Management Historians Research Articles

Sizzle without the steak: the emerging strategic implications of receiving a free offering in the digital age

Purpose This study aims to fill a gap in the literature. The notion of giveaways/free has not been well addressed in management history literature and arguably is a valuable contribution in that it has a strategic dimension. Design/methodology/approach This paper is conceptual. It is a structured survey of ideas/opinions about the notion of “free” in commercial endeavor. The survey is organized largely from a historical perspective. Findings Several categories of “free” are delineated and placed into a historical and strategic context. Originality/value The work has strategic implications and lays out a new research agenda for management historians.

Business history and social media: A concise review

ABSTRACT In this short essay, we draw on recent studies in history, communication, information science, and social sciences to offer a concise review of the history of social media both as a business model and as a distinctive academic data source. We start with an overview of the development of social media platforms in the past several decades and then move into a brief survey of the state of the field, examining how business, economic, and management historians engage with social media. Next, we introduce several commonly adopted analytical approaches and computational tools for processing historical social media data. Our final discussion addresses several key issues surrounding the analysis of historical social media data in business and economic history.

Firm objects: new realist insights into the sociohistorical ontology of the business enterprise

PurposeBy engaging with recent debates between management historians over social constructionism, this paper aims to show the merits of adopting a new realist ontology of the business enterprise. In contrast with ANTi-History, the purpose is to provide a philosophically rigorous conception of social objects and to argue that enterprises are a member of this category.Design/methodology/approachInsights from Maurizio Ferraris’s documentality theory and Graham Harman’s philosophy of social objects are used to identify the ontological forming ground and developmental pathway of an Antipodean stevedoring company that operated prior to the deregulation of New Zealand’s ports in 1989.FindingsWith regard to social entities in general and firms in particular, continental philosophy’s resurgent realist movement provides a history-aware social ontology that incorporates the grain of truth lying within social constructionism. As exemplified by the writings of Ferraris and Harman, realism provides a viable conception of social objects and, in so doing, a more coherent ontological foundation for the business enterprise than the relational ontology embraced by management history ANTians.Originality/valueBy drawing on two realist perspectives hitherto neglected by management historians, this paper resolves disagreements about the ontology of the business enterprise.

The past masters: the impact of the Evolution of Management Thought on history

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Evolution of Management Thought (EMT), a critically acclaimed text in management and organizational studies for its value in historicizing the practice of management.Design/methodology/approachThe authors asked Daniel Wren and Arthur Bedeian in their own words to their contribution. In addition, the authors offer commentary and critique of 16 leading management historians who share their reflections on the intellectual significance of Wren and Bedeian, and the punctuation of EMT as a canonical text in the field of management history.FindingsThe legacy of Wren and Bedeian can be felt across the academy of historical research on business and organizations. Their work has separately made significant contributions to management studies but together they have forged a fruitful partnership that has given rise to multiple generations of scholars and scholarship that continue to shape the field to this day.Originality/valueThe contribution of the authors in this article is to mark the significant milestone of EMT’s five-decade success by hearing from the authors themselves about their longstanding success as well as giving space to critique about the past, present and future of our collective historical scholarship shaped by Wren and Bedeian’s legacy.

James G. March and management history: the case of government reorganizations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine March and Olsen’s 1983 study of American Government reorganization attempts between 1904 and 1980 in relation to three debates in management history scholarship. Can explorations of the past yield innovative interpretations of the present and future organizational activities? What is the role of multiple perspectives in understanding complex reality? How should management historians react to the differences in power held by various actors in historical scenarios and to the absence of documented evidence of the stances of many traditionally underrepresented groups?Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyzes March and Olsen’s 1983 historical study on federal government reorganizations in relation to twentieth-century political science/public administration scholarship from 1919 to the present showing the unique focus and conclusion of March and Olsen’s work. The paper relates this focus and conclusions to three management questions.FindingsThis analysis shows that March and Olsen’s interpretation of American reorganization has had a significant impact on the work of political scientists studying programs that did not exist in 1983; this impact suggests how historical scholarship can invigorate understanding of current programs. The analysis also gives evidence to support March and Olsen’s focus on the importance of considering multiple perspectives to interpret complex realities. The analysis concludes that despite March’s acknowledging the importance of anti-establishment scholarship, March and Olsen’s 1983 work did not explore the role of power differentials or the voices of the oppressed in government reorganizations.Originality/valueThe value of this paper is that it seeks to relate March and Olsen’s work to a scholarship domain where it has not often been considered. Management historians lament that their work and concerns have often been considered peripheral by the greater management field. By showing how a major management theorist such as March used historical analysis to further understanding of contemporary organizations the paper heightens the visibility and importance of management history work.

