A tale of two breweries, a city, a depression and a nationalist socialist regime -as told from annual accounts and the supervisory board report

Carmen María Martínez Franco; Martin Quinn

doi:10.26784/issn.1886-1881.v12i22.28

Autori

Carmen María Martínez Franco Universidad Católica San Antonio, Murcia
Martin Quinn Dublin City University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7753-8218

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26784/issn.1886-1881.v12i22.28

Parole chiave:

Storytelling, Financial statement analysis, Supervisory board, Brewing

Abstract

This paper presents storytelling as a useful research method in its own right, but also to scope out research projects. Construction of a story from archival accounting documents is undertaken. Using archival accounting data from two German breweries - Löwenbräu and Spaten - from 1929 to 1939, it constructs a story of the relatively complex business environment at the time. Only the financial statements and report of the Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat) are used. The story constructed is rich and reveals interesting reasons for the generally decreasing performance. This in turn raises several questions for further research into the two breweries. Arguably, without the construction of the story, such questions and areas of potential interest would not reveal themselves. The method described is useful for researchers to scope out research projects using accounting data and may also be useful for establishing context to accounting and business history studies.

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