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About the InitiativeAbout the Initiative   

The Business History Initiative (BHI) seeks to enable and encourage educators, practitioners and scholars to understand the past in order to better navigate today's global business world. Associated faculty and fellows study the history of capitalism, ecological and social sustainability, innovation, emerging markets, government policies, and gender and racial inequalities using the lens of business and employing comparative perspectives. 

Impact Stories 

Expanding Horizons

Re: Melanie Sheehan
The Harvard-Newcomen Fellowship has offered me an incredible opportunity to learn and grow as a business historian. I arrived at HBS with research and teaching experience in the history of US business, but my time at HBS has broadened and deepened my knowledge of business history as a field.

Chandler’s Legacies

Re: Xavier Duran
The fellowship offered me the opportunity to experience stimulating discussions of my work with scholars at HBS, affiliates of the Business History Initiative, and the wider Harvard University community.

Responsibility of Business

Re: Ann-Kristin Bergquist
Being a visiting research fellow at the Harvard Business School provided an exceptional opportunity to meet a diverse range of scholars from around the world to debate the most challenging issues of our time.
“The Business History Initiative encourages transformational research and course development on the history of capitalism that is impactful and relevant to scholars, educators, and practitioners worldwide. History provides rich and nuanced evidence on many key debates in the world today.”
Geoffrey Jones
Professor of Business History
Faculty Chair
“The Business History Initiative encourages transformational research and course development on the history of capitalism that is impactful and relevant to scholars, educators, and practitioners worldwide. History provides rich and nuanced evidence on many key debates in the world today.”
Geoffrey Jones
Professor of Business History
Faculty Chair

Faculty & Research 

Now at Harvard Business School: The South Sea Bubble, 1720: Narratives of the First International Crash

  • 17 Feb 2023
  • | 
  • Harvard Business School

A Higher Degree of Responsibility

By: Geoffrey Jones
  • 16 Feb 2023
  • | 
  • Harvard Magazine

Nestlé’s KitKat Diplomacy: Neutrality vs. Shared Value

Re: Geoffrey G. Jones
  • 17 Jan 2023
  • | 
  • Working Knowledge

Projects 

Historians at Harvard Business School engage in a number of multi-year projects that promote the research and teaching of history, that create new resources for future research, that reexamine the evolution of capitalism, and that bring case method teaching in the field of history to new audiences.
  • Creating Emerging Markets
  • The Medici Project
  • The Way to Wealth Project
  • Case Method Project

Courses 

Since 1927, Harvard Business School has been a pioneer in teaching business history. The Business History Initiative continues this tradition and seeks to facilitate and promote course development in business history globally.

News

2019-2021 Alfred and Fay Chandler Book Award

We are pleased to announce that Marcia Chatelain has won Business History Review's 2019-2021 Alfred and Fay Chandler Book Award for her book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. This award is given once every three years to the best book in the field of business history, published in the United States, as determined by a vote of the Editorial Advisory Board of Business History Review.

A review of Franchise can be found on BHR's Cambridge Core page.

Henrietta Larson Award

Adam Nix, Stephanie Decker, and Carola Wolf have won Business History Review's 2021 Henrietta Larson Award for their article, “Enron and the California Energy Crisis: The Role of Networks in Enabling Organizational Corruption.” This award is given each year to the authors of the best article published in BHR, as determined by a vote of the Editorial Advisory Board.

The article can be found on BHR's Cambridge Core page.

2023 Visting Scholars and Fellowship Recipients 

Kwelina Thompson

Cornell University, Harvard-Newcomen Fellow

Kwelina Thompson’s research centers on histories of political economy with a focus on technology, shifting policy regimes, and globalization. Her work highlights the role of business institutions in the shaping of global governance. Her current project traces the structural transformation of the banking, retail, and telecommunications industries and their influence on notions of state and corporate responsibility during the late twentieth century.

Kwelina Thompson’s research centers on histories of political economy with a focus on technology, shifting policy regimes, and globalization. Her work highlights the role of business institutions in the shaping of global governance. Her current project traces the structural transformation of the banking, retail, and telecommunications industries and their influence on notions of state and corporate responsibility during the late twentieth century.

