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Business history is a historiographical field which examines the history of firms,
business method A business process, business method or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a parti ...
s, government
regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...
and the effects of business on society. It also includes
biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
of individual firms, executives, and
entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
s. It is related to
economic history Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and i ...
. It is distinct from "company history" which refers to
official histories An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
, usually funded by the company itself.


United States


Robber baron debate

Even before academic studies began, Americans were enthralled by the Robber baron debate. As the United States industrialized very rapidly after the Civil War, a few hundred prominent men made large fortunes by building and controlling major industries, such as railroads, shipping, steel, mining and banking. Yet the newer who gathered the most attention was railroader
Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
. Historian Stephen Frazier argues that probably most Americans admired Vanderbilt; they agreed with biographer William Augustus Croffut who wrote in 1886: :It is now known that the desire to own property is the chief difference between the Savage and the enlightened man; that aggregations of money in the hands of individuals are in inestimable blessing to Society, for without them there could be no public improvements or private enterprises, no railroads or steamships, or telegraphs; no cities, the leisure class, no schools, colleges, literature, art – in short, no civilization. The one man to whom the community owes most is the capitalist, that the menu gives, but the man who saves and invests, so that his property reproduces and multiplies itself instead of being consumed. However, Fraser goes on, there was a minority who vehemently dissented: :A minority were irate and excoriated the titans of finance and industry as 'robber barons' and worse. E.L. Godkin, founder of ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', launched a volley of invective at the new plutocracy: 'kings of the street' like Vanderbilt displayed 'unmitigated and immitigable selfishness' as appalling as their 'audacity, push, unscrupulousness and brazen disregard of others' rights'. By the Great Depression of the 1930s, Fraser continues: :Biographies of Mellon, Carnegie and Rockefeller were often laced with moral censure, warning that 'tories of industry' were a threat to democracy and that parasitism, aristocratic pretension and tyranny have always trailed in the wake of concentrated wealth, whether accumulated dynastically or more impersonally by the faceless corporation. This scholarship, and the cultural persuasion of which it was an expression, drew on a deeply rooted sensibility–partly religious, partly egalitarian and democratic–that stretched back to William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Jackson and Tom Paine. However a counterattack by academic historians began as the Depression ended. Business historian
Allan Nevins Joseph Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 – March 5, 1971) was an American historian and journalist, known for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and J ...
challenged this view of big businessmen by advocating the "Industrial Statesman" thesis. Nevins, in his ''John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise'' (2 vols., 1940), took on Josephson. He argued that while Rockefeller may have engaged in some unethical and illegal business practices, this should not overshadow his bringing order to industrial chaos of the day.
Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...
capitalists, according to Nevins, sought to impose order and stability on competitive business, and that their work made the United States the foremost economy by the 20th century. Business journalist
Ferdinand Lundberg Ferdinand Lundberg (April 30, 1902 – March 1, 1995) was an American journalist and historian known for his frequent and potent criticism of American financial and political institutions. His work has been credited as an influence on Robert Caro ...
later criticized Nevins for confusing readers. By contrast, historian Priscilla Roberts argues that Nevins' studies of inventors and businessmen brought about a reassessment of American industrialization and its leaders. She writes: :Nevins argued that economic development in the United States caused relatively little human suffering, while raising the general standard of living and making the United States the great industrial power capable of defeating Germany in both world wars. The great capitalists of that period should, he argued, be viewed, not as 'robber barons', but as men whose economic self-interest had played an essentially positive role in American history, and who had done nothing criminal by the standards of their time. Historians have followed Nevins' lead in writing biographies of the major industrialists of the
Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...
. These include: * David Cannadine, '' Mellon: An American Life'' ( New York:
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, 2006) *
Ron Chernow Ronald Chernow (; born March 3, 1949) is an American writer, journalist and biographer. He has written bestselling historical non-fiction biographies. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American History Book Prize for hi ...
, '' The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance'' ( New York:
Atlantic Monthly Press Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "A ...
, 1990) *
Ron Chernow Ronald Chernow (; born March 3, 1949) is an American writer, journalist and biographer. He has written bestselling historical non-fiction biographies. He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American History Book Prize for hi ...
, ''Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.'' ( New York:
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2007) * George Harvey, ''Henry Clay Frick: The Man'' (
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
: Beard Books, 2002) * David Nasaw, ''
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
'' ( New York: Penguin Press, 2006) * T. J. Stiles, '' The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt'' ( New York:
Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, 2009) * Jean Strouse, ''Morgan: American Financier'' ( New York:
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 1999) Though these later biographers did not confer heroic status on their subjects, they used historical and biographical investigations to establish a more complex understanding of the American past, and the history of American economic development in particular. In 1958 historian Hal Bridges finds that "The most vehement and persistent controversy in business history has been that waged by the critics and defenders of the 'robber baron' concept of the American businessman." In terms of the Robber Baron model, by the end of the 20th-century scholars had mostly discarded it although it remained influential in the popular culture. Richard White, historian of the transcontinental railroads, stated in 2011 he has no use for the concept because it had been killed off by historians Robert H. Wiebe and Alfred Chandler. He notes that "Much of the modern history of corporations is a reaction against the Robber Barons and fictions."


