National Cultures and International Competition. The Experience of Schering AG, 1851-1950

Christopher Kobrak has written an ambitious work that attempts to combine narrative business history with a deep overall assessment of German business culture.While he is only partially successful, his book is well worth reading, as a biting indictment of the German way of doing business.Kobrak argues that the German model of "cooperative capitalism," which can be called more accurately the "commonweal economy," is counterproductive.1 He is correct in this assertion, but his attempt to support it is uneven.His historical account is not well integrated into his broader analysis, in large part because he never states his own theory of how an economy should function and how a business should fit into that economy.One wonders whether Schering was the best firm to chose for illustrating his point.This is particularly