2011): 530–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Jensen, Nathan M., Nation-States and the Multinational Corporation: A Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment (Princeton, 2008), 46–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 D'Costa, Anthony P., “Economic Nationalism in Motion: Steel, Auto, and Software Industries in India,” Review of International Political Economy 16, no. 4 (2009): 620–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Friedman, Walter A. and Jones, Geoffrey, “Creative Industries in History,” Business History Review 85, no. 2 (2011): 237–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 Jefferys, James B., Retail Trading in Britain, 1850–1950 (Cambridge, U.K., 1954), 285Google Scholar.
15 Before 1848 Smith's grew principally as a newspaper wholesaler, distributing London papers throughout the United Kingdom. “W.H. Smith and Son (Holdings) Limited,” 1975, 1048, W.H. Smith Company Archives, the University of Reading (hereafter WHS CA).
16 Wilson, Charles, First with the News: The History of W.H. Smith, 1792–1972 (London, 1985), 182Google Scholar.
17 Stephen Colclough, “‘Purifying the Sources of Amusement and Information’? The Railway Bookstalls of W.H. Smith & Son, 1855–1860,” Publishing History, no. 56 (2004): 27–51.
18 “W.H. Smith and Son (Holdings) Limited,” 1975, 1, 1048, WHS CA.
19 Morrison, Kathryn A., English Shops and Shopping: An Architectural History (New Haven, 2003), 201Google Scholar.
20 “Miscellaneous Statistics; 1854–1961.” A290, WHS CA Generally, “B” shops were equivalent to the former railway bookstalls, while “A” shops occupied prominent high street locations. Morrison, English Shops, 202.
21 Jefferys, Retail Trading, 287.
22 Scott, Peter and Walker, James, “‘The Only Way Is Up’: Overoptimism and the Demise of the American Five-and-Dime Store, 1914–1941,” Business History Review 91, no. 1 (2017): 71–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
23 Scott, Peter and Walker, James, “Barriers to ‘Industrialisation’ for Interwar British Retailing? The Case of Marks & Spencer Ltd.,” Business History 59, no. 2 (2017): 179–201CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Miscellaneous Statistics; 1854–1961,” A290 WHS CA.
25 Wilson, First with the News, 319; Donald C. Coleman, “Failings and Achievements: Some British Businesses, 1910–80,” Business History 29, no. 4 (1987): 1–17.
26 “Miscellaneous Statistics; 1854–1961,” A290 WHS CA.
27 Gourvish, Terry R., “British Business and the Transition to a Corporate Economy: Entrepreneurship and Management Structures,” Business History 29, no. 4 (1987): 18–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; For a more detailed analysis of W.H. Smith's interwar operations see Hull, Andrew, “Managing Business Performance: The Contrasting Cases of Two Multiple Retailers, 1920 to 1939,” Business History 60, no. 7 (2018): 959–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
28 Colli, Andrea, “Contextualizing Performances of Family Firms: The Perspective of Business History,” Family Business Review 25, no. 3 (2012): 243–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
29 “W.H. Smith and Son (Holdings) Limited,” 1975, 2, 1048, WHS CA.
30 “Newspaper and Periodical Distributive Trade,” Dec. 1969, 37, 881, WHS CA.
31 “Analysis of Performance since 1972/73.” June 1980, Table 7, W98, WHS CA.
32 Smith's established a Book Clubjoint venture with Doubleday in 1966 and launched a specialty Craftshop in 1974. In March 1979 it acquired a DIY chain, LCP Homecentres.
33 Jefferys, Retail Trading, 287. WHS CA A290, “Miscellaneous Statistics; 1854–1961.” Multiple shops controlled 15 percent to 18 percent of the total newspaper and bookselling trade.
34 “Board Policy Statement on Monopolies.” 1193, WHS CA The market share of Smith's largest competitor in book retailing (John Menzies) was 4 percent. Both newspaper and book retailing were fragmented industries, where small-scale, independent businesses were central to market structure.
35 Henisz, Witold J., and Zelner, Bennet A., “Legitimacy, interest group pressures, and change in emergent institutions: The case of foreign investors and host country governments,” Academy of Management Review 30, no. 2 (2005): 361–382CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 Stopford, John M., “The Growing Interdependence between Transnational Corporations and Governments,” Transnational Corporations 3, no. 1 (1994): 53–76Google Scholar.
37 Jones, Geoffrey, Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century (Oxford, 2005)Google Scholar.
38 Li, Jing, Newenham-Kahindi, Aloysius, Shapiro, Daniel M., and Chen, Victor Z., “The Two-Tier Bargaining Model Revisited: Theory and Evidence from China's Natural Resource Investments in Africa,” Global Strategy Journal 3, no. 4 (2013): 300–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
39 Safarian, Albert E., Multinational Enterprise and Public Policy: A Study of the Industrial Countries (Aldershot, 1993)Google Scholar.
40 Boddewyn, Jean J., “International Business–Government Relations Research, 1945–2015: Concepts, Typologies, Theories and Methodologies,” Journal of World Business 51, no. 1 (2016): 10–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
41 Vernon, Sovereignty at Bay.
42 Moran, Theodore H., Multinational Corporations and the Politics of Dependence: Copper in Chile (Princeton, 1974)Google Scholar.
43 Fagre, Nathan and Wells, Louis T., “Bargaining Power of Multinationals and Host Governments,” Journal of International Business Studies 13, no. 2 (1982): 9–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 Kobrin, “Testing the Bargaining Hypothesis,” 610.
45 Kobrin, “Testing the Bargaining Hypothesis,” 610.
46 Vachani, “Obsolescing Bargain Theory.”
47 Vernon, Sovereignty at Bay.
48 Safarian, Albert E., Governments and Multinationals: Policies in the Developed Countries, vol. 33 (Washington, DC, 1983)Google Scholar.
49 Luo, Yadong, “Toward a Cooperative View of MNC-Host Government Relations: Building Blocks and Performance Implications,” Journal of International Business Studies 32, no. 3 (2001): 402CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
50 Boddewyn, “International Business–Government Relations Research”; O. Thomas Johnson Jr. and Johnathan Gimblett, “From Gunboats to BITs: The Evolution of Modern International Investment Law,” in Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy (2010–2011), ed. Karl P. Sauvant (Oxford, 2012), 649–92.
51 Eckhard Janeba, “Global Corporations and Local Politics: Income Redistribution vs. FDI Subsidies,” Journal of Development Economics 74, no. 2 (2004): 367–91.
52 Ravi Ramamurti, “The Obsolescing ‘Bargaining Model’? MNC-Host Developing Country Relations Revisited.” Journal of International Business Studies 32, no. 1 (2001): 23–39.
53 Peter Dicken, “The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography Global-Local Tensions: Firms and States in the Global Space-Economy,” Economic Geography 70, no. 2 (1994): 101–28.
54 Lorraine Eden, Stefanie Lenway, and Douglas A. Schuler, “From the Obsolescing Bargain to the Political Bargaining Model,” in Grosse, International Business and Government Relations, 260.
55 See, for example, Müllner and Puck, “Holistic Framework”; and Nebus and Rufin, “Bargaining Power Model.”
56 Witold J. Henisz, “The institutional environment for multinational investment.” The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 16, no. 2 (2000): 334–364. Witold J. Henisz, and Oliver E. Williamson. “Comparative Economic Organization—Within and Between Countries.” Business and Politics 1, no. 3 (1999): 261–277.
Michael R. Holmes Jr., Toyah Miller, Michael A. Hitt, and M. Paz Salmador, “The Interrelationships among Informal Institutions, Formal Institutions, and Inward Foreign Direct Investment,” Journal of Management 39, no. 2 (2013): 531–66; Guy L. F. Holburn and Bennet A. Zelner, “Political Capabilities, Policy Risk, and International Investment Strategy: Evidence from the Global Electric Power Generation Industry,” Strategic Management Journal 31, no. 12 (2010): 1290–315.
57 Heinsz and Zelner, “Legitimacy, interest group pressures, and change.”
58 Slangen and Beugelsdijk, “Impact of Institutional Hazards.”
59 John H. Dunning and Sarianna M. Lundan, Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy (Aldershot, 2008), 185.
60 Canada, Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, Foreign Direct Investment in Canada since the Second World War (Ottawa, 1970).