Academic studies

Meanwhile, business history as an academic discipline was founded by Professor N. S. B. Gras at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration, starting in 1927. He defined the field's subject matter and approach, wrote the first general treatise in the field, and helped Harvard build a tradition of scholarship as well as the leading library in the field. He edited a series of monographs, the Harvard Studies in Business History. He also served as editor of the ''Bulletin of the Business Historical Society'' (1926–1953), a journal which later became the ''
Business History Review The ''Business History Review'' is a scholarly quarterly published by Cambridge University Press for Harvard Business School. ''Business History Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of business history. It was establish ...
'' (1954-date). N.S.B. Grass and Henrietta M. Larson, ''Casebook in American business history'' (1939) defined the field for a generation. Business history in the U.S. took off in the 1960s with a high volume of products and innovative methodologies. Scholars worked to develop theoretical explanations of the growth of the business enterprise, the study of strategy and structure by Alfred Chandler being a prime example. The relationship between business and the federal government became a focal point of the study. On the whole, the 1960s affirmed the conclusions of the earlier decades regarding the close interrelationship between government and business enterprise.


Ranking entrepreneurs and management theorists

A 2002 survey of 58 business history professors gave the top spot in the history of American business entrepreneurs to
Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...
, followed by
Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...
;
John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
;
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
, and
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...
. Also included were
Sam Walton Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's ...
;
J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
; Alfred P. Sloan;
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
;
Ray Kroc Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turnin ...
;
Thomas J. Watson Thomas John Watson Sr. (February 17, 1874 – June 19, 1956) was an American businessman who served as the chairman and CEO of IBM. He oversaw the company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM's manageme ...
; Alexander Graham Bell; Eli Whitney;
James J. Hill James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railroad director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwes ...
;
Jack Welch John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive, chemical engineer, and writer. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001. When Welch retired from GE, he receive ...
;
Cyrus McCormick Cyrus Hall McCormick (February 15, 1809 – May 13, 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Originally from the ...
;
David Packard David Packard ( ; September 7, 1912 – March 26, 1996) was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board (1964–68 ...
;
Bill Hewlett William Redington Hewlett ( ; May 20, 1913 – January 12, 2001) was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). Early life and education Hewlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his ...
;
Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...
; and
George Westinghouse George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age ...
. A 1977 survey of management scholars reported the top five pioneers in management ideas were:
Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up ...
;
Chester Barnard Chester Irving Barnard (November 7, 1886 – June 7, 1961) was an American business executive, public administrator, and the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies. His landmark 1938 book, ''The Functions of the ...
;
Frank Bunker Gilbreth Frank Bunker Gilbreth (July 7, 1868 – June 14, 1924) was an American engineer, consultant, and author known as an early advocate of scientific management and a pioneer of time and motion study, and is perhaps best known as the father and c ...
;
Elton Mayo George Elton Mayo (26 December 1880 – 7 September 1949) was an Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist.Cullen, David O'Donald. ''A new way of statecraft: The career of Elton Mayo and the development ...
; and
Lillian Moller Gilbreth Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (; May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist, industrial engineer, consultant, and educator who was an early pioneer in applying psychology to time-and-motion studies. She was described in the 1940s ...
. An emphasis on
expertise An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable s ...
can be seen as defining an era of management work, shown in the works of Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard,
Mary Parker Follett Mary Parker Follett (3 September 1868 – 18 December 1933) was an American social worker, management consultant, philosopher and pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior. Along with Lillian Gilbreth, she was one ...
, Max Weber, Chris Argyris, and
Peter Drucker Peter Ferdinand Drucker (; ; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business co ...
. Drucker introduced the term "
knowledge work Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge. Examples include programmers, physicians, pharmacists, architects, engineers, scientists, design thinkers, public accountants, lawyers, editors, and academics, whose job is to "thin ...
" in 1959 and has been described as "the founder of modern management".


