Issue 3, 2014

Baryshnikov M. N. Creating Gukasovs Industrial Group in Russia in the Early Twentieth Century.

Paper examines the functioning of Gukasovs’ companies in the Russian Empire in the early twentieth century. The economic and institutional aspects of formation an industrial holding group are explored in the context of vertically integrated management structure. The author conducts a comparative analysis of different types of organizational structures (firms) holding, traced their development trends. In contrast to much of the existing literature which focuses on the role of oil firms, we examine data on actual investment transactions in six main areas of operations: (1) coal industry, (2) metallurgy, (3) machinery engineering, (4) electrical engineering, (5) construction and (6) transport. Investment transactions in the electrical engineering and metallurgy imparted a particularly noticeable boost to performance of enterprises. These results are obtained after controlling for other firm-specific variables such as capital-intensity and mergers and acquisitions. Gukasovs’ decisions to undertake investments in technological modernization and various forms of organizational innovations appear to be crucial for achieving gains of the holding. Keywords: Russian Empire, Gukasovs, industry group, holding, management, interests, resources.

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