The Oxford Handbook of Business History

by Jones, Geoffrey; Zeitlin, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780199263684
• ISBN10: 019926368X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of research in business history. Business historians study the historical evolution of business systems, entrepreneurs and firms, as well as their interaction with their political, economic, and social environment. They address issues of central concern to researchers in management studies and business administration, as well as economics, sociology and political science, and to historians. They employ a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, but all share a belief in the importance of understanding change over time. The Oxford Handbook of Business History has brought together leading scholars to provide a comprehensive, critical, and interdisciplinary examination of business history, organized into four parts: Approaches and Debates; Forms of Business Organization; Functions of Enterprise; and Enterprise and Society. The Handbook shows that business history is a wide-ranging and dynamic area of study, generating compelling empirical data, which has sometimes confirmed and sometimes contested widely-held views in management and the social sciences. The Oxford Handbook of Business History is a key reference work for scholars and advanced students of Business History, and a fascinating resource for social scientists in general.

Author Biography

Geoffrey Jones is Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School. He previously taught at the universities of Cambridge and Reading, and at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in Great Britain. He is the author and editor of many books and articles on the history of international business, including British Multinational Banking 1830-1990 (OUP, 1993), Merchants to Multinationals (OUP, 2000), Multinationals and Global Capitalism (OUP, 2005) and Renewing Unilever (OUP, 2005). He is a former President of both the European Business History Association and the Business History Conference of the Untied States, is co-editor of the journal Business History Review.
Jonathan Zeitlin is Professor of Sociology, Public Affairs, Political Science, and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States where he is also Director of the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE) and the European Union Center of Excellence. He was previously Lecturer in Social and Economic History at Birkbeck College, London, and Research Fellow at King's College, Cambridge, in Great Britain. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on the comparative and historical analysis of business organization, employment relations, and socio-economic governance, most recently Local Players in Global Games: The Strategic Constitution of a Multinational Corporation (OUP, 2005). He is co-editor of the journal Socio-Economic Review, a member of the editorial board of Enterprise & Society, and a former Trustee of the Business History Conference.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. x
List of Tables	p. xi
Notes on the Contributors	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Approaches and Debates
Business History and History	p. 9
Economic Theory and Business History	p. 37
Business History and Economic Development	p. 67
Business History and Management Studies	p. 96
The Historical Alternatives Approach	p. 120
Globalization	p. 141
Forms of Business Organization
Big Business	p. 171
Family Business	p. 194
Industrial Districts and Regional Clusters	p. 219
Business Groups and Interfirm Networks	p. 244
Cartels	p. 268
Business Interest Associations	p. 293
Functions of Enterprise
Banking and Finance	p. 319
Technology and Innovation	p. 347
Design and Engineering	p. 374
Marketing and Distribution	p. 396
The Management of Labor and Human Resources	p. 420
Accounting, Information, and Communication Systems	p. 447
Corporate Governance	p. 470
Enterprise and Society
Entrepreneurship	p. 501
Business and the State	p. 529
Skill Formation and Training	p. 558
Business Education	p. 581
Business Culture	p. 603
Index	p. 629
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