Chandler

After 1960 the most influential scholar was Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (1918-2007) at the Harvard Business School. In a career that spanned over sixty years, Chandler produced numerous groundbreaking monographs, articles, and reviews. Intensely focused on only a few areas of the discipline, Chandler nonetheless succeeded in establishing and developing an entirely new realm of business history. Chandler's masterwork was ''The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business'' (1977). His first two chapters looked at traditional owner-operated small business operations in commerce and production, including the largest among them, the slave plantations in the South. Chapters 3-5 summarize the history of railroad management, with stress on innovations not just in technology but also in accounting, finance and statistics. He then turned to the new business operations made possible by the rail system in mass distribution, such as jobbers, department stores and mail order. A quick survey (ch 8) review mass innovation in mass production. The integration of mass distribution and mass production (ch 9-11) led to many mergers and the emergence of giant industrial corporations by 1900. Management for Chandler was much more than the CEO, it was the whole system of techniques and included middle management (ch 11) as well as the corporate structure of the biggest firms, Standard Oil, General Electric, US Steel, and DuPont (ch 13–14). Chandler argued that modern large-scale firms arose to take advantage of the national markets and productive techniques available after the rail network was in place. He found that they prospered because they had higher productivity, lower costs, and higher profits. The firms created the "managerial class" in America because they needed to coordinate the increasingly complex and interdependent system. This ability to achieve efficiency through coordination, not some anti-competitive monopolistic greed by robber barons, explained the high levels of concentration in modern American industry. Chandler's work was somewhat ignored in history departments, but proved influential in business, economics, and sociology departments. In sociology, for example, prior to Chandler's research, sociologists assumed there were no differences between governmental, corporate, and nonprofit organizations. Chandler's focus on corporations clearly demonstrated that there were differences, and this thesis has guided organizational sociologists' work since the 1970s. It also motivated sociologists to investigate and critique Chandler's work more closely, turning up instances in which Chandler assumed American corporations acted for reasons of efficiency when they actually operated in a context of politics or conflict. Other historians, such as
Gabriel Kolko Gabriel Morris Kolko (August 17, 1932 – May 19, 2014) was an American historian. His research interests included American capitalism and political history, the Progressive Era, and U.S. foreign policy in the 20th century. One of the best-known ...
, challenged the very notion of "efficiency through coordination", arguing instead that
big business Big business involves large-scale corporate-controlled financial or business activities. As a term, it describes activities that run from "huge transactions" to the more general "doing big things". In corporate jargon, the concept is commonly ...
had, for reasons of inefficiency and a dislike of market discipline, openly sought government assistance to keep market forces at bay.


Other mechanisms

Lamoreaux ''et al.'' (2003) offers a new synthesis of American business history during the 19th-20th centuries. Moving beyond the markets-versus-hierarchies framework that underlies the previously dominant interpretation of Chandler, the authors highlight the great variety of coordination mechanisms in use in the economy at any given time. Drawing on late-20th-century theoretical work in economics, they show how the relative advantages and disadvantages of these different mechanisms have shifted in complex and often unpredictable ways as a result of changing economic circumstances. One advantage of this perspective is that it avoids the teleology that has characterized so much writing in the field. As a result, the authors can situate the "New Economy" of the late 20th century in broad historical context without succumbing to the temptation to view it as a climactic stage in the process of economic development. They thus provide a particularly persuasive example of the importance of business history to the understanding of national and international history. A number of sources address the history of business management as it has developed as a profession. ''From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession'' (2007) by Rakesh Khurana traces the rise and development of American management as a profession and argues that its promise has been unfulfilled. A key event was the publication of th
Gordon-Howell report
''Higher Education for Business'' (1959), by economists
Robert Aaron Gordon Robert Aaron Gordon (born Aaron Goldstein; July 26, 1908 – April 7, 1978) was an American economist. He was a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley from 1938 to 1976. In 1975, he served as president of the American E ...
and James Edwin Howell. Funded by the
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, the report gave detailed recommendations for treating management as a science and improving the academic quality of business schools. Another influential report, that same year, was ''The Education Of American Businessmen: A Study Of University-College Programs In Business Administration'' (1959) by Frank Cook Pierson. The next thirty years are sometimes referred to as a “Golden Age” in which quantitative social science research became an established part of business schools. By the 1990s, however, there was a gap between theory-oriented business school faculty and the more applied interests of students and business practitioners. In 1993, Donald C. Hambrick's presidential address to the
Academy of Management The Academy of Management is a professional association for scholars of management and organizations that was established in 1936. It publishes several academic journals, organizes conferences, and provides others forums for management professors ...
(AoM). “What if the Academy Actually Mattered?”, drew attention to this relevance crisis. The theme has been repeatedly visited since then, including by president Anita M. McGahan in 2017. Another major focus of concern has been the
replication crisis The replication crisis (also called the replicability crisis and the reproducibility crisis) is an ongoing methodological crisis in which the results of many scientific studies are difficult or impossible to reproduce. Because the reproducibi ...
. Anne S. Tsui has suggested that business and management should not treat the issues of rigor (credibility of evidence) and relevance (usefulness of knowledge) separately, but see them as related.


Comparative

Understanding the development of business history as a discipline meriting its own aims, theories and methods is often understood as a transition from dominating themes of 'company biography', toward more analytical 'comparative' approaches. This 'comparative' trend enabled practitioners to underline their work with 'generalist' potential. Questions of comparative business performance have become a staple, featuring into the wider economic histories of nations, regions, and communities. For many, this transition was first achieved by
Alfred D. Chandler Alfred DuPont Chandler Jr. (September 15, 1918 – May 9, 2007) was a professor of business history at Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins University, who wrote extensively about the scale and the management structures of modern corporatio ...
. Chandler's successors as Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at Harvard Business School continued to emphasize the importance of comparative research and course development. In 1995
Thomas K. McCraw Thomas Kincaid McCraw (September 11, 1940 – November 3, 2012) was an American business historian and Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, who won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for History for '' Prophets o ...
published ''Creating Modern Capitalism'' (Cambridge, MA 1995) This book compared the business histories of Britain, Germany, Japan, and the United States since the Industrial Revolution, and was used as the text of a new year MBA course at Harvard Business School.
Geoffrey Jones Geoffrey Jones (27 November 1931 – 21 June 2005) was a British documentary film director and editor, noted for his contributions to the genre of the industrial film, and in particular British Transport Films.John Russell TaylorObituary: Geoffr ...
, who was McCraw's successor as Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, also pursued a comparative research agenda. He published a comparative study of the history of globalization called ''Multinationals and Global Capitalism'' (Oxford, 2005). In 2010, Jones also published a comparative history of the global beauty industry entitled ''Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry'' (Oxford, 2010). More recently, Jones and the Business History Initiative at the Harvard Business School has sought to facilitate research and teaching on African, Asian and Latin American business history in a project called Creating Emerging Markets, which includes interviews with long-time leaders of firms and NGOs in those regions. A trend in recent years has been to compare the business histories of individual countries.
Geoffrey Jones (academic) Geoffrey G. Jones is a British-born business historian. He became a US citizen in 2010. He is currently Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School. The previous holders of this Chair, which was the first in the wo ...
and Andrea Lluch have published a comparative study of the historical impact of globalization on Argentina and Chile. In 2011 Jones and his co-editor Walter A. Friedman published an editorial in ''Business History Review'' which identified comparative research as essential for the future of business history as a discipline. Anne S. Tsui has studied business in both the United States and China and encourages scholars to collaborate internationally and to study leadership as it is practiced in China.


France

American historians working in French business history led by
Rondo Cameron Rondo Emmett Cameron (February 20, 1925 – January 1, 2001) was an American professor of economic history. He was a native of Texas. He graduated from Yale (1948) and received a Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago (1952). He taught at the ...
argued that most of the business enterprises in France were family-owned, small in scale, and managed conservatively. By contrast, French business historians emphasized the success of national economic planning since the end of World War II. They argued that the economic development in this period stemmed from various phenomena of the late 19th century: the corporation system, the joint-stock deposit and investment banks, and the technological innovations in the steel industry. To clarify the contributions of 19th-century entrepreneurs to the economic development in France, French scholars support two journals, '' Enterprises et Histoire'' and ''Revue d'Histoire de la Siderurgie.''


Latin America

Barbero (2008) examines the development of the field of Latin American business history, from the 1960s to 2007. Latin American business history developed in the 1960s, but until the 1980s it was dominated by either highly politicized debates over Latin American underdevelopment or biographies of Latin American entrepreneurs. Since the 1980s, Latin American business history has become a much more professionalized and an integrated part of Latin American academia. It is much less politicized and has moved beyond entrepreneurial biography to histories of companies and industries. However, Latin American business historians have still not devoted enough attention to agricultural enterprises or comparative histories between the many countries. Probably most importantly, Latin American business historians have to become much more versed in business history theory and methodology so as to get beyond mere summation of the region's economic past. In the 1980s, numerous governments in Latin America adopted neoliberal policies. In Mexico, for example, under presidents
Carlos Salinas de Gortari Carlos Salinas de Gortari CYC DMN (; born 3 April 1948) is a Mexican economist and politician who served as 60th president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. Affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), earlier in his career he wor ...
(1988–94) and
Ernesto Zedillo Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was 61st president of Mexico from 1 December 1994 to 30 November 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from t ...
neoliberalism became the basis for state-private sector relationships. The new policy allowed for close cooperation with United States and Canada as exemplified by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) solidified a strategic alliance between the state and business. In Brazil The key policy was privatization of nationalized industries especially steel through the 'Programa Nacional de Desestatizção' (National Program of Destatization) during the early 1990s. It aimed to implement a new industrial policy by restructuring the industry and reforming labor-business relations. The Common Market of the South, or
Mercosur The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Arge ...
, is a South American commerce pact started in 1991 among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay at the instigation of Argentina and Brazil. Mercosur's purpose is to promote
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency. Since its foundation, Mercosur's functions have been updated and amended many times; it currently confines itself to a
customs union A customs union is generally defined as a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff.GATTArticle 24 s. 8 (a) Customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set up ...
, in which there is free intra-zone trade and common trade policy between member countries.


Britain

Business History in Britain emerged in the 1950s following the publication of a series of influential company histories and the establishment of the journal ''Business History'' in 1958 at the University of Liverpool. The most influential of these early company histories was
Charles Wilson (historian) Charles Henry Wilson CBE (16 April 1914 – 1 August 1991) was an English business historian and Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge.Peter Mathias, ‘Wilson, Charles Henry (1914–1991)’, Oxford Dictionary of National ...
’s ''History of Unilever'', the first volume of which was published in 1954. Other examples included Coleman's work on Courtaulds and artificial fibers, Alford on Wills and the tobacco industry, Barker on Pilkington's and glass manufacture. These early studies were conducted primarily by economic historians interested in the role of leading firms in the development of the wider industry and therefore went beyond mere corporate histories. Although some work examined the successful industries of the industrial revolution and the role of the key entrepreneurs, in the 1970s scholarly debate in British business history became increasingly focused on the economic decline. For economic historians, the loss of British competitive advantage after 1870 could at least in part be explained by entrepreneurial failure, prompting further business history research into the individual industry and corporate cases. The Lancashire cotton textile industry, which had been the leading take-off sector in the industrial revolution, but which was slow to invest in subsequent technical developments, became an important topic of debate on this subject.
William Lazonick William Lazonick (born June 8, 1945) is an economist who studies innovation and competition in the global economy. Lazonick's research seeks to understand how, on the basis of innovative enterprise, a national economy can achieve stable and equ ...
for example argued that cotton textile entrepreneurs in Britain failed to develop larger integrated plants on the American model; a conclusion similar to Chandler's synthesis of a number of comparative case studies. Studies of British business leaders have emphasized how they fit into the class structure, especially their relationship to the aristocracy, and the desire to use their wealth to purchase landed estates, and hereditary titles. Biography has been of less importance in British business history, but there are compilations. British business history began to widen its scope in the 1980s, with research work conducted at the LSE's Business History Unit, led first by Leslie Hannah, then by Terry Gourvish. Other research centres followed, notably at Glasgow and Reading, reflecting an increasing involvement in the discipline by Business and Management School academics. More recent editors of ''Business History'',
Geoffrey Jones (academic) Geoffrey G. Jones is a British-born business historian. He became a US citizen in 2010. He is currently Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School. The previous holders of this Chair, which was the first in the wo ...
(Harvard Business School), Charles Harvey (University of Newcastle Business School), John Wilson (Liverpool University Management School) and Steven Toms (Leeds University Business School) have promoted management strategy themes such as networks, family capitalism, corporate governance, human resource management, marketing and brands, and multi-national organisations in their international as well as merely British context. Employing these new themes has allowed business historians to challenge and adapt the earlier conclusions of Chandler and others about the performance of the British economy.


Africa

There is a growing body of work of business history in Africa. In one of the recent works Ebimo Amungo chronicled the birth, growth and contributions of indigenous African multinationals to the economic development of Africa with his book "The Rise of the African Multinational Enterprise".


