Foreign Multinational Retailers in Britain, 1850-1962

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.With inward investment such an important contributor to the United Kingdom economy in recent decades, and increasingly in services, this project was designed to assess the historical impact of foreign direct investment in the United Kingdom's largest service sector: retailing. Accordingly the project's principal aim was to map the complete population of subsidiaries of foreign firms active in British retailing from 1850 (before when foreign entry was negligible) to 1962 (after when official sources of inward direct investment begin). Using standard historical research methods, 108 separate retailing subsidiaries of foreign firms active in the United Kingdom during the period were documented. This population was then compared with the historical population of inward investors in manufacturing, and with the United Kingdom retailing sector in general. Furthermore, the dataset constructed here was spliced onto existing datasets of current indicators of foreign entry into British retailing. This then enabled the longitudinal analysis to be brought forward to the present, providing important historical context for current trends.Main Topics:This data collection records details of foreign multinational retailers and their activities in the United Kingdom, 1850-1962. Information has been gathered about both British subsidiary companies of foreign parent firms, and about the foreign parent firms themselves. The structure of the dataset has been based on SN:3142 <i>Impact of Foreign Multi-National Investment in Britain Since 1850</i>. The data from this latter study have been incorporated into this current dataset. The aim of the project has been to assess the role played by foreign direct investment in the United Kingdom's retail sector. The variables of the dataset include: the names of parent and subsidiary companies; any changes in company name; company nationality and changes in nationality; the location of companies' headquarters; the nature of the company's business (i.e. their product); the type of investment involved; the relationship between parent and subsidiary company; the existence of importing or exporting by subsidiary companies; and the capital and asset values of the companies