Business History
Business History
Harvard Business School has a long tradition of investing in business history, and of asserting its central role in management education. In 1927, the School created the first endowed professorship in the field. It also founded the field’s first journal, the Business History Review. Since the work of Joseph Schumpeter at Harvard's Center for Entrepreneurial History in the 1940s, the School has taken an interdisciplinary and global approach to understanding business history. Today business historians at the School investigate a broad range of themes, including entrepreneurship, innovation, globalization, and environmental sustainability.
Business History Initiative
The Business History Initiative seeks to facilitate learning from the past through innovative research and course development, employing global and interdisciplinary perspectives.
Business HistoryRecent Publications
You've Got Mail! The Late 19th Century U.S. Postal Service Expansion, Firm Creation, and Firm Performance
- September 2025 |
- Article |
- Management Science
Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News
- March 2025 (Revised April 2025) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
In fall 2020, following the network's election-night decision to call the state of Arizona for Biden, Fox News Network was in trouble. Audience numbers were falling, and some in the network thought it was because rival networks such as Newsmax were willing to air claims that the election was stolen. With an eye on their ratings, some hosts brought on guests who cast doubt on the nation's voting procedures based on questionable evidence. In particular, former New York City Mayor and President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and former Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell, claimed that Dominion’s voting machines had altered votes.
The case examines Dominion’s defamation allegations, as well as Fox News’s defense that its hosts had simply aired the newsworthy claims of other individuals. It asks whether Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott should change the network’s internal procedures, and whether U.S. regulations of the media industry should be strengthened.
Doing Business in Casablanca, Morocco
- February 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Manila, Philippines
- February 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Doing Business in Kigali, Rwanda
- February 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America
- 2025 |
- Chapter |
- Faculty Research
U.S. Steel: Proposed Acquisition by Nippon Steel
- January 2025 (Revised June 2025) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
ZEISS: Commercializing Science
- July 2024 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Oral History and Business History in Emerging Markets
- June 2024 |
- Article |
- Investigaciones de historia económica
Hakluyt: From Corporate Intelligence to Trusted Advisors
- May 2024 (Revised September 2025) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research