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Oral History and the Business History of Emerging Markets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

GEOFFREY JONES  and
RACHAEL COMUNALE
GEOFFREY JONES
Affiliation:
Geoffrey Jones is the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School. His recent books include Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Varieties of Green Business: Industries, Nations and Time (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018). E-mail:gjones@hbs.edu
RACHAEL COMUNALE
Affiliation:
Rachael Comunale was a research associate at the Harvard Business School. E-mail: rec2134@columbia.edu
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Abstract

This article highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of creating and making accessible corporate archives in most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It also permits a level of nuance that is hard to obtain even if written archives are accessible. Oral histories provide insights into why events did not occur, and why companies have chosen certain industries over others. Oral history can also shed light on hyper-sensitive topics, such corruption, which are rarely formally documented.

Type
Special Section on Oral History
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 19 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2019. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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Footnotes

The authors would like to thank the generous funding of the Division of Research and Faculty Development at the Harvard Business School.

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Amsden, Alice H. The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. Entrepreneurship and Multinationals: Global Business and the Making of the Modern World. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Zeitlin, Jonathan, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Business History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Helen. Engines of Growth: The State and Transnational Auto Companies in Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherbiny, Naiem A., and Hatem, Omaima M. State and Entrepreneurs in Egypt: Economic Development since 1805. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasserman, Mark. Pesos and Politics: Business, Elites, Foreigners, and Government in Mexico, 1854–1940. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Nicholas J. British Business in Post-Colonial Malaysia, 1957–70. London: Routledge, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, Gareth, Dávila, Carlos, and Jones, Geoffrey. “The Alternative Business History: Business in Emerging Markets.” Business History Review 91, no. 3 (2017): 537–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castellani, Ana Gabriela. “Difusión de ámbitos privilegiados de acumulación en la historia argentina reciente. Intervención económica estatal y comportamiento empresario, 1966–1989.” Revista: Sociohistórica, no. 21–22 (2007): 17–53.Google Scholar
Colpan, Asli, and Jones., Geoffrey “Business Groups, Entrepreneurship and the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey.” Business History 58, no. 1 (2016): 69–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, Cheng, Zuzul, Tiona, Jones, Geoffrey, and Khanna, Tarun. “Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival.” Strategic Management Journal 38, no. 11 (2017): 2147–2167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Lluch, Andrea. “Argentine and Chilean Business in the Second Global Economy.” In The Impact of Globalization on Argentina and Chile. Business Enterprises and Entrepreneurship, edited by Jones, Geoffrey and Lluch, Andrea, 248–274. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Spadafora, Andrew. “Creating Ecotourism in Costa Rica, 1970–2000.” Enterprise & Society 18, no. 1 (March 2017): 146–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Comunale, Rachael. “Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970.” Australian Economic History Review 58, no. 3 (2018): 233–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millward, Robert. “Business and the State.” In The Oxford Handbook of Business History, edited by Jones, Geoffrey and Zeitlin, Jonathan, 529–557. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Notcheff, Hugo. “Los senderos perdidos del desarrollo. Elite económica y restricciones al desarrollo en la Argentina.” In El desarrollo ausente. Restricciones al desarrollo, neoconservadurismo y elite económica en la Argentina. Ensayos de Economía Política, edited by Azpiazu, Daniel and Nochteff, Hugo, 21–156. Buenos Aires: Norma-FLACSO, 1994.Google Scholar
Recio, Gabriela. “Lawyers’ Contributions to Business Development in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico.” Enterprise & Society 5, no. 2 (2004): 281–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribeiro de Oliveira, M. Teresa. “The Origins of the Pioneer Cotton Mills in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1868–1879.” Enterprise & Society 5, no. 2 (2004): 226–253.Google Scholar
Rose-Ackerman, Susan. “‘Grand’ Corruption and the Ethics of Global Business.” Journal of Banking and Finance 26, no. 9 (2002): 1889–1918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvard Business School, Baker Library Historical Collections, Creating Emerging Markets Project, Boston, MA. https://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/Pages/default.aspxGoogle Scholar
Amsden, Alice H. The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. Entrepreneurship and Multinationals: Global Business and the Making of the Modern World. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey. Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Zeitlin, Jonathan, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Business History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shapiro, Helen. Engines of Growth: The State and Transnational Auto Companies in Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherbiny, Naiem A., and Hatem, Omaima M. State and Entrepreneurs in Egypt: Economic Development since 1805. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasserman, Mark. Pesos and Politics: Business, Elites, Foreigners, and Government in Mexico, 1854–1940. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Nicholas J. British Business in Post-Colonial Malaysia, 1957–70. London: Routledge, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, Gareth, Dávila, Carlos, and Jones, Geoffrey. “The Alternative Business History: Business in Emerging Markets.” Business History Review 91, no. 3 (2017): 537–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castellani, Ana Gabriela. “Difusión de ámbitos privilegiados de acumulación en la historia argentina reciente. Intervención económica estatal y comportamiento empresario, 1966–1989.” Revista: Sociohistórica, no. 21–22 (2007): 17–53.Google Scholar
Colpan, Asli, and Jones., Geoffrey “Business Groups, Entrepreneurship and the Growth of the Koç Group in Turkey.” Business History 58, no. 1 (2016): 69–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gao, Cheng, Zuzul, Tiona, Jones, Geoffrey, and Khanna, Tarun. “Overcoming Institutional Voids: A Reputation-Based View of Long Run Survival.” Strategic Management Journal 38, no. 11 (2017): 2147–2167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Lluch, Andrea. “Argentine and Chilean Business in the Second Global Economy.” In The Impact of Globalization on Argentina and Chile. Business Enterprises and Entrepreneurship, edited by Jones, Geoffrey and Lluch, Andrea, 248–274. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Spadafora, Andrew. “Creating Ecotourism in Costa Rica, 1970–2000.” Enterprise & Society 18, no. 1 (March 2017): 146–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Geoffrey, and Comunale, Rachael. “Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970.” Australian Economic History Review 58, no. 3 (2018): 233–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millward, Robert. “Business and the State.” In The Oxford Handbook of Business History, edited by Jones, Geoffrey and Zeitlin, Jonathan, 529–557. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Notcheff, Hugo. “Los senderos perdidos del desarrollo. Elite económica y restricciones al desarrollo en la Argentina.” In El desarrollo ausente. Restricciones al desarrollo, neoconservadurismo y elite económica en la Argentina. Ensayos de Economía Política, edited by Azpiazu, Daniel and Nochteff, Hugo, 21–156. Buenos Aires: Norma-FLACSO, 1994.Google Scholar
Recio, Gabriela. “Lawyers’ Contributions to Business Development in Early Twentieth-Century Mexico.” Enterprise & Society 5, no. 2 (2004): 281–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribeiro de Oliveira, M. Teresa. “The Origins of the Pioneer Cotton Mills in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1868–1879.” Enterprise & Society 5, no. 2 (2004): 226–253.Google Scholar
Rose-Ackerman, Susan. “‘Grand’ Corruption and the Ethics of Global Business.” Journal of Banking and Finance 26, no. 9 (2002): 1889–1918.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvard Business School, Baker Library Historical Collections, Creating Emerging Markets Project, Boston, MA. https://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/Pages/default.aspxGoogle Scholar