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Part I
Themes and method
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1 Introduction
In recent years, considerable interest has arisen about the nature of entrepreneurship and what creates it. This has led to a number of books being written which discourse on the theoretical reasons for entrepreneurship and on the individual achievements of notable entrepreneurs (i.e. Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates). Business academics also are showing a growing interest in the nature of entrepreneurship and there is even some interest in the lives of prominent entrepreneurs by the general reading public. What is lacking, however, is a detailed analysis of how early entrepreneurs in the past successfully negotiated the early stages of development of a highly dynamic industry to establish organisations that went on to shape the future development of that industry. The work’s purpose, therefore, is to examine such a group of entrepreneurs, during the start-up and early development stages of an emerging industry, undergoing considerable technological change, and to relate this experience to contemporary studies and experiences of entrepreneurship.
Case studies such as these provide readers and researchers with an opportunity to understand and to further evaluate the impact of events and the dynamics of individual organisations. These types of case studies can also help to advance knowledge and contribute to theoretical developments by bringing to light concepts and ideas that can then be empirically tested (Gummerson, 1991; Nagel, 1961; Yin, 1989; Eisenhardt, 1989). The case studies presented in this book, which concentrate on the early aviation industry, are particularly striking ones and therefore of considerable interest.
Industries undergoing rapid technological change often attract individuals with an entrepreneurial frame of mind, as they offer opportunities to develop ideas and vision. These industries can also generate a degree of excitement that attracts an adventurous type of person. The industry under study in this book is that of the aviation industry, focusing on aircraft manufacturing rather than air travel, which began in the 1900s with the first flights of a heavier-than-air aircraft. In the years up until 1945, this industry saw the start-up of a number of famous aircraft manufacturing companies, assisted by some of the great names in pioneering aviation. Although a number of these men are well known in history, they are generally known more as either pioneers of aviation or as aircraft designers (or both) rather than as entrepreneurs. This is unfortunate because many of them, such as the Wright brothers, Glenn H. Curtiss, Glenn L. Martin, Louis Blériot, the Farman brothers, Thomas Sopwith, Geoffrey de Havilland, William Boeing, Frederick Handley Page and Robert Blackburn were the creators of huge industrial empires, and the aircraft that their companies produced went on to become household names (for more comprehensive lists of the aviation pioneers/entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom, France and the United States see Tables 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3). These individuals not only had a taste for the excitement of early flight and a great flair in aircraft design, but they also possessed the organisational and entrepreneurial abilities that enabled them to build up considerable industrial concerns. In doing so, some of these individuals found the change in the industry over time too much to handle and struggled to adapt to the demands of managing large enterprises. Others, however, were able to negotiate the changes well, successfully remaining in the industry long into the twentieth century, and in the process becoming substantial captains of industry. One example, for instance, is that of the British flyer Geoffrey de Havilland, who was one of the very first aviators in the United Kingdom, initially flying an aircraft he built in 1909 (see Figure 1.1). He and his companies survived the complex World War I and World War II industry environments and his company became an important designer of jet aircraft in the post-war years (see for an example Figure 1.2). Understanding why some of the early aviation entrepreneurs were able to make the transition from aviation pioneer to industrial manager while others did not will be an important theme of this study.
Table 1.1 Aviation entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom Name | Life | Company | Founded (taken over) ceased |
Frederick Handley Page | 1885–1962 | Handley Page Ltd. | 1909–1970 |
Geoffrey de Havilland | 1882–1865 | de Havilland Aircraft Co. Ltd. | 1920–(1960) 1964 |
Montague Napier | 1870–1931 | D. Napier & Son Ltd. | 1808–(1942) |
Frederick Henry Royce | 1863–1933 | Rolls-Royce Ltd. | 1906– |
George Holt Thomas | 1869–1929 | Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Airco) | 1912–1920 |
Alliot Vernon Roe | 1877–1958 | A.V. Roe & Company (Avro) | 1910–(1920) 1963 |
| | Saunders-Roe | 1929–1964 |
Thomas Sopwith | 1888–1989 | Sopwith Aviation Co. | 1912–1920 |
| | Hawker Aircraft. Hawker Siddeley | 1920–(1935) 1963 1935–1992 |
Charles Richard Fairey | 1887–1956 | Fairey Aviation Co. Ltd. | 1915–(1960) 1977 |