Taking an eventful historic turn down the cultural memory lane

PurposeThis paper aims to find common ground between the supposed incompatible meta-historical positioning of positivism and post-positivism through a turn to mnemohistory in management and organizational history.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the idea of creative synthesis and positioning theory, the authors interject concepts from cultural memory studies in historical research on business and organizations to encourage management historians and organization theorists interested in joining the dialogue around how the past is known in the present. Using notions of “aftermath” and “events,” the idea of apositivism is written into historical organization studies to focus on understanding the complex ways of how past events translate into history. The critical historic turn event is raised as an exemplar of these ideas.FindingsThe overview of the emergence of the controversial historic turn in management and organization studies and the positioning of its adherents and antagonists revealed that there may be some commonality between the fragmented sense of the field. It was revealed that effective historyvis-à-vismnemohistory may hold the potential of a shared scholarly ethic.Originality/valueThe research builds on recent work that has sought to bring together the boundaries of management and organizational history. This paper explains how mnemohistory can offer a common position that is instrumental for theorizing the relationships among the past-infused constructs such as organizational heritage, legacy and identity.

The ‘value’ of business archives: assessing the academic importance of corporate archival collections

ABSTRACT Corporate archives represent the primary source material for business and management historians. Given that many of the most extensive and important business archives are held and managed by the corporations that generated them, maintaining corporate ‘buy-in’ to preserving records and making archives available to researchers is vital to our discipline. However, corporate archives have to justify their existence and are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of their function (and, by implication, their records). Meanwhile, corporate archivists often find it particularly difficult to assess, and demonstrate, the value of their collections for academics and other external stakeholders. This article discusses an initiative to provide academic evaluations of the archival resources of companies that were considering increasing the accessibility of their records for external users. The original idea was a response to a request from Marks and Spencer plc for an academic evaluation of their archives, the success of which led to similar evaluations for BT plc and Boots plc. We outline the criteria by which these firms’ archives were assessed, together with how the evaluations informed subsequent decisions regarding the future development of their archives, assisted the firms in gaining external accreditations for their heritage resources, and supported initiatives to boost access, either physically and/or online. We also briefly consider one further consequence of the increased investment in archival resources following these initiatives – the wider interest in, and use of, the archives within the companies concerned – to support a range of business functions and draw on the strengths of their heritage and corporate culture.

Contextual analysis and newspaper archives in management history research

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reveal, how newspaper archives can support contextualisation in management history research by providing quantitative and/or qualitative, accurate, contemporary and cost-effective, data which is not always available elsewhere. Design/methodology/approach The paper comprises a literature review, which summarises research into contextual analysis and newspaper archive theory; combined with content and textual analysis of articles published in the Journal of Management History and Management and Organizational History (2013-2017). Findings The findings reveal that the concept of contextualisation is absent from recent management history articles and that few management historians use newspaper archival sources as a data collection strategy. Research limitations/implications There is compelling evidence to suggest that contextual analysis can – perhaps should – be incorporated into management historians’ research strategies because managerial organisations operate in open systems, which are influenced by external factors. Originality/value This paper juxtaposes two neglected aspects of management history research, contextuality and newspaper archives, and proposes that a key source for historic contextual analysis is newspaper data.

Nurturing the historic turn: “history as theory” versus “history as method”

Purpose This paper aims to explore the turn in management and organization studies (MOS) and reflect on “history as theory” versus “history as method”. Design/methodology/approach Looking at previous research and the evolution of MOS, this paper situates the special issue papers in the current climate of this area of research. Findings The special issue papers included here each make a theoretical contribution to methodology in historical organization studies. Originality/value The eight articles featured in the special issue offer examples of innovative and historically sensitive methodology that, according to the authors, increase the management historian toolkit and ultimately enhance the methodological pluralism of historical organization studies as a field.

