Alfred D. Chandlers Konzept der learning base und seine Anwendung auf den Unterhaltungselektronikhersteller Loewe

The aim pursued in this business history study is to assess whether
LOEWE - an originally German-Jewish producer of consumer
electronics - had the possibility as well as the capacity to build
and preserve a learning base throughout the national-socialist
period. Learning base is understood here in the sense expounded by
the American business historian, Alfred D. Chandler, in his
investigation of firms who boast long-term prosperity. After a
discussion of this concept, it is applied to LOEWE for the period
running from 1923 to 1945. The main thrust of this paper is a focus
on the construction of the organisational substructure that
supports the learning base in the 1920s. The erosion of the
technical knowledge base is then monitored in the field of
television research - a domain which will prove central for the
firm in the future - as a consequence of the political persecution
brought about by the Third Reich.