Publications

1994
Chapter

British Multinationals and British Business since 1850

By: G. Jones

Keywords: Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Business Ventures; United Kingdom

12 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Power to the People: The Unexpected Influence of Small Coalitions

Harvard Business School Professor J. Gunnar Trumbull balks at the ubiquitous idea that the concentrated power of a few billionaires controls public policy and government regulation. Exaggeration of the impact of big business on public policy, he says, comes at a high... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

24 Jan 2012
Working Paper Summaries

What Do Development Banks Do? Evidence from Brazil, 2002-2009

Keywords: by Sergio G. Lazzarini, Aldo Musacchio, Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello & Rosilene Marcon; Banking

2022
Article

Before Plagiarism: Lawyers and Copynorms in Europe, 1300-1600

By: Robert Fredona and Sophus A. Reinert

This essay uses the concept of 'copynorms', social norms about copying expressive works that can be distinct from legal norms about the same, in order to understand the meaning of intellectual property among Roman law and canon law jurists from the fourteenth through... View Details

Keywords: Copyright; History; Europe

2011
Chapter

Another Grand Tour: Cameralism and Antiphysiocracy in Tuscany, Baden, and Denmark-Norway

By: Sophus A. Reinert

Keywords: History; Economic Systems; Italy; Germany; Norway; Denmark

2000
Chapter

The Nationalist Regime and the Chinese Party-State

By: William C. Kirby

Keywords: History; Government and Politics; China

July 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Great Depression: Causes and Impact (Abridged)

Provides a vehicle for discussing the problems caused by the Great Depression. View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Crisis; United States

03 Apr 2020
News

What FDR, Churchill, and Shackleton can teach us about leadership during the coronavirus crisis

15 Jun 2016
News

Why Harvard Business School teaches students about whaling

Web

Harvard Business School Archives | Baker Library

Harvard Business School Archives The HBS Archives contain records that document the history of Harvard Business School, faculty, research, teaching, and the student experience. The collections date from the establishment of the school in... View Details

Web

Archival Collections - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

Clubs Faculty & Research Business & Environment Business History Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning Entrepreneurship Faculty & Research Global Healthcare HBS Working Knowledge Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness Leadership... View Details

25 Feb 2020
News

@Soldiers Field

HISTORY In February, New York Times staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones spoke about her 1619 project in Klarman Hall Auditorium. The event, which included a panel on the connections between history and... View Details

June 1991 (Revised November 2004)
Case

John Jacob Astor, 1763-1848

Astor, the wealthiest American of his time, engages in fur trading, shipping, real estate investment, and general merchandise trading. Astor's career illustrates the immediate pre-modern management era: types of decisions, time horizons, and number of transactions. View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Business History; Personal Development and Career; United States

June 1991 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Railroads and the Beginnings of Modern Management (Abridged)

By: Thomas K. McCraw

Consists of three selections by the most innovative of the early American railroad managers describing the organizational structures and control systems they created. Questions to be asked are: why and how such managerial techniques were created, how well they worked,... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Rail Transportation; Organizational Structure; Management Systems; Rail Industry; United States

01 Dec 2006
News

Baker Library Photo Exhibit

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY BAKER LIBRARY HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS A special exhibit, “The Human Factor: Introducing the Industrial Life Photograph Collection at Baker Library,” opened at Baker in October and will run through March 7, 2007. The often highly stylized images,... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

March 2023 (Revised June 2023)
Case

Doing Business in Kigali, Rwanda

By: Andy Zelleke, A. Zelleke, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Wale Lawal

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Rwanda. It highlights Rwanda's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2023 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Transportation Industry; Tourism Industry; Rwanda

February 2018 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Yunnan Baiyao: Transforming a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise

By: Michael Chu, William C. Kirby, Nancy Hua Dai and Yuanzhuo Wang

This case tells the story of how Wang Minghui, Chairman of Yunnan Baiyao Group since 1999, transformed a single-product traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) state-owned enterprise (SOE) into a major diversified consumer health player in China's highly competitive... View Details

Keywords: State-owned Enterprise (SOE); Traditional Chinese Medicine; Yunnan; Yunnan Baiyao; Consumer Health; Enterprise Transformation; Transformation; Health; Business History; State Ownership; Private Ownership; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Consumer Products Industry; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

fascinated me; it inspired me to pursue my doctoral studies and delve into business scholarship. The HBS Business History Initiative provided me both the historical tools and the space to explore. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to... View Details

March 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Danatbank

By: David A. Moss, Cole Bolton and Andrew Novo

In the summer of 1931, Germany was struggling with a deepening economic crisis. Production had fallen, unemployment was high, and bank deposits and gold were being withdrawn from the country at a rapid pace, threatening the value of the German mark. The country's third... View Details

Keywords: History; Risk Management; Business History; Capital Markets; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; Germany