Notes


Bibliography


Textbooks and surveys: USA

* Blackford, Mansel G. ''A History of Small Business in America'' ) (1992) * Blackford, Mansel G., and K. Austin Kerr. ''Business Enterprise in American History'' () (1990) * Blaszczyk, Regina Lee, and Philip B. Scranton, eds. ''Major Problems in American Business History: Documents and Essays'' (2006) 521 pp. * Bryant, Keith L. ''A History of American Business'' (1983) () * Chamberlain, John. ''Enterprising Americans: A Business History of the United States'' () (1974) by popular journalist * Chandler, Jr., Alfred D. ''The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business'' (1977), highly influential study * Chandler, Jr., Alfred D. ''Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise'' (1962) * Chandler, Jr., Alfred D. ''Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism'' (1990). * Chandler, Jr., Alfred D. "The Competitive Performance of U.S. Industrial Enterprises since the Second World War," ''Business History Review'' 68 (Spring 1994): 1–72. * Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. and James W. Cortada. ''A Nation Transformed by Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States from Colonial Times to the Present'' (2000) * Cochran, Thomas Childs. ''Business in American Life: A History'' (1976) * Dibacco, Thomas V. ''Made in the U.S.A.: The History of American Business'' (1988) () * Friedman, Walter A. and Tedlow, Richard S. "Statistical Portraits of American Business Elites: a Review Essay." ''Business History ''2003 45(4): 89-113. * Groner, Alex. ''The American heritage history of American business & industry,'' () (1972), very well illustrated * Krooss, Herman Edward. ''American Business History'' () (1972) * Lamoreaux, Naomi R.; Raff, Daniel M. G.; and Temin, Peter. "Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History." ''American Historical Review'' 2003 108(2): 404–433
online
* Lamoreaux, Naomi R., and Daniel M. G. Raff, eds. ''Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise'' (1995) * McCraw, Thomas K., and William R. Childs. ''American Business Since 1920: How It Worked '' (3rd ed. 2018
excerpt
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excerpt
* Temin, Peter, ed. ''Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Transformation and Use of Information'' (1992) * Walker, Juliet E. K. ''Encyclopedia of African American Business History'' Greenwood Press, 1999 * Waterhouse, Benjamin C. ''The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States'' (Simon & Schuster, 2017). 280 pp * Whitten, David O. ''The Emergence of Giant Enterprise, 1860-1914: American Commercial Enterprise and Extractive Industries'' (1983)


Textbooks and surveys: World

* Amatori, Franco and Geoffrey Jones, eds. '' Business History around the World at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century'' (2003) pp 192–214; historiography * Berghahn, Volker R. ''Quest for Economic Empire: European Strategies of German Big Business in the Twentieth Century'' 1996 * Blackford Mansel G. ''The Rise of Modern Business in Great Britain, the United States, and Japan'' (1998) * Cassis, Youssef. ''Big Business: The European Experience in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford UP, 1999) * Cassis, Youssef, François Crouzet, and Terry Gourvish, eds. ''Management and Business in Britain and France: The Age of the Corporate Economy'' (1995). * Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. ''Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries.'' (Harvard Studies in Business History, no. 46.) 2005. * Chandler, Alfred D., Jr. ''Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism'' (1990) * Chapman, Stanley. ''Merchant Enterprise In Britain'' (2003) * Church, Roy, and Andrew Godley. ''The Emergence of Modern Marketing'' (2003) * Dávila, Carlos, Rory Miller, and Garry Mills. ''Business History in Latin America: The Experience of Seven Countries'' Liverpool University Press, 1999 * Gardella, Robert, Jane K. Leonard, Andrea McElderry; ''Chinese Business History: Interpretive Trends and Priorities for the Future ''M. E. Sharpe, 1998 * Goodall, F., Gourvish, T. and Tolliday, S. (eds.). ''International bibliography of business history''. London and New York: Routledge, 1997
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* Hunt, Edwin S.. and James M. Murray. ''A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550'' 1999 * Jones, Geoffrey. ''The Evolution of International Business: An Introduction'' (1996) * Jones, Geoffrey. ''Multinationals and Global Capitalism. From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century''(2005) * Jones, Geoffrey., and Jonathan Zeitlin (eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of Business History''(2008) * Jones, Geoffrey. ''Beauty Imagined. A History of the Global Beauty Industry''(2010) * Jones, Geoffrey. ''Entrepreneurship and Multinationals. Global Business and the Making of the Modern World''(2013) * Jones, Geoffrey. ''Profits and Sustainability. A History of Green Entrepreneurship''(2017) * Kirby, Maurice W. ''Business Enterprise in Modern Britain: From the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century'' (1994) * Klassen, Henry Cornelius. ''Business History of Alberta'' (1999), on Canada * Kuisel, Richard F. ''Capitalism and the State in Modern France: Renovation and Economic Management in the Twentieth Century'' (1981). * Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Daniel Raff, and Peter Temin, eds. ''Learning by Doing in Organizations, Markets, and Nations'' (1999). * Landes, David S. Joel Mokyr and William J. Baumol, eds. ''The Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Times'' (2010) 566 pp.  * Landes, David S. "French Entrepreneurship and Industrial Growth in the Nineteenth Century,"'' Journal of Economic History'' (1949) 9#1 pp. 45–6
in JSTOR
* Magnuson, William. ''For Profit: A History of Corporations'' (2022
excerpt
* Mathias, Peter, and M. M. Postan, eds. ''Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Vol. 7: Industrial Economies. Capital, Labour, and Enterprise. Part 1 Britain, France, Germany and Scandinavia'' (1978) pp 231–81. * Millward, Robert. ''The State and Business in the Major Powers: An Economic History 1815-1939'' (2013) * Mokyr, Joel. ed. ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History'' 4 vol (2003) * Moss, Michael, and Philippe Jobert, eds. ''The Birth and Death of Companies: An Historical Perspective'' (1990), on Europe * Pohl, Manfred, and Sabine Freitag, eds. ''Handbook on the history of European banks'' (1994
online
* Sabel, Charles F., and Jonathan Zeitlin, eds. ''World of Possibilities: Flexibility and Mass Production in Western Industrialization,'' (1997) * Sluyterman, Keetie E. ''Dutch Enterprise in the Twentieth Century: Business Strategies in a Small Open Economy'' (2005) * Teich, Mikuláš and Roy Porter, eds. ''The Industrial Revolution in National Context: Europe and the USA '' (1996) 445pp; 127 scholarly essays on every major country
excerpt
* Tignor, Robert L. "The Business Firm in Africa." ''Business History Review'' 2007 81(1): 87-110. * Wilson, John F. ''British Business History, 1720-1994'' (1995)


Historiography

* Amatori, Franco, and Geoffrey Jones, eds. ''Business History Around the World'' (2003) * Barbero, María Inés. "Business History in Latin America: A Historiographical Perspective," ''Business History Review,'' Autumn 2008, Vol. 82 Issue 3, pp 555–575 * Cheta, Omar Youssef. "The economy by other means: The historiography of capitalism in the modern Middle East." ''History Compass'' (April 2018) 16#4 DOI: 10.1111/hic3.12444 * Decker, Stephanie, Matthias Kipping, and R. Daniel Wadhwani. "New business histories! Plurality in business history research methods." ''Business History'' (2015) 57#1 pp: 30–40
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* Decker, Stephanie. "The silence of the archives: business history, post-colonialism and archival ethnography." ''Management & Organizational History'' 8.2 (2013): 155–173
online
* Engel, Von Alexander. "Die Transformation von Märkten und die Entstehung moderner Unternehmen," he Transformation of Markets and the Emergence of Modern Enterprises''Jahrbuch fuer Wirtschaftsgeschichte'' (2012), Issue 2, pp 93–111 * Fischer, Wolfram. "Some Recent Developments of Business History in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland." ''Business History Review'' (1963): 416–436
online
* Friedman, Walter A., and Geoffrey Jones. "Time for Debate,"''Business History Review,'' (Autumn 2011) 85#1 pp:1-8. * Friedman, Walter A., and Geoffrey Jones, eds. ''Business History'' (2014) 720pp; reprint of scholarly articles published 1934 to 2012 * Galambos, Louis. ''American Business History.'' Service Center for Teachers of History. 1967, historiographical pamphlet. * Grafe, Regina, and Oscar Gelderblom. "The Rise and Fall of the Merchant Guilds: Re-thinking the Comparative Study of Commercial Institutions in Premodern Europe," ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'', (2010) 40#4 pp 477–511
online
Comparative study of the origins and development of merchant guilds in Europe, esp. their emergence during the late Middle Ages and their decline in the Early Modern era * Gras, N.S.B. and Henrietta M. Larson. ''Casebook in American Business History'' (1939), with short biographies, company histories and outlines of the main issues * Gras, N. S. B. "Are You Writing a Business History?" ''Bulletin of the Business Historical Society'' 1944 18(4): 73-110. detailed guide to writing one
in JSTOR
* Hansen, Per H., “Business History: A Cultural and Narrative Approach,” ''Business History Review,'' 86 (Winter 2012), 693–717.
online
* Harvey, Charles. ''Business History: concepts and measurement'' (1989) * Harvey, Charles, and John Turner. ''Labour and Business in Modern Britain'' 1989 * Hashino, Tomoko, and Osamu Saito. "Tradition and interaction: research trends in modern Japanese industrial history," ''Australian Economic History Review,'' Nov 2004, Vol. 44 Issue 3, pp 241–258 * Honeyman, Katrina. "Doing Business with Gender: Service Industries and British Business History." ''Business History Review'' 2007 81(3): 471–493. * John, Richard R. "Elaborations, Revisions, Dissents: Alfred D. Chander, Jr.'s, The Visible Hand after Twenty Years," ''Business History Review'' 71 (Summer 1997): 151–200
online
* John, Richard R. "Business historians and the challenge of innovation." ''Business History Review'' 85.1 (2011): 185–201
online
* Johnman, Lewis and Murphy, Hugh. "Maritime and Business History in Britain: Past, Present, and Future?" ''International Journal of Maritime History'' 2007 19(1): 239–270. * Kirkland, Edward C. "The Robber Barons Revisited," ''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 66, No. 1. (Oct., 1960), pp. 68–73
in JSTOR
* Klass, Lance, and Susan Kinnell. ''Corporate America: A Historical Bibliography'' 1984 * Klein, Maury. "Coming Full Circle: the Study of Big Business since 1950." ''Enterprise & Society: the International Journal of Business History'' 2001 2(3): 425–460. Fulltext:
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* Laird, Pamela Walker. "How business historians can save the world–from the fallacy of self-made success." ''Business History'' 59.8 (2017): 1201–1217. * Larson, Henrietta M. "Business History: Retrospect and Prospect." ''Bulletin of the Business Historical Society'' 1947 21(6): 173–199.
in Jstor
* McCarthy, Dennis M. ''International Business History: A Contextual and Case Approach'' (1994) * McElderry, Andrea Lee, Jane Kate Leonard, and Robert Gardella. ''Chinese Business History: Interpretive Trends and Priorities for the Future'' (1998) * Mordhorst, Mads, and Stefan Schwarzkopf. "Theorising narrative in business history." ''Business History'' 59.8 (2017): 1155–1175
online
* Perchard, Andrew, et al. "Clio in the business school: Historical approaches in strategy, international business, and entrepreneurship." ''Business History'' 59.6 (2017): 904-927
online
* Perks, Rob. "The roots of oral history: exploring contrasting attitudes to elite, corporate, and business oral history in Britain and the US." ''Oral History Review'' 37.2 (2010): 215–224
online
* Rollings, Neil. "British Business History: a Review of the Periodical Literature for 2005." ''Business History'' 2007 49(3): 271–292. * Scranton, Philip, and Patrick Fridenson. ''Reimagining Business History'' (2013
online review
* Supple, Barry Emmanuel. ''Essays in British Business History'' (1977) * Toms, Steven and Wilson, John F. "Scale, Scope and Accountability: Towards a New Paradigm of British Business History." ''Business History'' 2003 45(4): 1-23. {{ISSN, 0007-6791 * Tucker, Kenneth Arthur. ''Business History: Selected Readings'' (1977)


Special studies: world

* Bowen, H. V. ''Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756-1833'' (2006), 304pp


Special studies: U.S.

* Bailyn, Bernard. ''The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century'' (1955). * Bursk, Edward C., et al. eds. ''The World Of Business Harvard Business School'' (4 vol. 1962); 2,700 pages of business insight, memoirs, history, fiction, & analysis * Cochran, Thomas C. ''The Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business'' (1948) * Cole, Arthur H. ''The American Wool Manufacture'' 2 vol (1926) * Dicke, Thomas S. ''Franchising in America: The Development of a Business Method, 1840-1980'' (1992) * Doerflinger, Thomas M. ''A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia'' (1986) * Friedman, Walter A. ''Birth of a Salesman. The Transformation of Selling in America''(2005) * Friedman, Walter A. ''Fortune Tellers. The Story of America's First Economic Forecasters''(2013) * Pak, Susie J. ''Gentlemen Bankers. The World of J.P. Morgan'' (2013) * Scranton, Philip. ''Proprietary Capitalism: The Textile Manufacture at Philadelphia, 1800–1885'' (1983) * Scranton, Philip. ''Figured Tapestry: Production, Markets, and Power in Philadelphia Textiles, 1885–1941'' (1989). * Tucker, Barbara M. ''Samuel Slater and the Origins of the American Textile Industry, 1790–1860'' (1984) * Weare, Walter B. ''Black Business in the New South: A Social History of the
North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company NC Mutual (originally the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association and later North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company) was an American life insurance company located in downtown Durham, North Carolina and one of the most influential A ...
'' (1993) * Wilkins, Mira. ''The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise''(1970) * Wilkins, Mira. ''The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise'' (1974) * Wilkins, Mira. ''The History of Foreign Investment in the United States before 1914''(1989) * Wilkins, Mira. ''The History of Foreign Investment in the United States 1914-1945''(2004) * Williamson, Harold F. and Arnold R. Daum. ''The American Petroleum Industry: The Age of Illumination, 1859-1899,'' (1959); vol 2, ''American Petroleum Industry: the Age of Energy 1899-1959,'' 1964. The standard history of the oil industry.