Networks, innovation, and competitiveness: Changing market conditions and industry structure within Dutch shipbuilding, 1914-1983

Description

So much has been written about Dutch shipbuilding in the Golden Age, which stands in sharp contrast to the scarce academic research on Dutch shipbuilding of the twentieth century. However, the Rotterdam Centre for Modern Maritime History (RCMMH), the cooperation between the Maritime Museum and the Erasmus University, which started in 2014, has put this significant part of the Dutch industry on the research agenda. Three Phd projects examine the Dutch shipbuilding industry between 1870 and 1983, divided over three periods. The period 1870-1914 can be considered a leap forward in shipbuilding after a long period of lagging on the world market. The second period, 1914-1945, can be characterised as an age of consolidation and fluctuation. The years between 1945-1983 are marked by a further rise and sharp decline of the large shipbuilding industry. A fourth Phd-project concentrates on the Dutch offshore industry, and further research of the centre focuses on the port of Rotterdam and its hinterland.
This presentation is situated around the research on the Dutch shipbuilding industry between 1914-1945 and 1945-1983. The common thread of these two studies is the Dutch shipbuilding industry from the perspective of the large shipyard, how it connects to the surrounding industries, the Dutch government and other actors that populate the maritime world. A main role is assigned to the Dutch shipping companies that had a growing influence on the shipbuilding industry on many levels (production process, investments, management) from the 1870s onwards. In the postwar period, a counter-development became visible, as the shipping companies started to lose interest in the Dutch shipyards as their main producers of ships. Is it possible that the large role of the shipping companies in the shipbuilding process of the Dutch shipyards has had a paralysing effect on the company strategies?

Period	14 Nov 2018
Event title	Shipbuilding Seminar BH@EUR : Causes and consequences of the decline of West European shipbuilding, 1945-2000
Event type	Seminar
Location	Rotterdam, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International