American business: corporations.

The publicity surrounding the uncovering of the WorldCom fraud resulted in greater auditor oversight over American corporations and greater government oversight over auditors.

The Whiskey Trust was an oddity during the late nineteenth century in that it was one of the few failed monopolies of the era.

The telegraph, invented in 1837, provided the first technology for rapid communications and gave businesses the ability virtually instantaneously to contact their own branches, other companies, or consumers.

Wal-Mart’s rise to become one of the most successful business franchises in American history can be seen as either a Cinderella story...

USA Today, targeted at a general, less sophisticated audience than other national newspapers, was credited with an innovative strategy for successful journalism, even as it was criticized for lowering the standards of the journalistic profession.

The United States Steel Corporation was perhaps the most heralded American company throughout much of the twentieth century and had a major impact on the world’s economy.

With revenues in 2001 of $38 billion and 240,000 employees worldwide, Tyco was one of America’s largest conglomerates, but a 2002 corporate fraud case nearly destroyed the firm.

Tupperware became an American icon by pioneering the party-plan, direct-sales system.

The Standard Oil Company dominated the emerging oil industry in the United States between 1870 and 1911.

As one of the pioneers of the mailorder retail industry and a leading retailer of the twentieth century, Sears, Roebuck introduced or popularized a number of innovative business practices in its efforts to adapt to changing markets.

Initially, the royal charters provided support for early North American colonial farms and businesses, but later, monarchs used the charter’s powers to impose taxes and regulations on the colonists...

The U.S. government successfully brought suit against the trust formed by the Northern Securities Company for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

The founding of NBC established the structure within which U.S. radio, and later television, stations would operate: a system of local independent affiliates to a nationwide network.

Montgomery Ward pioneered mailorder retailing during the 1870’s and established a company that later became one of the largest department store chains in the United States.

As the variety of business mergers became more complicated, a new industry arose from businesses designed to provide specialized accounting and legal and financial expertise that would facilitate all manner of reorganizations.

Since the early twentieth century, a wide variety of management theories have been offered to solve the principal-agent problem so that important objectives of business managers can be achieved.

By the mid-1950’s, automobiles and drive-in restaurants were part of the American lifestyle. McDonald’s successfully met the need for fast service, low-cost meals, convenience, and a child-friendly atmosphere.

IBM’s tabulating machines introduced American business to data processing. In the post-World War II era, IBM helped lead the United States into the computer age.

In the United States, nearly 4 million corporations generate more than 85 percent of the country’s gross business receipts.

As television expanded into specialized cable networks during the late 1970’s media boom, the Home Shopping Network pioneered the concept of electronic commerce byoffering viewers the opportunity to call in live and purchase a wide variety of quality items—predominantly fashion, beauty care accessories, jewelry, electronics, and domestic wares.

Google, the leading Internet information organization and search company in the world, is one of the fastest growing companies in the world.

Throughout the twentieth century, General Motors was the epitome of American big business.