Achieving selves

Purpose Arguably, how psychohistorians treat entrepreneur life-writing interiorizes the autobiographer’s self, thereby limiting the extent to which self can be accessed by researchers. By advocating a different approach, based on socio-narratology, this paper provides insight into how entrepreneurs in both the distant and recent past construct narrative identities – the textual corollary of “storied selves” – within their autobiographies. Design/methodology/approach The object of analysis is the failed entrepreneur autobiography, straddling two sub-genres – “projective” and “confessional” – which both serve to rehabilitate the author. Findings Narratological analysis of Nick Leeson’s Rogue Trader autobiography reveals how the author deftly draws upon the culturally recognizable trope of the “rogue as trickster” and “rogue as critic” to contextualize his deceptive and illegal activities, before signaling his desire for rehabilitation by exiting banking and futures trading – thereby enacting the “rogue as family man”. Practical implications The application of a narratological methodology opens up new avenues for understanding the interplay between Western cultural institutions, entrepreneur selves, and autobiographical writing. Originality/value This paper shows that narratology provides a new methodological window through which management historians can view entrepreneur autobiographies.

CDW: The Persistent Historian, Researcher and Debunker

This symposium honors the memory of Charles D. Wrege. Chuck (1924-2014) served as the Academy of Management's Historian and Archivist and was a cherished member of the Management History Division. Each presenter will share stories and memories of working with Chuck and his many contributions to management history and the Academy of Management.

Towards micro-foundations of institutional change

PurposeGiven managerial choices and the sociocultural context in which they are made are at the heart of management history, then an understanding of both is critical. This paper argues that the “late” North (2005) provides such an understanding.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a research review synthesizing much disparate but cognate literature across the new institutionalism in organizational sociology/studies and in economics.Findings“Late” North (2005) provides an important ontological frame for dealing with the so-called “paradox of embedded agency”, an approach that may afford management historians a more thorough account of how institutions are formed and change over time. North has always maintained that institutional change is the outcome of deliberate or intentional choices made by actors. However, and unlike his earlier work which ignores how humans come to make the said choices, North (2005) explicates the sociocognitive process by which intentionality emerges with expanded consciousness, as humans construct ideas and beliefs about reality, beliefs that shape decisions to alter the said reality via the process of institutional change.Originality/valueIt is rather curious that despite North’s status as a “historian”, management historians – or at least those publishing in this journal from its founding in 1995 – do not seem to be terribly interested in North’s work. Although North rates a mention in rival journals, other than Dagnino and Quattrone’s (2006) study, papers in this journal invoking institutional theory align with the new institutionalism in organizational sociology/studies (NIOS) rather than North’s new institutional economics (NIE). Even in the related sub-discipline of business history, those professing an interest in institutions are more interested in the NIE of non-historians Coase and Oliver Williamson than they are in North’s NIE. And, in recent work analysing the place and significance of institutional theory in historical research, the foundations are unmistakeably NIOS rather than North’s NIE.

The history of the modernisation construct

PurposeThis paper aims to trace and/or historicise modernisation as a conceptual framework from the antecedents to present times. It also highlights the recent and past attention provided to modernisation by business and economic history scholars to recognise their contribution.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a literature review which offers a sample of debate from foundational scholars regarding the concept of modernisation emanating from sociologists, historians and business scholars. To present an analysis of the recent activity from business scholars on modernisation from highly recognizable journals and draw conclusions about the conceptual framework regarding its future as a framing device, the authors used search functions in the Business Source Complete database and specific journal search engines.FindingsA keyword search of modernisation produced 45 published articles from 2000 to 2016 in business-related history and Financial Times top 50 journals. The foremost recognizable aspect of modernisation, as a construct presented here, demonstrates the concept that aims to illustrate a basic and/or universal pattern of the social processes that primarily affect development (e.g. cultural, economic, organisational, ecological, technological, etc.). Moreover, the authors demonstrate that economic and business scholars helped identify and explain different types of modernisation, reinforce or connect specific characteristics to modernisation, develop modernisation as an index capable of measurement and provide evidence of modernisation as a rhetorical strategy.Originality/valueLittle to no previous studies on modernisation emphasised on the contribution of business and economic historians; instead, they focused on the contributions of sociologists and social historians. Business and management historians served as an important voice in the development of modernisation as a conceptual frame. They highlighted the opportunities that are available to position modernisation as a useful tool to predict the future of traditional and advanced organisations.

