Big Steel: The First Century of the United States Steel Corporation, 1901-2001 - Book Review

Administrative Science Quarterly,  Dec, 2002  by Allan R. Ryan

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Aside from Warren's dense, fact-laden writing, I have two major criticisms of his book. The first is that, with minor exceptions, Warren's presentation of data is either embedded in his text or presented in tables in which the varying reporting periods make the tables appear arbitrary. Although the reader can speculate that the data reported are a function of both data availability and an attempt to highlight important economic turning points, at no point does Warren explain his selection of numbers or what kept him from being able to provide more tabular data that documented the full span of U.S. Steel's existence. The second criticism I have cuts two ways. Warren's story provides few answers but does raise many questions and mysteries. Warren's account left me unsatisfied but also awoke a curiosity to know more.

In the face of Warren's effective documentation of the minutia of U.S. Steel's decisions and policies, it is somewhat frustrating that he all too rarely steps back to describe and analyze the broader issues that are raised by U.S. Steel's experience. Despite his attempts to put a positive spin on the U.S. Steel story, a reader less steeped in U.S. Steel is liable to come away from the story confused. Over various periods, how did U.S. Steel act "as if" it was a monopolist or near-monopolist and still survive? How did its strategy serve its investors? If size didn't confer long-term competitive advantage, did it in some sense buffer the company against failure? As I read Warren's account I regretted that he analyzed U.S. Steel's history neither in terms that would be familiar to students of finance (e.g., returns relative to market), nor in sociological terms that might be suggested by institutional theory, resource dependence theory, or population ecology. To a student of organizations, the history of the U.S. Steel Corporation raises many problems that might lead to fruitful research. In a period in which the national debate is focused once again on bankruptcies in the American steel industry and the perceived need for tariff protections to shore up the industry while it reshapes itself, the long history of competitive inertia displayed by U.S. Steel might suggest that it is not government intervention that will reshape the American steel industry but, rather, the more objective forces of competition, innovation, and good management. The past history of the U.S. Steel Corporation should remind us, however, that in a "strategic industry," competition can sometimes wield a very dull blade when directed at a national giant.

Allan R. Ryan

Department of Economics and Business Administration Rhodes College

Memphis, TN 38112

COPYRIGHT 2002 Cornell University, Johnson Graduate School
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group