The Uses of Business History

In the 1960s small computers emerged in the United States, based on the new semiconductor technology. Originally developed for use in industrial automation, they soon began to compete with the established mainframe computers. A number of British firms entered the new market, including diversified electronic goods manufacturers, enterpreneurial start-ups, and office machinery suppliers. The Wilson government saw small computers as a central element of industrial modernisation, and thus a part of its solution to Britian's economic decline. The Ministry of Technology was given twin objectives: to support industrial modernisation and to promote the British small computer manufacturers. However, US-built systems proved more competitive, and by the mid-1970s they had come to dominate the industry, with the few remaining British firms relegated to niche markets. The paper concludes that government involvement in the industry was well-guided, but ineffectual, and that organisational cultures were to a large extent responsible for the British companies' decline.     

中国商业史述评——兼论对商业模式研究的启示

本文阐述了商业的起源及商业的内涵,对中国商业发展的历史进行了述评以及对商业模式研究的启示:商业模式研究可以从宏观、中观、微观三个层次展开;商业模式研究既要见物,又要见人;影响商业运作模式的因素是多元的,要在具体的背景下进行讨论,可以从内涵与外延两个方面来考虑。     

Cognitive Theory and Moral Behavior: The Contribution of F. A. Hayek to Business Ethics

This paper shows how business ethics as a concept may be approached from a cognitive viewpoint. Following F. A. Hayek's cognitive theory, I argue that moral behavior evolves and changes because of individual perception and action. Individual moral behavior becomes a moral rule when prominently displayed by members of a certain society in a specific situation. A set of moral rules eventually forms the ethical code of a society, of which business ethics codes are only a part. By focusing on the concept of "limited" or "dispersed knowledge" that underlies the cognitive approach, I show that universal ethical norms that should lead to defined outcomes cannot exist. This approach moreover shows the limits of deliberate rule-setting. Attempts to deliberately impose universal ethical rules on societies may turn out to be harmful for societal development and lead to an abuse of governmental power.     

British Business History: A Review of the Periodical Literature for 1998

Japanese economic success has been built upon the establishment and development of key manufacturing sectors, and the perspectives of business history can especially reveal that complex interaction of companies, markets, business networks, and state which has over time created a globally competitive industrial system. Long-term economic growth was capped in the 1950s and 1960s by growth rates that were unprecedented in their scale and duration. Similarly, the process of industrial transformation accelerated in the years between 1918 and 1950, important developments finally coalescing during the post-war period into the so-termed ‘Japanese industrial system’. Debates over the timing of economic development in Japan are intertwined with debates on the contribution of a pre-industrial national culture to business success. The historical record suggests that the acquisition of organisational capabilities within Japanese manufacturers has been shaped by the timing of the country's industrialisation and by its consequent development needs. The nature of Japanese management and Japan's industrial system, although influenced by cultural attributes, was shaped by organisational and economic objectives attuned to the circumstances of the country's industrialisation, and competitive advantage followed from the unavoidably nationally specific process by which potential was ultimately matched by capability.     

Lawyers' Contribution to Business Development in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico

The Mexican Revolution (1910) brought important changes to thesocial, political and economic spheres of Mexico. New legislationwas passed to protect workers and redistribute land. The stateacquired rights to petroleum, water, and subsoil minerals. Forentrepreneurs this was an abrupt change from the previous regime.They had to adapt to the new policies and administrative statestructure. Business lawyers aided companies in a country wherethe government had circumscribed the private sector's participationin the economy. Lawyers offered their clients important services,such as lobbying and aid in corporate restructuring. This articleexplores how in the midst of these new revolutionary regimesan important investment group used the services of businesslawyer Manuel Gómez Morin to create Mexico's first holdingcompany and to issue the first mortgage bonds in the country.     

Business Ethics and The History of Economics in Spain "The School of Salamanca: A Bibliography"

The name "School of Salamanca" refers to a group of theologians and natural law philosophers who taught in the University of Salamanca, following the inspiration of the great Thomist Francisco de Vitoria. It turns out that the Scholastics were not simply medieval, but began in the 13th century and expanded through the 16th and 17th centuries; and they developed some original theories about economics and international law.Why should a few men mainly interested in theology and ethics apply themselves in analyzing issues so far from their worries? The answer leads us to a revision of the morality rules, due to the new problems in business ethics. Thus, for example, the appearance of inflation made them have doubts about the merchant's morality. In order to solve this and other problems, they began to analyze the new and suspicious economic activity. As a result of their observations about ethical issues they discovered some advanced theories for the history of economic thought, such as the early formulation of the quantity theory of money.In this article, we shall review the Spanish bibliography on this matter, to introduce the reader to a new and historical perspective of business ethics in Spain.     

An Introduction to Archival Research in Business History

In an endeavour to encourage the use of archival resources in business history research, this article indicates which repositories contain the most useful collections of relevant records, explains why these documents are of such importance, assesses their strengths and weaknesses for historical investigation, and suggests the types of question each collection is most suited to address. It also tries to ease the pain of using these repositories by outlining what finding aids are available and suggesting any short cuts or necessary preliminary steps to their successful use. Finally it offers some ideas of organisations which exist, in part, to help the researcher locate papers on specific topics or firms.     

Dwijendra Tripathi. The Oxford History of Indian Business

Dwijendra Tripathi has provided an invaluable service to scholarsand practitioners in business management, history, and socialsciences with his book, The Oxford History of Indian Business.Tripathi is considered to be the founder of the field of businesshistory (with an emphasis on all facets of this history includingpolitics, economics, and society) in India. His tenureship atthe Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad led to the adoptionof an academic and research program in business     

In Memoriam: Alfred Chandler and the Soul of Business History

I never really knew Al Chandler. While my teachers, Lou Galambos,David Hounshell, and Hugh Aitken, were to varying degrees closefriends with Chandler, I spoke at length with him only twice.I met Chandler for the first time in 1990 when I was tryingto decide where to do my doctorate and I met with him a secondtime when I held the Chandler Travel Fellowship at the HarvardBusiness School in 1995 as I was writing my doctoral dissertation.Chandler's scholarship consistently shaped my approach to thestudy of business history, yet my relationship was always toChandler's academic research rather than to him as a mentoror as a colleague. Although I never knew Chandler in a personal sense, I also neverknew business history without his overwhelming intellectualpresence. Since 1984, when I first studied economic historyunder Hugh Aitken as an undergraduate at Amherst     

The Contribution of the Energy industry to the Millennium Development Goals: A Benchmark Study

This paper evaluates the contribution of the energy industry (oil, gas and electricity) to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in three countries (Argentina, Colombia and Mexico). To build this international benchmark, a tool was built (the MDG-Scorecard), by drawing on theoretical frameworks and guides on how businesses can contribute to the MDGs. Results show that companies are making efforts to contribute to the environment, human rights, employment creation and labour rights. However, their effort is close to nil for the Goals with the weakest links with their core business. Findings also suggest that there is no coordinated and consistent strategy to achieve the MDGs either intra-company or inter-companies.