Management science, planning, and demand management

Purpose This paper explores the “proto-Keynesian” ideas of progressive members of the scientific management community with regard to micro- and macroeconomic planning/management. Design/methodology/approach Based on a systematic exegetical analysis of articles published in a largely unexplored primary/archival source, the Bulletin of the Taylor Society between 1915 and 1934. Findings This paper surfaces a latent “proto-Keynesian” bedrock among progressive segments of the US management community that provides a more cogent explanation for the wholehearted reception, as well as the decisive impact, of Keynes’ ideas on US macroeconomic policy than do extant explanations in the history of economic thought. Further, it reveals that most of these progressive managers with views as to both cause of and solution for the 1930’s Depression were members of the Taylor Society, an epistemic community devoted to the ideas of Frederick Winslow Taylor, the father of scientific management. Originality/value The paper adds to the small but growing corpus of revisionist management history that seeks to problematize the received wisdom about scientific management or Taylorism. Few, if any, management historians appreciate that F. W. Taylor provided the basic planning tools which if developed, could enhance humanity’s control over anarchic market forces and aid the construction of a society based on democratic and effective planning.

Toward polyphonic constitutive historicism: a new research agenda for management historians

Ten years after the call for a ‘historic turn,’ this paper builds on recent developments in organizational remembering scholarship to outline a new research agenda for management historians. Traditionally, management historians have focused on understanding what actually took place in the past. The research agenda for management historians proposed in this paper involves a shift in focus to understanding how perceptions of the past influence economic action in the present. This paper outlines a new methodology for management research. The paper argues that management scholars need to draw on the latest research in the field of social memory studies to ensure that our methodologies for investigation organizational remembering are polyphonic. Polyphonic research involves attempt to capture and analyze diverse voices, rather than just a single voice or just the voices of a few elite individuals within an organization. We critique much of the existing literature on how the past on organizational memory is non-polyphonic in the sense that the historical ideas of only a small number of actors are considered.

Using History Ahistorically: Presentism and the Tranquility Fallacy

Much attention in this journal has been paid to the ahistorical nature of management and organizational studies. Drawing from academic, practitioner and consultant literature, I look at examples where history itself is called upon – absent any of the theoretical and methodological discipline that should accompany history – to augment an authors' analysis and conclusion. In particular, I focus on presentism and the tranquility fallacy; the terms I use to label the tendency to find the current era to be exceptionally, even uniquely turbulent and past eras to seem calm in comparison. Calling on both economic and philosophical fields, I argue that presentism is a universal human condition, inherent in the state of being. The turbulence fallacy, however, compounds that flaw, distorts the past, and severely constricts our capacity to learn from experience. The essay concludes with a call for management historians to counter the tranquility fallacy.

A review of the North American Society for Sport Management and its foundational core

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the development of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and to map the foundation that specific individuals, historical works, and historians provided the founders of that organization and the field of sport management in general. The paper also aims to track the early beginnings of sport management and present sport as a viable area for business and management historians to conduct their research and discuss theory. Design/methodology/approach – Following the initial work started by deWilde et al., this study drew on a wide range of primary and secondary sources and took an antiquarian and reconstructionist approach. Specifically, time-specific sport-related/focused dissertations, research articles, and archives from NASSM, along with published books and archives, were used to work toward the purpose of the study. Findings – This paper illustrates that some of the critical founding members of sport management and NASSM drew upon the training of historians, with special emphasis from business history, and reacted to specific prompts to create the field (i.e. sport management). “History” and trained historians directly impacted the field of sport management by helping to establish NASSM, the Journal of Sport Management, and graduate study programs, in addition to fashioning the first field accreditation standards and seminal textbooks needed to educate the generalist or specialist sport management student. Research limitations/implications – This research only tracks the beginnings of sport management and focuses on the contribution of “history” toward its development. This work recognizes there were other influences that were critical to the development of sport management. Practical implications – Over time, sport management scholars have moved away from their small historical base and more toward true quantitative preferences. While this has helped the field gain some respectability within contemporary preferences, the re-utilization of historical methods and/or perspectives can help serve the future of sport management and business/management history research toward the study of emerging topics. Through collaboration sport management's leadership can realize the potential of the historical approach/orientation and management historians can enjoy another outlet to communicate their thoughts regarding management topics and theories. Originality/value – The paper highlights that sport is rich in context and available to use for the study of management theory and behaviors.

