Business History

Business History is a featured research topic and an initiative at Harvard Business School.
 
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.

Featured Works

 

  1. Article | Strategic Management Journal

    History-informed Strategy Research: The Promise of History and Historical Research Methods in Advancing Strategy Scholarship

    Nicholas Argyres, Alfredo De Massis, Nicolai J. Foss, Federico Frattini, Geoffrey Jones and Brian Silverman

    Recent years have seen an increasing interest in the use of history and historical research methods in strategy research. This article discusses how and why history and historical research methods can enrich theoretical explanations of strategy phenomena. The article also introduces the notions of "history-informed strategy research" distinguishing between the dimensions of "history to theory" and "history in theory" and discussing under-utilized methods that may further work on history-informed strategy research. The article discusses how contemporary research contributes to history-informed research within the strategy field, examines key methodological and empirical challenges associated with such research, and develops an agenda for future research.

    Keywords: methodology; Strategy; Business History; Research; History;

    Citation:

    Argyres, Nicholas, Alfredo De Massis, Nicolai J. Foss, Federico Frattini, Geoffrey Jones, and Brian Silverman. "History-informed Strategy Research: The Promise of History and Historical Research Methods in Advancing Strategy Scholarship." Strategic Management Journal 41, no. 3 (March 2020): 343–368.  View Details
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  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2020

    The Origins of Bell Labs

    Tom Nicholas and John Masko

    In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor—a tiny signal amplifier which would go on to become the fundamental building block of the digital age. But, confounding most traditional economic assumptions, it was not a vigorous startup that made this momentous discovery, but the R&D lab of the America’s telecommunications monopoly, AT&T. This case explores the early years of U.S. telephone history and its years of negotiation between monopolists, independent competitors, and regulators; raises questions of whether telecommunications really are a “natural monopoly;” explores the incentives that lead firms to innovate; and traces the story of how AT&T came to become one of the foremost innovation engines of the 20th century.

    Keywords: Business History; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Patents; Monopoly; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Telecommunications Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; New York (city, NY);

    Citation:

    Nicholas, Tom, and John Masko. "The Origins of Bell Labs." Harvard Business School Case 820-081, January 2020.  View Details
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  3. Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2019 (Revised December 2019)

    The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (A)

    Lynn S. Paine and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

    The Dutch East India Company’s board of directors must decide what to do about an impending legal requirement to liquidate the company’s assets and return to shareholders their capital and any profits earned during a ten-year lock up period. The charter granted to the company in 1602 by the Dutch Estates General (legislature) required the liquidation and accounting to shareholders after the initial ten-year period and again at the end of a second ten-year period. However, the company’s directors believe that more time is needed to reap the benefits of shareholders’ initial investments and that liquidating the company’s assets after the initial ten-year lock-up would make it impossible to raise capital for the second ten-year term. The case describes the origins of the Dutch East India Company, the world’s first publicly-traded multinational company, and traces key aspects of the company’s governance and development during its first ten years, including the emergence of disagreement among shareholders about corporate strategy and dividend policy.

    Keywords: Corporate Governance; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Laws and Statutes; Financial Markets; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business History; Shipping Industry; Netherlands;

    Citation:

    Paine, Lynn S., and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci. "The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (A)." Harvard Business School Case 320-047, December 2019. (Revised December 2019.)  View Details
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  4. Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2019 (Revised January 2020)

    Russia: A Drama In Three Acts

    Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein and Sogomon Tarontsi

    The collapse of central authority in the Soviet Union in 1991 ushered in a period of revolutionary transformations for the states that emerged in its wake. The leaders of Russia, the USSR's successor, struggled to reestablish central authority while also seeking to avoid further disintegration, establish a democratic polity, and institute a market economy across the next several years. Russia would navigate further economic crisis and a swiftly evolving geopolitical order as it returned to the world stage. The case examines the different governance approaches adopted by Presidents Boris Yeltsin, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, and concludes with a discussion of Russia’s strategic challenges and opportunities in 2020. The case focuses on problems of state authority; fiscal capacity; institutionalization of political parties; relations between the federal center and provincial governments; relations between the state and big business; economic policy; international relations; and models of economic development.

