Is it really useful to focus the interest of business historians on major companies that failed in recent years, like Parmalat in Italy or Enron in the United States? What can we learn from studying cases like that of the French company Schneider, a first mover in metallurgy, armaments, and nuclear energy, which for almost 150 years dominated the company town Le Creusot, where the Business History Conference held its fiftieth anniversary meeting in 2004, but which has now disappeared?

This article presents a case study of the establishment of the first Italian supermarket in 1957, carried out by an American industrial group called the International Basic Economy Corporation (IBEC). It raises the question of the export of a model born in the United States in a far different economic and political context. It was necessary to transform the technical and structural aspects of the supermarket as an institution to adapt to Italian society. This article also analyzes how other serious problems, deriving from the particular political and juridical situation of Italy, were confronted. In the end, the Italian supermarket was fundamentally different from the original model.

The state played an important role as political and economic manager in postwar New Zealand. By fostering manufacturing, governments aimed to provide paid, productive employment, conserve foreign exchange, and support a welfare state. The history of pulp and papermaking using state-planted pine forests is a good example of a government-business joint venture to create a new export industry and new national wealth. Governments of both major political parties cooperated in capital formation, land use, hydroelectricity, roads, railroads, a modern port, and town construction. This longterm state commitment helped propel the industry toward largescale vertical integration so that it could achieve economies of scale and scope and compete in world markets.