Pierre-Yves Donzé

Osaka University, Thomas K. McCraw Fellow

Pierre-Yves Donzé's research will focus on the role of American philanthropists in the formation of modern hospitals in China between the 1880s and 1930s. In particular, this work will highlight the transfer from the United States of organizational and managerial knowledge related to healthcare.

Pierre-Yves Donzé's research will focus on the role of American philanthropists in the formation of modern hospitals in China between the 1880s and 1930s. In particular, this work will highlight the transfer from the United States of organizational and managerial knowledge related to healthcare.

Maki Umemura

Cardiff Business School, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. International Visiting Scholar

Maki Umemura is writing a global history of the business of regenerative medicine since the 1980s, which emerged from the Boston area. It follows the fluctuating fortunes in each of the subfields of tissue engineering, cell therapy, and gene therapy.

Maki Umemura is writing a global history of the business of regenerative medicine since the 1980s, which emerged from the Boston area. It follows the fluctuating fortunes in each of the subfields of tissue engineering, cell therapy, and gene therapy.

Arthur Rothier-Bautzer

University of Cambridge, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Fellow

Arthur Rothier-Bautzer is writing a history of commercial bank balance sheet management in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France in the second half of the 20th century. This includes banks' statistical modelling, subsidiary creation and their understanding of liquidity.

Arthur Rothier-Bautzer is writing a history of commercial bank balance sheet management in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France in the second half of the 20th century. This includes banks' statistical modelling, subsidiary creation and their understanding of liquidity.

Xialene Chang

Harvard University, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Fellow

Xialene Chang’s research traces the rise of Diversity Management in the U.S. from the perspective of Pauli Murray, Aileen Hernandez, and Elsie Cross – three Black women whose life’s work crucially informed Diversity Management’s trajectory but remain unacknowledged in existing historical accounts.

Xialene Chang’s research traces the rise of Diversity Management in the U.S. from the perspective of Pauli Murray, Aileen Hernandez, and Elsie Cross – three Black women whose life’s work crucially informed Diversity Management’s trajectory but remain unacknowledged in existing historical accounts.

Peter Charles Gibson

Nanjing University, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Fellow

Peter Gibson’s research will focus on historical links between American firms in China and Chinese American businesses. Using Baker Library’s collections of firm records, it will enhance understanding of both America–China trade and Chinese American history.

Peter Gibson’s research will focus on historical links between American firms in China and Chinese American businesses. Using Baker Library’s collections of firm records, it will enhance understanding of both America–China trade and Chinese American history.

Jeremy Goodwin

Cornell University, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Fellow

Jeremy Goodwin’s dissertation examines connections between small-scale entrepreneurship and economic development in American thought and politics, from the 1950s through the 1990s. He shows how entrepreneurial development programs fit into the broader arc of postwar conservatism and the rise of neoliberalism.

Jeremy Goodwin’s dissertation examines connections between small-scale entrepreneurship and economic development in American thought and politics, from the 1950s through the 1990s. He shows how entrepreneurial development programs fit into the broader arc of postwar conservatism and the rise of neoliberalism.

Minseok Jang

University of Albany, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Travel Fellow

Minseok Jang’s dissertation project, “Firing a Monopoly: How Kerosene Shaped Anti-monopoly against Standard Oil, 1859-1911,” examines the environmental and global contexts around kerosene and how this new energy resource for artificial illumination directed anti-monopoly politics against Standard Oil.

Minseok Jang’s dissertation project, “Firing a Monopoly: How Kerosene Shaped Anti-monopoly against Standard Oil, 1859-1911,” examines the environmental and global contexts around kerosene and how this new energy resource for artificial illumination directed anti-monopoly politics against Standard Oil.

 

Creating Emerging MarketsCreating Emerging Markets   

 

Fellowships 

The business history group awards four different fellowships and grants.

Events 

See our latest and past conferences, seminars, and workshops.
  • Business History Review

  • Harvard Studies in Business History

  • Baker Library

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