    Keywords: Business ＆ government relations; developing countries; government policy; policy change; Policy Making; Economic Systems; Economics; Globalization; Emerging Markets; Privatization; Non-Renewable Energy; Governance; Global Strategy; Corporate Governance; Policy; Business History; Lawfulness; Problems and Challenges; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Strategy; Change Management; Russia; Moscow;

    Citation:

    Abdelal, Rawi, Rafael Di Tella, Galit Goldstein, and Sogomon Tarontsi. "Russia: A Drama In Three Acts." Harvard Business School Case 720-020, November 2019. (Revised January 2020.)  View Details
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  5. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

    Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 17 The Wintel Standards-based Platform

    Carliss Y. Baldwin

    The purpose of this chapter is to use the theory of bottlenecks laid out in previous chapters to better understand the dynamics of an open standards-based platform. I describe how the Wintel platform evolved from 1990 through 2000 under joint sponsorship of Intel and Microsoft. I first describe a series of technical bottlenecks that arose in the early 1990s concerning the “bus architecture” of IBM-compatible PCs. Intel’s management of buses demonstrates how, under conditions of distributed supermodular complementarity, a platform sponsor can reconfigure the modular structure of a technical system, property rights within the system, and its own zone of authority to increase system-wide throughput, while protecting its own strategic bottleneck from disintermediation. I go on to describe how Microsoft used platform envelopment to establish a second strategic bottleneck in productivity software and later to respond to the threat of disintermediation from platform-independent internet browsers. I end the chapter by discussing the conditions under which shared platform sponsorship can be a long-term dynamic equilibrium.

    Keywords: open platforms; bottlenecks; Wintel platform; disintermediation; Hardware; Software; Business History; Computer Industry;

    Citation:

    Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 17 The Wintel Standards-based Platform." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-055, November 2019.  View Details
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  6. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

    Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?

    Valeria Giacomin, G. Jones and Erica Salvaj

    This working paper examines why a significant number of businesses have made non-profit investments in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from an oral history database at the Harvard Business School, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such leaders invested in education as a non-profit activity. Three different types of motivations behind such high levels of engagement with education are identified: values driven, context focused, and firm focused. It also identifies significant regional variations in terms of investment execution, structure, and impact. In South and Southeast Asia, there was a preference for long-term investment in primary and secondary education. In Africa and Latin America, some initiatives sometimes had a shorter-term connotation, but with high-profile projects in partnerships with international organizations and foreign universities. In Turkey, there was heavy focus on training and the creation of universities. The working paper concludes by examining the impact of this investment, comparing Chile and India especially. It discusses issues such as the paucity of financial data and the challenges of comparing different types of educational spending, which make robust conclusions hard, but does suggest that although such spending did not resolve major educational roadblocks across Africa, Asia and Latin America, it represented a positive overall social gain.

    Keywords: philanthropy; CSR; oral history; Emerging Markets; Education; Reputation; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business History;

    Citation:

    Giacomin, Valeria, G. Jones, and Erica Salvaj. "Why Does Business Invest in Education in Emerging Markets? Why Does It Matter?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-039, October 2019.  View Details
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  7. Book | 2019

    Business, Ethics and Institutions: The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in Global Perspectives

    Asli M. Colpan and G. Jones

    This book is the first systematic scholarly study on the business history of Turkey and its predecessor the Ottoman Empire from the nineteenth century until the present. It places the distinctive characteristics of capitalism in Turkey within a global and comparative perspective, addressing three related issues. First, it examines the institutional context that shaped capitalist development in Turkey. Second, it focuses on the corporate actors, entrepreneurs, and business enterprises that have led national economic growth. Third, it explores the ethical foundations and social responsibility of business enterprises in Turkey.

    Keywords: Capitalism; corruption; Business History; Ethics; Economic Systems; Crime and Corruption; Middle East; Central Asia; Turkey;

    Citation:

    Colpan, Asli M., and G. Jones, eds. Business, Ethics and Institutions: The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in Global Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2019.  View Details
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  8. Chapter | Business, Ethics and Institutions | 2019

    Business, Ethics and Institutions. The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in a Comparative Perspective

    Asli M. Colpan and G. Jones

    This chapter offers a survey of the evolution of Turkish capitalism from the 19th century Ottoman Empire until the present day. It shows that Turkish business over the last century and a half was shaped in an institutional context similar to those in many developing countries. The country missed out on the first wave of modern industrialization during the Ottoman era and developed in a somewhat skewed way, with minority religious and ethnic groups dominating business, in part because of policies imposed by the Western powers. As in many developing countries, business in the Ottoman Empire faced the daunting task of catching up with the developed West. Unlike most other countries, however, the elimination of entrepreneurial minority groups, including Armenians and Greeks, greatly complicated the task and gave it distinct characteristics. At the center of this distinctiveness was the role of the government in the early Turkish Republic, which pursued a nationalistic and secular agenda in a Muslim country. Turkish business (in contrast to, say, that of India) grew in an insular fashion, largely unable to develop strong international competitive advantages compared to some of its South Asian and Latin American counterparts. Turkey’s business groups were, as elsewhere, a response to institutional voids and the importance of contact capabilities, but even the best of them remained primarily focused on the domestic market and mostly functioned as licensors of foreign technologies rather than as drivers of innovation. The last three decades have seen a remarkable development as long-established business groups faced a new set of challenges from the provincial towns of Anatolia, which are characterized by their religious beliefs and links to political Islam. They created their own associations and utilized institutions that have roots in traditional Islamic and Ottoman history, such as the vakif, to raise capital. Strikingly, this sector of the business community appears more resilient and responsive to the global economy than does its secular counterparts. Anatolian capitalism has thus become a source of renewal and growth for the Turkish economy, albeit one in which persistent problems of corruption and rent-seeking have appeared in new forms.

