Abstract We add to the ongoing call for greater integration between organisational and history scholarship. Specifically, we contribute by identifying reciprocal opportunities for practice theorists and historians interested in the unfolding of socio-historic patterns over space and time. Through contrasting two studies of ‘relationship’ in the international reinsurance industry – one an ethnographic

Abstract The full population of England and Wales employers and own-account business proprietors is estimated using population censuses 1851–1911. The main contribution of the article is a method of mixed single imputation to overcome the challenge of non-responses to the census 1851–1881. This method is compared with alternatives. Downloads of all data allow replication. The method is used to track

Abstract In response to a special call of ‘bringing gender and feminism from the periphery to the centre of business history’, the authors undertake an in-depth appraisal of Business History’s own record, as a key signifier of the field. The scope includes articles and reviews published between 2000 and 2020 and find 17 articles out of 918 (1.85%) and 99 reviews out of 2,217 (4.46%), with a downward

Abstract This paper will examine Estate Duty(ED) and its impact on the structure of smaller British businesses. ED was one of the most controversial and wide-ranging taxes ever imposed in the UK. It was the first substantive tax on capital. It was partly responsible for the reconfiguration of British business in the 1940s- 1950s as businesses sought to avoid the Duty with measures which could result

Abstract The 1970s were a defining moment for the European business associations, which were faced with the most important social upheavals of the post-war period, a major economic crisis and the British process of accession to the EEC. This article aims to broaden our knowledge of how Swiss business leaders contributed, during this tumultuous period, to lead the European institutions towards further

(2021). Victorian literary businesses. The management and practices of the british publishing industry. Business History. Ahead of Print.

(2021). Promoting monopoly: AT&T and the politics of public relations, 1876–1941, by Karen Miller Russell. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract This research contributes to British multinational banking history, post-acquisition integration and legitimacy research, by exploring HSBC’s top management control integration with its first two acquired British banks, during the period 1960–1980, from the social psychological perspective of legitimacy judgement. It explores why HSBC’s key decision-maker’s legitimacy judgement of the initial

Abstract Natural resources, especially energy resources, are often considered vital to the process of economic development, with the availability of coal considered central for the nineteenth century. Clearly, however, although coal might have spurred economic development, development might also have spurred the discovery and use of coal. To shed light on this, we suggest that the case of resource-poor

Abstract The United States Council for International Business today is one of the United States most powerful domestic business organisations and is a leading ambassador for US international business interests abroad. It is also the US affiliate of the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and Business at OECD. At its founding in 1945, the United States

Abstract Τhis article examines the creation of product categories as a cultural construct. Categories serve not simply to classify different products but also to signify one’s taste. Τo examine how categories became embedded with cultural meanings, this article takes an interdisciplinary approach: the narrative analysis which has been employed by a number of business historians and the production of

Abstract This article shows how wartime conditions transformed the waste business in Japan. Hygiene regulations from 1900 to the 1920s followed by an influx of Korean migrant labour disrupted the traditional waste trade. The conquest of Manchuria opened up new export markets for Japanese waste and increased the demand for munitions, causing scrap metal prices to skyrocket. These new economic conditions

Abstract As the ‘golden age of American capitalism’ drew to a close in the 1970s, major U.S. manufacturing companies mobilised politically to defend their long-standing hegemony. Despite notable policy victories concerning labour, regulation, and fiscal policy, the self-appointed ‘mouthpieces’ of U.S. industry failed to cohere around a clear agenda to confront the decline of U.S. manufacturing. By

Abstract Nuclear energy was one among business opportunities brought by the take off in science and technology after the Second World War. The narratives of the milestones of atomic history neglect the commercial, industrial and organizational aspects that made it possible. This paper concentrates on what makes the nuclear business exceptional (or not). We undertake an analysis of the nuclear supply

Abstract This article explores the economic policies of Sovrybflot, the Soviet fishing fleet, which was consolidated in 1965 within the USSR Ministry of Fisheries and oriented to a maritime fishing framework of 200-mile exclusive economic zones, implemented by the United Nations. The present study, which draws on accounting records and other primary documents held in the Russian State Archive of the

Abstract During the 1970s and 1980s, economic and financial crime turned into a societal issue in Switzerland. The perpetrators of white-collar crime often enjoyed total impunity: legal proceedings were very time consuming, authorities in charge of judicial investigation were under-resourced. This paper investigates how the political and judicial authorities responded to this challenge. By the end

ABSTRACT Scholars at the intersection of business history and strategic management have argued for the relevance and importance of historical methods in the study of strategic management of organizations. We flip this argument and ask about the role of strategic management concepts in the study of business history. We analyze volumes of Business History and Business History Review and a representative

Abstract Disaster management is a neglected area of British business history. Industrial disasters led to significant loss of life and imposed considerable costs on firms involved. This article examines the emergence of a network of mine rescue stations across UK coalfields in the early twentieth century, making use of previously overlooked records of mine rescue station boards. Pioneering mine rescue

(2020). Post-War business planners in the United States, 1939–48: The rise of the corporate moderates. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract Historical research into the nuclear industry has focussed upon military and commercial aspects of the technology whilst ignoring fuel. This article discusses nuclear fuel, the resource at the centre of the industry and the role superpower politics played in its supply. Starting with the context of superpower competition, we examine the spread of nuclear technology from its beginnings in post-war

Abstract This study explores the financial performance and economic impact of British investment in the Colombian National Railway Company, the largest British direct investment in Colombia during the first period of globalisation. It aims to ascertain the railway’s impact on the regional economy and explain why it failed as a going concern. It explores three dimensions: the use of guaranteed railway

Abstract In the early stage of Japanese industrialisation after 1886, the former feudal lords, known as daimyo, played an important role as pioneers in equity investments in modern industries with their huge assets. In addition, when their ex-retainers attempted to establish modern enterprises, the daimyo often invested in their businesses. Moreover, the daimyo often provided opportunities for well-educating

Abstract Scenario planning is a tool for considering alternative futures and their potential impact. The article firstly addresses the paucity of history on management tools by discussing several important lineages in scenario planning’s evolution over time, and the emphasis placed on historical analysis by some specific variants therein. Secondly, it describes how causal analysis can be enhanced in

Abstract Bubbles have become ubiquitous. This ubiquity has stimulated research over the past three decades into bubbles in history. In this article, we provide a systematic overview of research into historical bubbles. Our analysis reveals that there is no coherent approach to the study of bubbles and much of the debate has unhelpfully focussed on the rationality/irrationality dichotomy. We then suggest

Abstract Technological progress in semiconductor chips plays a central role in enabling the Information Technology revolution. Continual technological progress in semiconductor chips, which has become popular under the name of Moore’s Law, reduces the cost of storing and processing information. While the role of the semiconductor chip manufacturing companies in driving Moore’s Law is well known, less

Abstract While state-owned enterprises (SOEs) used to be considered obsolete tools for governmental intervention in the economy, in recent years governmental intervention in the business sector has re-emerged as a topic of debate. However, scholarship on the changes in and the modernisation of the SOE model is limited. In this article, we examine how the Finnish state’s ownership policy adapted to

(2020). A history of corporate financial reporting in Britain. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract This historical case study of the multinational agribusiness Monsanto explores the challenges organizations face when attempting to translate a problematic past into strategic gain. We draw on Resource-Based Theory (RBT) to explain how the relative ability to own and control history as an intangible resource enables or constrains effective managerial deployments of history. Our analysis explores

Abstract Proper inventory management is crucial for art galleries. Yet, despite its importance, inventory management has been overlooked in the literature. We distinguish four main strategies used by art dealers to manage their inventory and use this classification to set the inventory strategy of Goupil, Boussod & Valadon, a major art gallery active in France at the end of the 19th century, into perspective

Abstract This article examines the rise of a professional rating for financial analysts – the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) award. The development of a professional rating is explained here as a need to brand and distinguish those analysts who had undertaken a formal training and achieved the necessary skill-sets. Three themes are used to trace this development: the emergence of regional communities

Abstract This article analyses the interaction between the system of taxation and business in Greece during the crucial period of the military dictatorship (1967-1974) in order to throw light on the Greek version of Mediterranean capitalism that developed in the post-Second World War framework and how it affected business doing in the country. It will be shown that through this type of capitalism clientelism

(2020). Nothing succeeds liked failure: the sad history of american business schools. Business History. Ahead of Print.