61 Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada's International Investment Position, 1926–1954 (Ottawa, 1956); W. T. Easterbrook and Hugh G. J. Aitken, Canadian Economic History (Toronto, 1956), 572.
62 Irving Brecher and Simon S. Reisman, Canada-United States Economic Relations (Ottawa, 1957); Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada's International Investment Position, 19.
63 Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada's International Investment Position, 19.
64 Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 74.
65 Easterbrook and Aitken, Canadian Economic History, 572.
66 Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Canada's International Investment Position, 74.
67 Mira Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970 (Cambridge, MA, 1974), 307–8.
68 Harry Johnson, “Nationalism in Canadian Economic Policy,” Lloyds Bank Review 64 (1964): 30; Safarian, Multinational Enterprise, 113.
69 Albert E. Safarian, Foreign Ownership of Canadian Industry, 3rd ed. (Toronto, 2011), 17.
70 Harry Johnson, The Canadian Quandary: Economic Problems and Policies (Toronto, 1968), 103; Kari Levitt, Silent Surrender: The American Economic Empire in Canada (New York, 1971); Abraham Rotstein, “Canada: The New Nationalism,” Foreign Affairs 55, no. 1 (Oct. 1976): 97–118.
71 Daniel Shapiro and Steven Globerman, “Foreign Investment Policies and Capital Flows in Canada: A Sectoral Analysis,” Journal of Business Research 56, no. 10 (2003): 779–90.
72 Stephen Azzi, Walter Gordon and the Rise of Canadian Nationalism (Montreal, 1999), 99.
73 “Mr Pearson's Budget Test.” The Economist, 6 July 1963, 59.
74 Stephen Azzi, “Intuitive Nationalist Walter Gordon as Thinker,” Journal of Canadian Studies 34, no. 4 (1999): 121–35.
75 Canada, Task Force on the Structure of Canadian Industry. Foreign Ownership and the Structure of Canadian Industry: Report of the Task Force on the Structure of Canadian Industry (Watkins Report) (Ottawa, 1968); Canada, House of Commons, Foreign Direct Investment in Canada (Gray Report) (Ottawa, 1972).
76 A third report, known as the Wahn Report, explored this politically. Canada. House of Commons. Standing Committee on External Affairs. Eleventh Report of the Standing Committee on External Affairs and National Defence Respecting Canada-U.S. Relations (Ottawa, 1970). Alan M Rugman. Multinationals and Canada-United States Free Trade. University of South Carolina Press, 1990.
77 The FIRA incorporated a selection of proposals made by the Gray Report. Michael H. Howlett, M. R. Ramesh, and Alex N. Netherton, Political Economy of Canada: An Introduction (Oxford, 1999), 254.
78 Rotstein, “Canada”; Howlett, Ramesh, and Netherton, Political Economy of Canada, 90.
79 Canada, Report of the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting (Ottawa, 1929), 5.
80 Mary Vipond, Listening In: The First Decade of Canadian Broadcasting, 1922–1932 (Montreal, 1992).
81 Frank W. Peers, The Politics of Canadian Broadcasting, 1920–1951 (Toronto, 1973).
82 Canada, Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (Massey Report) (Ottawa, 1951).
83 Canada, Department of Labour, Combines Investigation Act: Investigation into an Alleged Combine in the Motion Picture Industry in Canada. Report of Commissioner. April 30, 1931 (Ottawa, 1931).
84 Keith Acheson and Christopher J. Maule, Much Ado about Culture: North American Trade Disputes (Ann Arbor, 1999).
85 Ian C. Jarvie, Hollywood's Overseas Campaign: The North Atlantic Movie Trade, 1920–1950 (Cambridge, U.K., 1992); Mary Vipond. The Mass Media in Canada, 4th ed. (Toronto, 2012).
86 Woolworths entered Canada in 1907 (Britain in 1909; Germany in 1926). John Benson, “Large Scale Retailing in Canada,” in The Evolution of Retail Systems, c. 1800–1914, ed. John Benson and Gareth Shaw (Leicester, 1992), 189. Kresge opened its first store in Canada in 1929. Herbert Marshall, Frank Southard, and Kenneth W. Taylor, Canadian-American Industry: A Study in International Investment (Toronto, 1936), 157.