    Keywords: business groups; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Government and Politics; History; Religion; Business History; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East;

    Citation:

    Colpan, Asli M., and G. Jones. "Business, Ethics and Institutions. The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in a Comparative Perspective." Chap. 1 in Business, Ethics and Institutions: The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in Global Perspectives, edited by Asli M. Colpan and G. Jones, 3–22. New York: Routledge, 2019.  View Details
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  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019

    Keroche (A): Fighting for Share in the Kenyan Alcoholic Drinks Market

    Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Pippa Tubman Armerding

    This case discusses the challenges faced by Kenyan alcoholic drinks producer Keroche Industries Limited in 2003, when the Kenyan government accused the company of manufacturing and selling substandard alcoholic drinks, revoked its liquor licenses, and shut down its manufacturing facility. At the same time, the multinational East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL) was planning to enter the same low-income market as Keroche. The husband and wife duo Tabitha and Joseph Karanja had founded Keroche in 1997 with the aim of providing Kenya’s low-income consumers with a cheap and safe alcoholic drink alternative, since these consumers frequently turned to unregulated, informally brewed alcohol that could blind or even kill those who drank it. However, the government was now claiming that Keroche, too, produced substandard drinks. Tabitha Karanja was convinced that EABL was behind these government attacks. The case describes the history of Keroche and EABL, and asks what Tabitha Karanja might do now to combat the allegations of the government and respond to the factory closing.

    Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Small Business; Family Business; Crime and Corruption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Income; Demographics; Geographic Scope; Geographic Location; Goods and Commodities; Government Legislation; Growth and Development; Business History; Lawsuits and Litigation; Laws and Statutes; Lawfulness; Goals and Objectives; Consumer Behavior; Market Entry and Exit; Problems and Challenges; Safety; Social Issues; Poverty; Strategy; Competition; Entrepreneurship; Manufacturing Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Kenya; Nairobi; Africa;

    Citation:

    Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Pippa Tubman Armerding. "Keroche (A): Fighting for Share in the Kenyan Alcoholic Drinks Market." Harvard Business School Case 720-390, September 2019.  View Details
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  10. Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2019

    Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 9 Organizing to Rationalize

    Carliss Y. Baldwin

    The purpose of this chapter is to explain what the technologies of flow production with stochastic bottlenecks require and reward in organizations. I argue that organizations successfully implementing these technologies are likely to have unified governance and exercise direct authority over process design, job definitions, and task assignments. As they come to employ more people, they will create hierarchical management structures as a means of managing information flows and delegating decision rights. Finally from the early 20th Century through the present, most of these organizations saw advantage in being legally organized as corporations, which could own assets, enter into contracts, and employ individuals in their own right. The result was a “paradigm” of mass production—a cluster of concepts that came to define both “big business” and “high technology” in the United States and elsewhere. Throughout the middle years of the 20th Century, many members of society took for granted the fact that successful businesses using advanced technology would be organized as large, vertically integrated corporations, exercise direct authority, and use managerial hierarchies to channel information and delegate responsibility.

    Keywords: Technology; Organizational Design; Management Teams; Business History;

    Citation:

    Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 9 Organizing to Rationalize." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-033, September 2019.  View Details
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    11.  
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Initiatives & Projects

  • Business History

    The Business History Initiative seeks to facilitate learning from the past through innovative research and course development, employing global and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Faculty

HBS Working Knowledge

Pic
re Geoffrey G. Jones
Geoffrey Jones discusses his case study, "Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany," exploring the options and responsibilities of multinationals with investments in politically reprehensible regimes.
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re Geoffrey G. Jones
The business history of modern Turkey has been largely hidden from view, but a new book edited by Geoffrey Jones and Asli M. Colpan pulls back the covers.
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re Geoffrey G. Jones
Drawing on 110 interviews with business leaders as part of the Creating Emerging Markets project at Harvard Business School, this paper represents the first systematic attempt to identify and compare

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Harvard Business Publishing

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by John R. Wells, Carole A. Winkler and Benjamin Weinstock

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