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. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised September 2019)

    Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

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

    In August 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The first major storm of protest followed the surprise election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016; many put the blame at the door of fake news stories served up on Facebook’s Trending News Feed. Zuckerberg dismissed these claims as “crazy,” asserting that Facebook was a technology company, not a media company. In 2017, it was revealed that a Russian intelligence team had purchased 3,000 political ads on Facebook in an attempt to influence the 2016 US Presidential Election. Then, in March 2018, the public learned that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, had used 87 million Facebook profiles obtained from scraping the site to affect the election. As a result, Zuckerberg was called to Congress to testify. In early 2019, Facebook announced the company was to merge its Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp platforms and share data, but that this data would be more secure. The claim was greeted with much skepticism. To explain the move, Zuckerberg published a blog post, changing the company’s mission from making the world more open to achieving privacy-focused communications on its platform. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to struggle with fake news while expanding its service offering. In June 2019, it announced it was to launch Libra, a new global cryptocurrency for its 2.5 billion users around the world. In early September 2019, it launched Facebook Dating, which promised “[to help] you start meaningful relationships through things you have in common, like interests, events and groups.” That same month, Facebook announced that it bought a New York-based start-up called CTRL-labs, which was working on developing a wristband that allowed people to control their electronic devices with brain signals. There was little doubt of the scale of Zuckerberg’s ambitions. But, ongoing investigations into Facebook’s privacy violations and calls to break up the company pointed to more fundamental issues.

    Keywords: Facebook; fake news; Mark Zuckerberg; Donald Trump; algorithms; social networks; partisanship; social media; app development; Instagram; WhatsApp; smartphone; Silicon Valley; office space; digital strategy; democracy; entry barriers; online platforms; controversy; Tencent; Agility; social networking; gaming; gaming industry; computer games; mobile gaming; messaging; monetization strategy; Advertising; Online Advertising; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Headquarters; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Trends; Communication; Communication Technology; Forms of Communication; Interactive Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Crime and Corruption; Voting; Demographics; Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Initial Public Offering; Profit; Revenue; Geography; Geographic Location; Global Range; Local Range; Country; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Political Elections; Business History; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Information Management; Information Publishing; News; Newspapers; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Dissemination; Human Capital; Law; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Management Systems; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Marketing Channels; Social Marketing; Network Effects; Market Entry and Exit; Market Platforms; Two-Sided Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Monopoly; Media; Product Development; Service Delivery; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Groups and Teams; Networks; Rank and Position; Opportunities; Behavior; Emotions; Identity; Power and Influence; Prejudice and Bias; Reputation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Status and Position; Trust; Society; Civil Society or Community; Culture; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Societal Protocols; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet; Mobile Technology; Online Technology; Software; Technology Networks; Technology Platform; Web; Web Sites; Wireless Technology; Valuation; Advertising Industry; Communications Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; California; Sunnyvale; Russia;

    Citation:

    Wells, John R., Carole A. Winkler, and Benjamin Weinstock. "Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World." Harvard Business School Case 720-373, September 2019. (Revised September 2019.)  View Details
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  6. Article | Business History Review | Summer 2019

    Breaking Even: Political Economy and Private Enterprise in the Norwegian Glass Industry, 1739-1803

    Rolv Petter Amdam, Robert Fredona and Sophus A. Reinert

    Using internal debates and surviving account books, this article traces the 18th-century history of the Norwegian glass industry, created to exploit Norway's immense natural resource wealth, and of the chartered company that would later become Norway's iconic Christiania Glasmagasin. The investors in the company, many of them among Norway's “founding fathers,” were individually responsible for its losses and it operated, remarkably, at an annual loss for nearly five decades. The article asks why, beyond the anticipation of a royal import ban on foreign glass, private investors might have continued to accept such losses. It focuses on tensions between cameralist and liberal ideologies in the creation of an important national industry and on older (and perhaps more sustainable) ways of thinking about profitability.

    Keywords: glass industry; natural resources; profitability; political economy; cameralism; liberalization; patriotism; Profit; Natural Environment; Business History; Norway;

    Citation:

    Amdam, Rolv Petter, Robert Fredona, and Sophus A. Reinert. "Breaking Even: Political Economy and Private Enterprise in the Norwegian Glass Industry, 1739-1803." Business History Review 93, no. 2 (Summer 2019): 275–317.  View Details
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  7. Chapter | The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business | 2019

    Origins and Development of Global Business

    G. Jones

    This chapter explores how business enterprises have been powerful actors in the spread of global capitalism between 1840 and the present day. Emerging out of the industrialized Western economies, global firms created and co-created markets and ecosystems through their ability to transfer a package of financial, organizational, and cultural assets, skills, and ideologies across national borders. They have been major drivers of trade growth, which they often organized within their own boundaries. They have been shapers of, as well as responders to, globalization waves. They were also actors in periodic de-globalization waves, mainly because they functioned as reinforcers of gaps in wealth and income rather than disrupters of them. They were disappointing institutions for knowledge and technology transfer. In recent decades, the domination of global markets by Western and Japanese firms have shifted to a situation in which they competed as equals with firms based in China, India, the Arab Gulf, and elsewhere in the non-Western world. This trend is likely to accelerate as the growing fragility of institutional structures in the United States and the European Union further weakens the competitiveness of firms based in those regions.