87 Hollander, Stanley C., Multinational Retailing (East Lansing, 1970), 26Google Scholar; Wilkins, Mira, “Multinational Enterprises and Economic Change,” Australian Economic History Review 38, no. 2 (1998): 103–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
88 This is demonstrated by the entry of the Canadian department store Eaton's into catalogue retailing in 1884—twenty-three years after Macy's began catalogue trading in 1861, and twelve years after the foundation of Montgomery Ward. Belisle, Donica, Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada (Vancouver, 2011)Google Scholar; Kopytek, Bruce Allen, Eaton's: The Trans-Canada Store (Charleston, 2014)Google Scholar.
89 “Report on a Visit to Canada and New York 30 June–25 July 1967.” 898, WHS CA.
90 “W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. Strategic Plan,” Sept. 1971. 466/8, WHS CA.
91 “Opportunity,” 20 Mar. 1946. A264, WHS CA.
92 “Canada-October 1978,” 27 Oct. 1978 1238, WHS CA.
93 “Opportunity,” 20 Mar. 1946 A264 WHS CA.
94 Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Ninth Census of Canada, 1951, vol. 7, Distribution (Ottawa, 1954).
95 Canada, Massey Report; Litt, Paul, “The State and the Book,” in History of the Book in Canada, vol. 3, 1918–1980, ed. Gerson, Carole and Michon, Jacques (Toronto, 2007), 34–44Google Scholar. The mandate of the Massey commission (known formally as the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences) was to examine Canadian cultural agencies and institutions with the purpose of making recommendations about how they might be organized and governed.
96 “Major Canadian Purchase by W.H. Smith,” The Bookseller, 13 July 1985.
97 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. 16th October 1950,” Y243, WHS CA.
98 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. 16th July 1951,” Y243, WHS CA.
99 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. 5th April 1951,” Y243, WHS CA.
100 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. 2nd August 1951,” Y243, WHS CA.
101 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. 5th August 1954,” Y193, WHS CA.
102 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 3rd June 1955,” Y193, WHS CA.
103 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 30th May 1958” Y194, WHS CA.
104 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 5th September 1958” Y194, WHS CA.
105 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 21st April 1960” Y194, WHS CA.
106 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 21st April 1960” Y194, WHS CA.
107 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 21st April 1960” Y194. WHS CA. “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd,11th October 1961,” Y194, WHS CA.
108 “Minutes of a Meeting of the Board of Directors of W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd, 4th October 1961” Y194, WHS CA.
109 “Balance Sheets and Accounts, various years,” X187-X190; X580; X334-X337, WHS CA.
110 “Balance Sheets and Accounts, various years,” X188; X189; X190; X580; X336; X334; X337, WHS CA.
111 “W.H. Smith and Son (Canada) Ltd. Strategic Plan,” Sept. 1971, 446/8, WHS CA.
112 “W.H. Smith and Son (Canada) Ltd. Company Reorganization,” 1 Mar. 1969, 648, WHS CA.
113 “Five Year Plan W.H. Smith and Son (Canada) Ltd 1970/71–1974/75.” Mar. 1970, 552, WHS CA.
114 “WHS Canada and Coles Book Stores Ltd. A Financial Comparison.” 6 Oct. 1976, 1238, WHS CA.
115 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” July 1989, 1471, WHS CA.
116 “Visit to Canada Report,” 22 Apr. 1976, 1238, WHS CA.
117 “WHS Internal Memo,” 1 June 1976,1238, WHS CA.
118 “WHS Internal Memo,” 1 June 1976, 1238, WHS CA.
119 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd. Corporate Plan 1976,” Nov. 1975, W99; “Minutes of W.H. Smith Canada Ltd” 8 Jan. 1975–21 Dec. 1978, Y244, both in WHS CA.
120 “The Maintenance and Strengthening of Anglo-American Relations through Books,” 30 Oct. 1979, 1238, WHS CA.
121 “A Report on the 1974/75 Corporate Plan,” 5 July 1974, W14; “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd. Strategic Plan 1983/84,” Aug. 1982, W108, both in WHS CA.
122 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd. Strategic Plan 1981/82,” Aug. 1980, W106, WHS CA. In 1980, a new ROCE target of over 25 percent by 1983–84 was established.
