Similar Responses to Similar Pressures? Adaptation Processes of British and German Business Associations in the Information and Communications Sector

Abstract

Business associations are an attribute of modern societies. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries they emerged out of industrialization processes, which were characterized by societal and economic turmoil. During these turbulent times firm owners united for the first time in order to promote their interest collectively against state interventions, foreign competitors, and the growing workers’ movement. The emergence of business associations indicates the transition to differentiated societies where business associations occupy an intermediary role between the economy and the state. The British and German systems of organized business interest both emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century and soon covered most economic areas (Ullmann, 1988).