Tennent, Kevin Daniel orcid.org/0000-0003-1952-5969 (2017) Profit or Utility Maximizing?:Strategy, tactics and the Municipal Tramways of York, c. 1918-1935. Journal of Management History. pp. 1-40. ISSN 1751-1348
Abstract
Purpose: This paper contests Mees (2010) theory that publically owned public transport operators normatively target their resources to maximize service rather than profit. Mees argues that neoliberal governments in the Anglosphere were mistaken to privatize their undertakings yet we show that the British ethos of municipal trading meant that municipalities always saw public transport as more of a business than a service. Methodology: We use an archival microstudy of the municipal tramway undertaking of the English city of York, using municipal archives triangulated with local and industry media sources. Findings: We propose the refination of the Mees spectrum of public transport from public to private (2010, pp. 73–75) to note that public undertakings can be operated within a profit-maximizing framework. Originality/Value: We provide a rare historical explication of an individual municipal trading enterprise and tramway system placed in its economic context together with its wider theoretical implications.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Emerald Publishing Limited 2017. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > The York Management School |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 15 Aug 2017 13:45 |
Last Modified: | 21 Feb 2025 00:05 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-05-2017-0026 |
Status: | Published online |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/JMH-05-2017-0026 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:120195 |