    Keywords: global business; multinational; Globalization; Business History; Strategy; Africa; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America; Oceania;

    Citation:

    Jones, G. "Origins and Development of Global Business." Chap. 2 in The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business, edited by Teresa da Silva Lopes, Christina Lubinski, and Heidi J.S. Tworek, 17–34. New York: Routledge, 2019.  View Details
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  8. Chapter | The Oxford Handbook of Management in Emerging Markets | 2019

    International Business and Emerging Markets in Historical Perspective

    G. Jones

    This chapter examines international business in emerging markets over the long run. It shows how the strategies of Western multinationals evolved over time. In the first era of globalization in the 19th century, Western firms sought access to resources, and they faced little political risk due to Western imperialism. The main risks were logistical due to infrastructure and technological inadequacies. During the Great Reversal between 1929 and 1979, the main challenges faced by Western multinationals were political, as they faced widespread host government hostility and expropriation. In the contemporary global economy, political risk partially declined with the spread of liberalization, although the management of relations with host governments remained a challenge, notably in China. The growth of local competitors and a resurgence in local consumer sensitivities obliged multinationals to incorporate local relevance into global brands.

    Keywords: Emerging Markets; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalization;

    Citation:

    Jones, G. "International Business and Emerging Markets in Historical Perspective." Chap. 3 in The Oxford Handbook of Management in Emerging Markets, edited by Robert Grosse and Klaus E. Meyer, 55–76. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2019.  View Details
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  9. Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2019 (Revised April 2019)

    Electric Car Wars, 2018

    John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

    Electric cars had long been championed by environmentalists as a superior solution to the internal combustion engine (ICE), but, despite large government incentives and strong pioneering efforts by a few automakers over the years, electric and hybrid cars and light trucks still accounted for less than 1% of total global production in 2016. However, events took a turn in 2017 and 2018, when many governments committed to banning ICE vehicles. In response, leading automakers announced plans to launch hundreds of electric vehicle models within five years. Early pioneer Tesla, which, in 2017, had built a stock market valuation exceeding that of General Motors (GM), despite only delivering 103,000 cars compared to GM’s 9 million, looked as if it were about to be engulfed by this new competition. But not all were convinced that electric cars would soon displace conventional ICE vehicles. It was not clear that the infrastructure was in place to charge all these electric vehicles. There were also questions concerning the electrical generating capacity to meet the new demand. Would battery prices fall enough to make mass-market demand a possibility? In low gasoline cost jurisdictions, such as the United States, the economics of owning an electric vehicle didn’t appear justified, unless subsidies were maintained indefinitely. In Europe, where gasoline taxes were high, the case for electric vehicles was stronger. But European governments depended on those taxes to meet their budget needs. Would a significant uptake of electric vehicles necessitate higher taxes on electricity? In 2018, electric cars were an expensive novelty for the rich subsidized by the poor. Would the sudden rush of new models change the balance?

    Keywords: electric vehicle; electric vehicles; Electricity; electric motors; Electric Power Generation; electricity usage; electricity distribution; Internal Combustion Vehicle; auto manufacturing; Automobile Manufacturing; automotive industry; Tesla; General Motors; history; Nissan; innovation; batteries; Battery; subsidies; Government initiatives; government incentives; political issues; Energy Generation; Production; Infrastructure; Innovation and Invention; Government Legislation; Global Range; Business History; Auto Industry; China;

    Citation:

    Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "Electric Car Wars, 2018." Harvard Business School Case 719-470, February 2019. (Revised April 2019.)  View Details
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  10. Article | Enterprise & Society

    Oral History and the Business History of Emerging Markets

    G. Jones and R. Comunale

    This article highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of creating and making accessible corporate archives in most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It also permits a level of nuance that is hard to obtain even if written archives are accessible. Oral histories provide insights into why events did not occur as well as why companies have chosen certain industries over others. Oral history can also shed light on hypersensitive topics, such corruption, which are rarely formally documented.

    Keywords: oral history; corruption; Business History; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Business and Government Relations; Government and Politics; Asia; Africa; Latin America;

    Citation:

    Jones, G., and R. Comunale. "Oral History and the Business History of Emerging Markets." Enterprise & Society 20, no. 1 (March 2019): 19–32.  View Details
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  • Business History

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

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HBS Working Knowledge

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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
The second Great Migration (1940–1970) brought to the US North and West more than four million African Americans. We show that this unique episode of internal migration contributed to the development
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re Geoffrey G. Jones
Geoffrey Jones discusses the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954 in a US-backed coup supporting United Fruit Company and a key landmark in the history of globalization.

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

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