Skip to main content

Business History

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management
  • 133 Accesses

Abstract

For academics and practitioners of strategic management, the study of ‘business history’ is not simply a matter of gaining an understanding of what happened in the past. Rather, in making strategic allocation decisions in the face of uncertainty, knowledge of business history is essential for developing a perspective on the path to innovative success in the future. Strategy is about change, and the objective of business strategy is to influence the process of change so that the business enterprise can generate higher quality, lower cost products than were previously available.

This entry was originally published on Palgrave Connect under ISBN 978-1-137-49190-9. The content has not been changed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Amatori, F., and G. Jones (eds.). 2003. Business history around the world at the end of the twentieth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Best, M.H. 1990. The new competition: Institutions of industrial restructuring. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Best, M.H., and E. Garnsey. 1999. Edith Penrose, 1914–1996. Economic Journal 109: 187–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler Jr., A.D. 1962. Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the American industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler Jr., A.D. 1977. The visible hand: The managerial revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler Jr., A.D. 1990. Scale and scope: The dynamics of industrial capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler Jr., A.D. 2001. Inventing the electronic century: The epic story of the consumer electronic and computer industries. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandler Jr., A.D. 2005. Shaping the industrial century: The remarkable story of the revolution of the modern chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foss, N.J. 1997. Resources, firms, and strategies: A reader in the resource-based perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foss, N.J. 1999. Edith Penrose, economics, and strategic management. Contributions to Political Economy 18: 87–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galambos, L. 1966. Business history and the theory of the growth of the firm. Explorations in Entrepreneurial History 4: 3–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, G., and J. Zeitlin (eds.). 2008. The Oxford handbook of business history. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 1994. The integration of theory and history: Methodology and ideology in Schumpeter’s economics. In Evolutionary and neo-schumpeterian approaches to economics, ed. L. Magnusson. Norwell: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 2002a. Innovative enterprise and historical transformation. Enterprise & Society 3: 35–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 2002b. The US industrial corporation and the theory of the growth of the firm. In The growth of the firm: The legacy of Edith Penrose, ed. C. Pitelis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 2005. The innovative firm. In The Oxford handbook of innovation, ed. J. Fagerberg, D. Mowery, and R. Nelson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 2010. The Chandlerian corporation and the theory of innovative enterprise. Industrial and Corporate Change 19: 317–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W. 2012. Alfred Chandler’s managerial revolution: Developing and utilizing productive resources. In Management innovation: Essays in the spirit of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr, ed. W. Lazonick and D.J. Teece. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lazonick, W., and D.J. Teece (eds.). 2012. Management innovation: Essays in the spirit of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Machlup, F. 1967. Theories of the firm: Marginalist, behavioral, managerial. American Economic Review 57: 1–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penrose, E.T. 1959. The theory of the growth of the firm. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penrose, E.T. 1960. The growth of the firm: A case study of Hercules Powder Company. Business History Review 34: 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Penrose, E. T. 1989. History, the social sciences, and economic ‘theory’, with special reference to multinational enterprise. In Historical studies in international corporate business. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pitelis, C. (ed.). 2002. The growth of the firm: The legacy of Edith Penrose. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumpeter, J.A. 1954. History of economic analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teece, D.J. 2009. Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William Lazonick .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lazonick, W. (2016). Business History. In: Augier, M., Teece, D. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_535-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_535-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-94848-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics