(2021). The rise and fall and reinvention of a global icon. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract Although regional resilience has been widely discussed in recent years, scholars recognise that there is little understanding of the determinants of the long-term adaptive capacity of regions. Policies for regional resilience have not been discussed at great length. This paper analyses industry evolution and industrial policies in a historical perspective, focussing on the case of the Emilia-Romagna

Abstract Sifting through business accounts and public records, this article demonstrates the involvement of Medici Bank in the military industry of the fifteenth century, shedding new light on the final years of one of the most important companies in Renaissance Italy. By restating the relation between the public role and the private business of Lorenzo the Magnificent, this article emphasises the

(2021). American blockbuster: movies, technology, and wonder. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract The article aims to highlight the role of the Jewish merchants of Trieste in the cereal trade in the eighteenth century. In particular, it focuses on analysing how, in the discontinuity in the development mechanisms of the free port of Trieste that occurred in the mid-eighteenth century, they managed to be protagonists in the construction of wider, from a quantitative and qualitative point

(2021). Managing the marketplace: Reinventing shopping centres in post-war Australia. Business History. Ahead of Print.

(2021). Compassionate capitalism: business and community in medieval England. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract By 1900, local authorities had succeeded companies and voluntary organisations as the major providers of utilities, schools and hospitals. This article examines why the role of companies and voluntary organisations diminished. It does this by comparing the financial results of companies, voluntary organisations and local authorities to identify the differing objectives they pursued. The results

(2021). Entrepreneurship in Spain. A history. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract This article provides a long-term demographic analysis of the principal members of the population of companies quoted on the UK stock exchanges in 1948. Motivated by theories of natural selection and of corporate governance, it traces the survival records of the 1948 population over the biblical ‘threescore years and ten’ to 2018. Of the population of 1513 companies in 1948, only 19 survived

Abstract This article investigates the motives behind one of the earliest airline privatisations in history, that of British Airways. The British Airways privatisation experience highlights the dynamic characteristics of privatisation policymaking from the perspective of a flag carrier, including the various motives behind the sale, competing interests, and sale structuring, among other. The principal

Abstract This work analyses the activities of Genoese merchant communities in the grain trade in western Mediterranean markets. Our goal is to shed light on their ability to integrate into foreign lands, taking advantage of their privileged position within the Spanish Crown. Our analysis is focussed on two case studies, strictly connected from a theoretical point of view: Sicily and Tabarka. Both Genoese

Abstract This special issue complements and extends existing work in business history to show how the discipline can contribute to the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) literature. The work in this collection delves deeper into our understanding of how VoC emerge and continue through the prism of business-government relations as the two principal actors in capitalist development. The focus of much of the

Abstract Today India is among the major sugar producers and sugar-making has a long tradition, yet the adoption of modern sugar technologies was delayed. Which factors underpinned this? This article examines the attempts of European sugar entrepreneurs to adopt new sugar technologies in 1830s–1840s Bihar. Its findings correspond with recent literature on Indian economic development which emphasises

Abstract This article argues that the business alliance between the Polish nobility and the Jews was central to the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth’s overcoming the economic crisis of the mid-seventeenth following the decline of grain exports. The leaseholding agreements by which the nobles entrusted the management of their landed property and monopoly rights to the Jews allowed the exploitation of

(2021). Boom and bust: a global history of financial bubbles. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract In recent years, scholars have explored the pivotal role Jewish merchants played in feeding and arming European armies from 1500 to 1800. Yet they have ignored the problems these merchants faced when they cast outside national borders to urban centres far from the battlefield, a multi-national mobilisation of resources known as the ‘fiscal-military system’. This article uses a case-study of

Abstract Utilising a unique and original dataset on the board composition of the 35 largest German chemical producers over the 1950–2015 period, the article tracks the entire lifespan of the industry’s reconstituted board interlock network. Regarding the network as a mechanism for controlling competition among its members, we consider changes in its strength over time. We find that a close-knit network

(2021). The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston. Business History. Ahead of Print.

(2021). Becoming the World’s Biggest Brewer: Artois, Piedbouef and Interbrew (1880-2000). Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract The activity of Italian banks in Egypt represents an almost unexplored field of investigation in economic history. This article is the first to attempt to add to the Italian banking literature in this area. At the same time, it contributes to the multinational banking literature on the characteristics of banks belonging to multinational groups, which are subject to a ‘liability of foreignness’

Abstract Waste and its reuse have constituted an important field of economic activity for most of human history, including modern times. While the collected articles of this special issue exemplify the significance that waste salvage had in mobilising resources in Europe, Asia, and North America in World War II, this introduction situates these cases in a long-term perspective. It explores the continuities

Abstract The collective memory inscribed in Korean history books recalls when the Japanese colonial state requisitioned brassware from Korean households during World War II. This study explores the complex mechanism behind these campaigns. Copper was a scarce commodity in the Japanese empire. The colonial brassware industry expanded but struggled due to fluctuating copper prices before the war. To

(2021). The Routledge companion to makers of global business. Business History. Ahead of Print.

Abstract During the first half of the twentieth century, the industrial success of Sweden opened up for an exclusive lifestyle among the business elite. Drawing on how a hunting club constructed and reproduced male fantasies, the article deals with male bonding in relation to generation change. By examining the sources such as correspondence and notes from a hunting society dominated by businessmen

Abstract This article focuses on the establishment in the 1970s of a new international private governance forum, the so-called ‘Interlaken Conferences’, which gathered together the leading figures of the Industrial Federations of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. It therefore contributes to the literature dealing with business interest associations’

Abstract In the 1920 and early 1930s, the German semi-synthetic fibre industry was dominated by a duopoly of two big players. The incumbent firms were not willing to expand their staple fibre capacities to the extent demanded by the new Nazi government, which prepared for autarky and war. Hence the government encouraged other private companies, especially spinning mills, to found eight regional staple

Abstract As historians start researching the late twentieth century, they are increasingly finding traces of the past created digitally. At the same time, use of computers to digitise analogue material means that many pre-digital sources have been reproduced digitally. As such, future historical research will increasingly include digital forms of evidence and computer-based research tools. This article

Abstract In his history of Unilever, Charles Wilson stated that cinema advertising was not part of the company’s marketing strategy until the late 1930s. However, despite the paucity of surviving archival sources, recent research has proved that Lever Brothers was engaged with the new medium of cinematography from its earliest days and that the practice continued up to and after the formation of Unilever

Abstract This article examines how the cold war influenced the conduct of banking business in Eastern Europe, by focusing on the case of Barclays’, Paribas’, and Société Générale’s involvement in Poland from the 1950s to the 1980s. Based on archival evidence, this article illustrates the multiple facets of banking in a period of all-level confrontation between two systems: search of new business opportunities;

Abstract Large firms are faced with an ever-widening array of consultancy services and providers. From management consulting to accounting to logistics to human relations, the professional services industry has seen extraordinary growth in the number of firms and range of services they provide. In this paper, we examine the history of one consultancy firm, albeit a small and particular one. The Fantus

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 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 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

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

In the early phase of Japan's industrialization after 1886, upper class ex-samurai, known as daimyo with huge assets, played an important role as pioneers in equity investments in modern industries. Furthermore, when their ex-retainers founded modern enterprises, daimyo often invested in their businesses. In addition, daimyooften created opportunities for the education of young people in their former

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 ...

Technological progress in semiconductor chips plays a central role in enabling the Information Technology revolution. Continual technological progress in semiconductor chips, which has become popul...

This excellent book by a renowned expert on the history of accounting in the British Isles focuses on ‘corporate financial reporting’, i.e. the development of accounting by corporate, profit-seekin...