The first systematized uses of the term “management” in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to seek to reveal the familial roots of modern management thought, largely overlooked by a vast majority of management historians.Design/methodology/approachUsing a hermeneutic approach, the early uses of the word “management” are analyzed, as well as the different literature where it is the most frequently employed.Findings“Management” does not mean primarily “business management.” Rather, the first meanings of this word refer to the family realm. As such, the development of early management thought is not a matter of technical or scientific innovation, nor is it a matter of institutional size or profit. For a long time, management practices have concerned things more than people. In the twentieth century, the principle of control comes to supersede the principles of care and self‐government.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper's findings call for another history of management thought, as against the too narrow histories of modern business management and the too inclusive histories of management as an ancestral and universal practice.Practical implicationsThis research sheds light on two forgotten roots of management thought: the principles of care and of self‐government, which management practitioners could bring up‐to‐date. By presenting the family as the first locus of true “management” thought, it is an invitation to draw from domestic ways of governing.Originality/valueThe historical material here analyzed remains largely unknown to management historians. The method, focusing on text analysis rather than on the study of practices, remains rare in the field of management history.

A brief business history of an on‐line distribution system for academic research called NEP, 1998‐2010

PurposeApplications of information technology have been directly responsible for the increase in productivity of business, government and academic activities. Business and management historians have yet to contribute to better understanding such processes. This paper aims to address this shortcoming through the internal and organisational history of a system for speedy, online distribution of recent additions to the broad literatures on economics and related areas called NEP: New Economic Papers.Design/methodology/approachThis is a first person account (partly autobiographical) which also includes interviews and the use of archived e‐mail correspondence.FindingsThe advent of the internet promised a revolutionary change by democratising the social institutions related to the creation and dissemination of academic knowledge. Instead, this story tells how participants slowly but steadily tended to replicate established institutions.Social implicationsThis paper provides a story of the NEP project and shows how one person's drive could generate a broader community of volunteers (constituted by a large number of academics and practitioners who provide critical support for its functioning). The paper provides details of the social and technological challenges for the construction of the technological platform as well as the evolution of its governance.Originality/valueThere is no historiography in business and management history on how to deal with changes in archived material resulting from the application of information and telecommunication technologies. Given the rate of change for events in the third industrial revolution, this paper shows it is possible and indeed relevant to document events in the recent past.

A Brief Business History of an On-Line Distribution System for Academic Research Called NEP, 1998-2010

Applications of information technology have been directly responsible for the increase in productivity of business, government and academic activities. Business and management historians have yet to contribute to better understanding such processes. This paper aims to address this shortcoming through the internal and organisational history of a system for speedy, online distribution of recent additions to the broad literatures on economics and related areas called NEP: New Economic Papers.This is a first person account (partly autobiographical) which also includes interviews and the use of archived e-mail correspondence.The advent of the Internet promised a revolutionary change by democratising the social institutions related to the creation and dissemination of academic knowledge. Instead, this story tells how participants slowly but steadily tended to replicate established institutions.Researching the impact of the Internet on organizations is a promising topic for historians, for which this might be one case study.The development of NEP provides an illustrative example for the kind of new business models that have emerged as the Internet has been used by creative minds to provide existing services in a new way.This paper provides a story of the NEP project and shows how one person’s drive could generate a broader community of volunteers (constituted by a large number of academics and practitioners who provide critical support for its functioning). We provide details of the social and technological challenges for the construction of the technological platform as well as the evolution of its governance.There is no historiography in business and management history on how to deal with changes in archived material resulting from the application of information and telecommunication technologies. Given the rate of change for events in the third industrial revolution, this article shows is its possible and indeed relevant to document events in the recent past.