Publications

February 2005
Article

European Integration and Corporate Restructuring: The Strategy of Unilever c1957-c1990

By: Geoffrey Jones and Peter Miskell

This article examines the role of the large Anglo-Dutch consumer products company in promoting European integration. It shows that Unilever contributed financially to campaigns to support the creation of the European Union, and its subsequent expansion, despite a... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Organizations; Policy; Expansion; Market Transactions; Geographic Location; Restructuring; Competition; Brands and Branding; Production; Capital Structure; Value; Consumer Products Industry; European Union; United States

Find at Harvard

2017
Working Paper

Emerging Markets and the Future of Business History

By: Gareth Austin, Carlos Dávila and Geoffrey Jones

This working paper suggests that the business history of emerging markets should be seen as an alternative business history rather than merely adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Emerging Markets; Developing Countries and Economies

June 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Vehbi Koç and the Making of Turkey's Largest Business Group

By: Asli M. Colpan and Geoffrey Jones

The case describes the creation of Turkey's largest business group by Vehbi Koç. The foundation of this group in the interwar years, and its subsequent diversification into many industries, including automobiles, household goods, and services, is analysed. The case... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Manufacturing Industry; Turkey

Educators

Person Page

Reviews for Beauty Imagined

By: Geoffrey G. Jones

“This illuminating account of the history of the beauty business, as well as its current challenges in the face of globalization, offers unique insights on the drivers of success and failure in an industry in which branding and marketing are at the heart of... View Details

2023
Book

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

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

December 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Supplement

Vehbi Koç and the Making of Turkey's Largest Business Group (B)

By: Asli M. Colpan and Geoffrey Jones

The case builds on the earlier (A) case, which described the origins of the Turkish business group established by Vehbi Koç before 1988. This case takes the story forward to 2012 as the Koç group was led by Vehbi's son Rahmi followed by his grandson Mustafa. It... View Details

Keywords: Business Groups; Turkey; Entrepreneurship; Management; Manufacturing Industry; Transportation Industry; Auto Industry; Central Asia; Middle East

2017
Working Paper

Business History, the Great Divergence and the Great Convergence

This working paper provides a business history perspective on debates about the Great Divergence, the rise of the income gap between the West and the Rest, and the more recent Great Convergence, which has seen a narrowing of that gap. The literature on the timing and... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Economics; History; Wealth and Poverty; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth

23 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2008

answers to secure donations. Blonde and Blue-eyed? Globalizing Beauty, c.1945-c.1980 Author:Geoffrey Jones Periodical:Economic History Review 61, no. 1 (February 2008) Abstract This article examines the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2023
News

March 2023 Alumni and Faculty Books

Edited by Margie Kelley Alumni Books Invisible Trillions: How Financial Secrecy Is Imperiling Capitalism and Democracy—and the Way to Renew Our Broken System By Raymond W. Baker (MBA 1960) Berrett-Koehler Publishers Over the last half century, capitalism has created... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

2005
Book

Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

This book provides an essential framework for understanding global business. It shows how entrepreneurs built a global economy in the nineteenth century by creating firms that pursued resources and markets across borders. It demonstrates how firms shifted strategies as... View Details

Keywords: Capitalism; Multinational Firms and Management; Globalization; History; Economy; Trade; Strategy

Find at Harvard

2018
Working Paper

Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America During Globalization Waves

This working paper examines the impact of modern business enterprise on the natural environment of Latin America during the globalization waves between the 19th century and the present day. It argues that although global capitalism created much wealth for the region,... View Details

Keywords: Globalization; Natural Environment; Outcome or Result; Business History; Pollutants; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Tourism Industry; Latin America

2022
Book

Leadership to Last: How Great Leaders Leave Legacies Behind

By: Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna

Society tends to glorify the get-rich-quick entrepreneur who builds a company, takes it public and then (maybe) contributes to charity. In Leadership to Last, Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna discuss the interviews they and other Harvard faculty have undertaken... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Corruption; Gender; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Society; India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; Middle East; Africa; Latin America; Philippines

July 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Mr. Five Percent: Calouste Gulbenkian and the Origins of Global Oil

By: Geoffrey Jones and Yazeed Al-Rashed

This case describes the business career of Calouste Gulbenkian, a skilled intermediary who was able to secure 5 percent of a vast oil concession covering much of the Middle East that was signed in 1928. Gulbenkian was an ethnic Armenian born in the Ottoman Empire,... View Details

Keywords: Oil; Globalization; Energy Sources; History; Biography; Energy Industry; Turkey; Central Asia; Middle East

Educators

2017
Working Paper

Creating the Market for Organic Wine: Sulfites, Certification, and Green Values

By: Geoffrey Jones and Emily Grandjean

This working paper examines the history of organic wine, which provides a case study of failed category creation. The modern organic wine industry emerged during the 1970s in the United States and Western Europe, but it struggled to gain traction compared to other... View Details

Keywords: Product Launch; Failure; Problems and Challenges; Complexity; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry