Professor Peter Scott - Research
Peter Scott is Professor of International Business History at University of Reading Business School.
His research interests include: the growth of mass consumption; housing; technological change; the evolution of institutional investment market; industrial location & regional development; the growth & impact of overseas multinationals in UK; development of labour process; the evolution of built environment and the history of consumer credit.
His other duties include:
- Director of the Centre for International Business History (CIBH)
- A trustee of the Business Archives Council (BAC)
- President of the Association of Business Historians
New monograph
Triumph of the South: A Regional Economic History of Britain during the Early Twentieth Century (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), pp. xiv + 324.
This book, the winner of the 2008 Wadsworth Prize for Business History, presents a new thesis regarding the role of the dynamic metropolitan economy of Greater London as a prime determinant of Britain's uneven regional development since the mid-nineteenth century. It draws on original research to explore the ways in which changes in the domestic and international economy served both to destabilise the highly specialised producer-goods economies of the provinces and reinforce Greater London's competitive advantage.
Current research projects
- Household expenditure, consumption, and living standards in Britain, 1900-1939
James Walker and I examine changes in household consumption and living standards for working-class and lower middle-class households in Britain prior to the Second World War, using the archives of early household expenditure surveys, together with autobiographical and other evidence. More...
- The managerial revolution in British and American retailing
Dr James Walker and I examine the factors influencing the efficiency, growth and competitive advantage of large-scale retailing in Britain and the USA during the interwar years, using data assembled from academic/industry surveys. More...
- The Making of the Modern British Home, 1919-1939
This project examines the rise of the suburban semi in interwar Britain and its profound economic and social impacts on the large number of working and middle-class families who migrated from inner-urban areas to new suburban housing estates. A number of articles are in press or planned, together with a research monograph. More...
- The emergence of a mass market for consumer durables in interwar Britain
This project assesses attempts to create a mass market for consumer durables in interwar Britain. Analysis focuses on two industries which had contrasting records regarding their efforts to expand sales to a lower-middle and working class market - mass produced furniture and domestic electrical appliances. More...
- Did the introduction of the 48 hour week damage Britain's relative competitiveness? Dr Anna Spadavecchia and I examine the impact of Britain's largest ever reduction on working-hours on industrial productivity, finding that - contrary to earlier studies- the hours reduction did not have any significant impact on the UK's relative industrial competitiveness. More...
Recent/forthcoming articles
- Forthcoming, `Advertising, promotion, and the competitive advantage of interwar UK department stores', Economic History Review (joint article with Dr James Walker; Henley Management School).
- 2009 `Mr Drage, Mr Everyman, and the creation of a mass market for domestic furniture in interwar Britain,' Economic History Review, 62, 802-27.
- 2008 `Managing door-to-door sales of vacuum cleaners in interwar Britain,' Business History Review, 82, 4 (2008): 761-88.
- 2008 'Marketing mass home ownership and the creation of the modern working class consumer in interwar Britain' Business History, forthcoming.
- 2007 'Jealous monopolists? British banks and responses to the Macmillan Gap during the 1930s' Enterprise & Society (forthcoming). Joint article with Lucy Newton, University of Reading.
- 2007 'Did owner-occupation lead to smaller families for interwar working-class households?' Economic History Review (forthcoming).
- 2006 'Path dependence, fragmented property rights, and the slow diffusion of high throughput technologies in interwar British coal mining', Business History, 48, pp. 18-36.
- 2005 'New manufacturing plant formation, clustering, and locational externalities in 1930s' Britain,' Business History, 47, 2, pp. 190-218. (Joint article with Peter Walsh, University of Portsmouth).
- 2005 'Public sector investment and Britain's post-war economic performance: a case study of roads policy', Journal of European Economic History, 34, 2, pp. 391-418.
Recent book chapters
- 2009 `From a solution to a problem? Overseas multinationals in Britain during economic decline and renaissance,' Chapter 6 in Richard Coopey and Peter Lyth (eds), Business in Britain in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: OUP).
- 2007`Consumption, consumer credit, and the diffusion of consumer durables', in Francesca Carnevali and Julie-Marie Strange (eds), 20th Century Britain. Economic, Social and Cultural Change, 2nd edn. (Harlow: Pearson).
- 2004`British regional development and policy since 1945,' in R. Floud and P. Johnson (eds), The Cambridge Economic History of Britain, Vol. III (Cambridge: C.U.P.), pp. 332-67.
Contributions to radio and TV programmes
Historical consultant for the Blakeway TV documentary A Tale of Two Britains ( first broadcast on BBC4, Wednesday 21st October 2009).
Contributor to several radio programmes, including Radio 4's The Long View, Broadcasting House, and PM.