Publications

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2018
Working Paper

Oral History and Writing the Business History of Emerging Markets

By: Geoffrey Jones and Rachael Comunale

This working paper highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of... View Details

Keywords: Oral History; Business History; Research; Emerging Markets

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1999
Chapter

Company History and Business History in the 1990s

By: G. Jones

Keywords: History; Business History

1998
Book

The Multinational Traders

By: Geoffrey Jones

This book examines the history and theory of multinational trading companies. The essays in this volume demonstrate the importance of trading companies in trade and investment flows in the world economy from the nineteenth century to the present day. The empirical... View Details

Keywords: Company History; Trade; Globalization; Books; Organizational Structure; Perspective; Diversification; Theory; Asia; Europe; United States

Find at Harvard

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry is the first serious attempt to trace the history of the $330 billion global beauty industry and its large collection of fascinating entrepreneurs... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

03 Jul 2019
Cold Call Podcast

The Controversial History of United Fruit

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

September 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

FJ Management Inc.

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2015, Crystal Call Maggelet, president and CEO of FJ Management, is working with her investment committee to help set the company’s strategic direction. Maggelet, daughter of the company’s founder, has led FJ Management since 2009 when she stepped in as CEO... View Details

03 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Business History around the World

While many history departments of American universities prefer to keep business as a separate discipline, HBS entrepreneurship professor Geoffrey Jones encourages the examination of history as a way to... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

March 2017 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Edwin Land: The Art and Science of Innovation

By: Tom Nicholas, Christopher T. Stanton and Matthew G. Preble

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Polaroid first invented—and then continuously reinvented—the field of instant photography. Under the leadership of its mercurial founder Edwin Land, the company regularly released new instant cameras and films, often... View Details

Keywords: Instant Photography; Company History; Change Management; Disruption; Forecasting and Prediction; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Innovation Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Intellectual Property; Patents; Product Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Development; Chemical Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

May 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Case

McKinsey & Company

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante

In early 2013 the leaders of McKinsey & Co., were reflecting, as they did periodically, on the path forward for their firm. Founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. McKinsey (Mac), with only a small staff in one office, the firm had grown to be a global company with more... View Details

Keywords: CONSULTING Firms; McKinsey; Professional Service Firm; Marvin Bower; Strategy; Governance; Consulting Industry

14 Feb 2019
Cold Call Podcast

The Delicious History of Hershey's Chocolate

Keywords: Re: Nancy F. Koehn; Food & Beverage; Education

2006
Chapter

The History of Corporate Ownership in China: State Patronage, Company Legislation, and the Issue of Control

By: William Goetzmann and Elisabeth Koll

Keywords: History; Governance Controls; Laws and Statutes; Ownership; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations; China

2020
Working Paper

Building the Professional Firm: McKinsey & Co.: 1939-1968

By: Amar Bhidé

This case history analyzes how the founders of McKinsey & Co. built one of the world's leading management consulting firms by developing a “system” of professional norms, approach to serving clients, personnel policies, organization, governance, and ownership. The... View Details

Keywords: McKinsey ＆ Co.; Company History; Professional Norms; Vision; Organizations; Business History; Business Model; Strategy; Consulting Industry

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October 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

OAO YUKOS Oil Company

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Joshua N. Rosenbaum

This case presents the history and current position of Russia's second-largest oil company, YUKOS, as it seeks listing on the NYSE as an ADR and attempts to rid itself from a punishing "governance discount" by the capital markets. This is a company with a history of... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Capital Markets; Corporate Governance; Developing Countries and Economies; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; Russia

16 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

The Times Captures History of American Business

a collection of interesting articles across the history of the paper. There were already a few publications on more specific subjects: For example, Floyd Norris, a well-respected columnist at the Times, edited a book on the View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Journalism & News

2024
Working Paper

Cephalosporins—Fighting Hospital Infections: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé, Srikant Datar and Katherine Stebbins

This case history describes the development of three generations of cephalosporins – antibiotics that have significantly reduced hospital infections. Specifically, we chronicle how: 1) Early (pre-cephalosporin) antibiotics were developed in the first half of the 20th... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

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16 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

Reintroducing Intellectual Ambition to the Study of Business History

The 85-year-old Business History Review, published quarterly by Harvard Business School, is the acknowledged leading peer-reviewed journal in the field. (BHR has recently been made available online through Cambridge University Press.) So... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Walter Friedman

28 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Building Histories of Emerging Economies One Interview at a Time

The corporate histories of Apple, Coca-Cola, and Honda are well-documented stories that offer a window into the nuances of business in a particular place, at a particular time. As such, they're invaluable resources for research that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

August 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Gazprom (A): Energy and Strategy in Russian History

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Sogomon Tarontsi and Alexander Jorov

Critics have accused Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer, of eschewing market principles in favor of the foreign policy priorities of the Russian government, ever since the energy giant cut off the supply to Ukraine in January of 2006. The purported... View Details

Keywords: History; International Relations; Trade; Energy Industry; Russia; Soviet Union; Ukraine; Europe