Business History
Business History
Harvard Business School has a long tradition of investing in business history, and of asserting its central role in management education. In 1927, the School created the first endowed professorship in the field. It also founded the field’s first journal, the Business History Review. Since the work of Joseph Schumpeter at Harvard's Center for Entrepreneurial History in the 1940s, the School has taken an interdisciplinary and global approach to understanding business history. Today business historians at the School investigate a broad range of themes, including entrepreneurship, innovation, globalization, and environmental sustainability.
Business History Initiative
The Business History Initiative seeks to facilitate learning from the past through innovative research and course development, employing global and interdisciplinary perspectives.
Business HistoryRecent Publications
(Un)principled Agents: Monitoring Loyalty after the End of the Royal African Company Monopoly
- Summer 2023 |
- Article |
- Business History Review
LALIGA—From a Soccer Competition Organizer to a Global Player in the Sports and Entertainment Industry
- 2023 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Deep Responsibility and Irresponsibility in the Beauty Industry
- July 2023 |
- Article |
- Entreprises et histoire
Point Four and the Politics of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States during the Early Cold War
- 2023 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Lima, Peru
- June 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Deeply Responsible Business: A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership
- 2023 |
- Book |
- Faculty Research
The business leaders profiled in this book were motivated by bedrock values and sometimes driven by faith. They chose to operate in socially productive fields, interacted with humility with stakeholders, and felt a duty to support their communities. While far from perfect, each one showed that profit and purpose could be reconciled. Many of their businesses were wildly successful―though financial success was not their only metric of achievement. As many companies seek to coopt more ethically sensitized consumers, Jones gives us a new perspective to tackle tough questions and envisions a future in which companies and entrepreneurs can play a key role in healing our communities and protecting the natural world.
Doing Business in Kigali, Rwanda
- March 2023 (Revised June 2023) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- February 2023 (Revised June 2023) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Boston, Massachusetts
- February 2023 (Revised June 2023) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Accra, Ghana
- February 2023 (Revised June 2023) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research