Publications

January 2002
Background Note

History of Investment Banking

By: Ashish Nanda, Thomas J. DeLong and Lynn Villadolid Roy

Describes the history of investment banking. View Details

Keywords: Business History; Investment Banking

Educators

18 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

"Where is the historiography of business? Why have businessmen, and now women, had to fight their way into history?" Yeager is conducting research on Miriam Beard and Henrietta Larson, who were deeply engaged in writing about the View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

May 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Teaching Note

Women MBAs at Harvard Business School: 1962–2012

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

2023
Book

Deeply Responsible Business: A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership

By: Geoffrey Jones

Corporate social responsibility has entered the mainstream, but what does it take to run a successful purpose-driven business? This book examines leaders who put values alongside profits to showcase the challenges and upside of deeply responsible business. Should... View Details

July 1993
Case

Genzyme Corporation: A Financing History

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Andrew D. Regan

Genzyme Corp.'s financing history is unusual compared to most biotech companies. This case presents the sequence of financings employed by Genzyme, along with the product--market and corporate-development strategies adopted by Henri Termeer, Genzyme's CEO. As such, the... View Details

Keywords: History; Marketing Strategy; Financing and Loans; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Biotechnology Industry

Educators

December 2016
Article

Impact Investing: A Brief History

By: Brian Trelstad

Over the last decade, impact investing has become an increasingly-discussed topic in the realms of both business and public policy. Impact investors are motived by a desire to advance social or environmental goals and an intuition that pursuing two goals at once -... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Investment; Ethics; Strategy

SSRN

03 Jul 2019
Cold Call Podcast

The Controversial History of United Fruit

Keywords: Re: Geoffrey G. Jones; Food & Beverage

1991
Book

Competitiveness and the State: Government and Business in Twentieth-Century Britain

By: G. Jones and M. W. Kirby

This book looks at the relationship between the British government and business since 1900, and examines the impact of government policies on business, productivity and competitiveness. The authors argue that government has a legitimate role to play in improving... View Details

Keywords: Political History; Policy; Business History; Performance Consistency; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Productivity; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy; Europe

Research Summary

A History of Green Entrepreneurship

By: Geoffrey G. Jones

This research recovers the history of the entrepreneurs and firms who developed green or “sustainable” businesses, identifies the multiple motivations behind their strategies, explores the clustering of green business in specific locations, and shows how the concept of... View Details

April–June 2014
Article

Firmes mondialisées et imaginaire de la beauté

By: G. Jones

This article highlights the role of business enterprises as influences on ideals of human beauty. The homogenization of such ideals has been one of the most noteworthy features of globalization over the last two centuries. This study suggests that firms were both... View Details

Keywords: American History; Economic History; Business History; Globalization; Entrepreneurship; History; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Europe; North and Central America

1985
Chapter

Business History in the United States: Past Accomplishments and Future Directions

By: Richard S. Tedlow

Keywords: Business History; United States

Article

How History Shaped the Innovator's Dilemma

By: Tom Nicholas

In 1993, four years prior to the publication of Clayton Christensen’s highly influential book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, the Business History Review (BHR) published an article by Christensen titled “The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of... View Details

Keywords: Clayton Christensen; Impact; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Research

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Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Geoffrey G. Jones

I currently teach the history of global entrepreneurship over the last 200 years. The 28-session course called Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism has become one of the most popular second year electives in the MBA program at the Harvard Business School. The cases,... View Details

2009
Chapter

Entrepreneurship and the History of Globalization

By: G. Jones and R. Daniel Wadhwani

In this article, we build on the recent efforts of scholars to reintroduce entrepreneurship into the research agenda of business historians. We examine the value and limitations of adapting recent social scientific theories and methods on entrepreneurship to research... View Details

Keywords: History; Multinational Firms and Management; Resource Allocation; Research; Entrepreneurship; Cognition and Thinking; Growth and Development Strategy

May 1991
Case

Fourth Phase of Marketing: Marketing History and the Business World Today

By: Richard S. Tedlow

Keywords: Marketing

2024
Chapter

Visionaries and Transformative Product Launches in Computing and Information Business History

By: Shane Greenstein

2010
Working Paper

Commodity Chains: What Can We Learn from a Business History of the Rubber Chain? (1870-1910)

By: Felipe Tamega Fernandes

The literature on the rubber boom applied a Dependendist view of rubber production in the Brazilian Amazon. Even though a sizable surplus was generated in the rubber chain, it was mostly appropriated by foreigners. This view is in tune with the Global Commodity Chain... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business History; Supply Chain; Manufacturing Industry; Rubber Industry; Brazil

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2013
Chapter

The Global and the Local in the Beauty Industry: A Historical Perspective

By: G. Jones

This chapter explores the impact of the global beauty industry on beauty ideals. It shows that as the industry internationalized from the late nineteenth century, there was a homogenization of beauty ideals and practices around the world. Western and white beauty... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Globalization; History; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; North and Central America; South America

Website

Creating Emerging Markets

By: Geoffrey Jones

Harvard Business School has an on-going program to conduct in-depth interviews with top business leaders who have created and managed businesses in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America over the last four decades. These interviews, many lasting several... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Emerging Market