123 “Strategic Plan 1983/84”; “Strategic Plan 1981/82.”
124 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd. Strategic Plan 1982/83,” Aug. 1981, W107, WHS CA; “Strategic Plan 1981/82.”
125 “Minutes of W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” 8 Jan. 1975–21 Dec. 1978, Y244, WHS CA.
126 “Tour of Canada 1979. Report of Visit by S.M. Hornby, Chief Executive,” 22 Aug. 1979, 1238, WHS CA.
127 “Minutes of W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” 8 Jan. 1975–21 Dec. 1978, Y244, WHS CA.
128 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd. Corporate Plan 1980/81,” Dec. 1979, W105, WHS CA.
129 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” July 1989, 1471, WHS CA.
130 The Globe and Mail reported on July 11th 1985 that Smith's acquisition of Classic amounted to nothing less than a bailout. “Classic deal will weigh heavily on W.H. Smith,” July 11th 1985 Brian Milner The Globe and Mail. Coles cut the prices of its twenty best sellers by 25 percent, “Price war threatens book retailers,” 6 July 1985 Andrew Cohen The Financial Post.
131 “Price war threatens book retailers.”
132 “Acquisition of Classic Books (CBS) By W.H. Smith Canada Ltd.” 1 July 1985, 1503, WHS CA.
133 “W.H. Smith buys Canadian Bookseller,” Charles Batchelor and Bernard Simon, Financial Times, 10 July 1985.
134 “Letter to Malcom Field, Managing Director, W.H. Smith and Son Ltd.” 10 June 1985, 1503, WHS CA.
135 “W.H. Smith-Classic merger is test for new agency,” Brian Milner, The Globe and Mail, 10 July 1985; “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” July 1989, 1471, WHS CA.
136 “Foreign buyer poised to take over bookseller,” Brian Milner, The Globe and Mail, 9 July 1985.
137 “Letter from Peter Newman to Dr. Charles McMillan,” 27 Aug. 1985, 1503, WHS CA.
138 “Classic Bookshops,” 27 Sept. 1985, 1503, WHS CA.
139 Internal accounts state that the policy statement was made “on the very weekend” that negotiations between W.H. Smith and Classic were completed. “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” July 1989, 1471, WHS CA. See also “Shares in W.H. Smith still being discussed,” Kenneth Kid, The Toronto Star, 18 Feb. 1989.
140 “Shares in W.H. Smith still being discussed.”
141 “W.H. Smith Canada Ltd,” July 1989, 1471, WHS CA.
142 “Managing Director/Deputy Managing Director's Monthly Reports to the Board, 1989,” Y280, WHS CA.
143 “Managing Director.”
144 W.H. Smith Annual Report 1986, Company's House, London. Heather Farmbrough, “Expansion Lifts W.H. Smith 16%.” The Financial Times, 28 Jan. 1988, 29.
145 “Shops Bought,” The Times (London), 21, 8 May 1986; W.H. Smith Annual Report 1986.
146 W.H. Smith Annual Report 1990. Company's House, London. “W H Smith Buys Books Shops from Waterstone.” Maggie Urry Financial Times, 19 July 1989, 21.
147 W.H. Smith Annual Report 1989, Company's House, London.
148 “Managing Director,” Y280, WHS CA.
149 “W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. Corporate Plan December 1972,” W13, WHS CA.
150 “W.H. Smith & Son (Canada) Ltd. Corporate Plan December 1972,” W13, WHS CA.
151 Janeba, “Global Corporations.”
152 Henisz, “The Institutional Environment”; Moran, Multinational Corporations.
153 Ramamurti, “Obsolescing ‘Bargaining Model.’”
154 “Canada Trade Policy 1976,” BT 11/7058, The National Archives of the UK (TNA), London.
155 “Visit to the UK of Representatives of the Canadian Government,” CAB 164/843, TNA.
156 Slangen and Beugelsdijk, “Impact of Institutional Hazards.”
157 Lubinski, Christina and Wadhwani, R. Daniel, “Geopolitical Jockeying: Economic Nationalism and Multinational Strategy in Historical Perspective,” Strategic Management Journal 41, no. 3 (2020): 400–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