Oswald Short | 1883–1969 | Short Brothers PLC | 1897–(1989) |
Eustace Short | 1875–1932 | Short Brothers PLC | 1897–(1989) |
Robert Blackburn | 1885–1955 | Blackburn Aircraft Limited | 1914–1960 |
George White | 1854–1916 | British and Colonial Aeroplane Co. | 1910–(1959) 1966 |
Nevil Shute Norway | 1899–1960 | Airspeed Ltd. | 1931–(1940) 1951 |
Sam Saunders | 1857–1933 | S.E. Saunders (Saunders-Roe) | 1896–1929 |
Noel Pemberton-Billing | 1881–1948 | Pemberton-Billing Ltd. (Supermarine Aviation Works Ltd.) | 1913–(1928) 1960 |
Ernest Petters | 1873–1954 | Westland Aircraft Ltd. | 1915–2001 |
Hugh Burroughes | 1884–1985 | Gloucestershire Aircraft Co. Ltd. (Gloster) | 1917–(1934) 1963 |
John Davenport Siddeley | 1866–1953 | Armstrong Siddeley | 1919–(1935) 1960 |
James Martin | 1893–1981 | Martin Baker Aircraft Co. | 1934– |
Table 1.2 Aviation entrepreneurs in the United States Name | Life span | Company | Founded (taken over) ceased |
Wilbur Wright | 1867–1912 | Wright Co. 1909–1929 | 1909–1929 |
Orville Wright | 1871–1948 | Wright Co. 1909–1929 | 1909–1929 |
Glenn H. Curtiss | 1878–1930 | Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. | 1909–1929 |
Glenn L. Martin | 1886–1955 | Glenn L. Martin Co., Wright-Martin | 1912–1961 |
Frederick B. Rentschler | 1887–1956 | Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Co. | 1925– |
Allan Loughead | 1889–1969 | Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Co., Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Co. | 1912–1920 |
William E. Boeing | 1881–1956 | Boeing Co. | 1916– |
Jack Northrop | 1895–1981 | Avion Corp., Northrop Corp. | 1939–1994 |
Donald Wills Douglas | 1892–1981 | Douglas Aircraft Co. | 1921–(1967) |
Larry Bell | 1894–1956 | Bell Aircraft | 1935– |
Gerard Freebairn Vultee | 1900–1938 | Vultee | 1939–(1943) |
Vance Breese | 1904–1973 | Breese Aircraft Co., Vultee | 1939–(1943) |
Sherman Fairchild | 1896–1971 | Fairchild Aircraft | 1925–(2003) |
James Smith McDonnell | 1899–1980 | McDonnell Aircraft Corp. | 1939–1967 |
Reuben Hollis Fleet | 1887–1975 | Consolidated Aircraft | 1923–1943 |
James Kindlebeger | 1895–1962 | North American Aviation | 1928–(1967) |
Leroy Grumman | 1895–1982 | Grumman Aeronautical Engineering | 1929–1994 |
Chance M. Vought | 1890–1930 | Lewis and Vought Corp., Chance Vought Corp. | 1917–1962 |
Alexander P. de Seversky | 1894–1974 | Seversky Aero Corp. | 1931–1939 |
Grover Cleveland Loening | 1888–1976 | Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corp., Grover Loening Aircraft Co. | 1917–1932 |
Giuseppe Mario Bellanca | 1886–1960 | Bellanca Aircraft Co. | 1927–1954 |
Table 1.3 Aviation entrepreneurs in France Name | Life span | Company | Founded (taken over) ceased |
Gabriel Voisin | 1880–1973 | Voisin, Société Anonyme des Aéroplanes G. Voisin | 1905–1918 |
Charles Voisin | 1882–1912 | Voisin | 1905–1918 |
Henri Farman | 1874–1958 | Farman Aviation Works | 1908–1936 |
Louis Blériot | 1872–1936 | Blériot Aéronautique | 1908–1936 |
Lois Breguet | 1880–1955 | Breguet Aviation | 1911–1971 |
Edouard de Nieport | 1875–1911 | Société Anonyme Des Établissements Nieuport | 1908–1937 |
Louis Bechereau | 1880–1970 | Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin | 1911–1921 |
Raymond Saulnier | 1881–1964 | Morane-Saulnier | 1911–1966 |
Aldophe Bernard | 1881–1955 | Avions Bernard | 1917–1935 |
Émile Dewoitine | 1879–1979 | Constructions Aéronautiques Émile Dewoitine | 1920–1927 |
Marcel Bloch (Dassault) | 1892–1986 | Avions Marcel Bloch; Dassault Aviation | 1929– |
Felix Amiot | 1897–1974 | Avions Amiot | 1916–1945 |
Pierre-Georges Latécoère | 1883–1943 | Groupe Latécoère | 1917– |
Henry Potez | 1891–1981 | Aviation Potez | 1919–1967 |
Fernand Liore | 1874–1966 | Lioré-et-Olivier | 1912–1937 |
Lawrence Santoni | 1877–1928 | CAMS | 1920–1937 |
Etienne Romano | 1899–1966 | Romano | 1929–1936 |
Looking back on the careers of these entrepreneurs it is easy to forget that most of them began their companies in small workshops and garages tinkering with crude machines that they hoped would enable them to experience flight. In doing so they are to some degree an earlier equivalence of the computer enthusiasts of the 1970s and 1980s, who developed early computer hardware and software that went on to shape the later-day IT industry, and subsequently all of our lives. Insights can be found by examining the similarities between the small-scale workshop origins of the aviation industry and the early stages of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and early 1980s, when individual entrepreneurs on shoestring budgets worked out of garages and other modest locations, developing path-breaking concepts and technologies that helped to create the information revolution. The pioneering period of aircraft manufacturing provides a rich illustrative history of the growth of a new industry, which involves the creation of a number of small firms, financed from individual, family or local resources, all edging their way into the unknown.
Figure 1.1 The first aircraft designed by Geoffrey de Havilland (1909)
Figure 1.2 Preserved de Havilland Vampire T11 displays at the Cotswold Air Show at Cotswold Airport, Kemble, Gloucestershire, England
In observing the similarities between early aviators and computer enthusiasts, there are some differences. Perhaps the main one was that although t...
