Geoffrey G. Jones
There are 15 articles for this faculty member.
Business Summit: Historical Roots of Globalization
| Published: | July 7, 2009 |
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| Feature: | HBS Business Summit |
In this breakout session, panelists shared insights, informed by history, of the convergence that globalization promotes.
Published in 2008
Sharpening Your Skills: History Matters
| Published: | August 28, 2008 |
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| Feature: | Sharpening Your Skills |
Business history is a rich source of knowledge and inspiration for today's executives. Do we pay enough attention to the past? Here are four Working Knowledge articles that provide lessons from history about leaders, leadership, and business organization.
The Lessons of Business History: A Handbook
| Q&A with: | Geoffrey G. Jones |
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| Published: | March 17, 2008 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Compiling a handbook on the current thinking in any area of study seems daunting enough, but the just-published Oxford Handbook of Business History carries an even larger mission: bring the lessons of business history to current research in other disciplines and to the practice of business management itself. A Q&A with coeditor Geoffrey Jones.
Published in 2006
Managing Governments: Unilever in India and Turkey, 1950–1980
| Author: | Geoffrey G. Jones |
|---|---|
| Published: | August 8, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | June 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
During the postwar decades, consumer-products giant Unilever survived and even thrived in developing countries such as India and Turkey even as business conditions discouraged or drove away peer companies. Why? At least five factors explain Unilever's ability and willingness to persist in such developing countries. These factors may also explain why foreign direct investment shrank to low levels in these countries, and has remained low.
Entrepreneurship and Business History: Renewing the Research Agenda
| Authors: | Geoffrey G. Jones and R. Daniel Wadhwani |
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| Published: | August 8, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | July 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
This paper identifies major opportunities to raise entrepreneurship as a central research issue in business history and to build on the strong roots that are already in place in that discipline. Historical research on entrepreneurship began in the 1940s and 1950s, much of it at Harvard Business School, but then lost momentum. Nevertheless the paper shows the major achievements in exploring how context shaped the structure of entrepreneurship, and identifying the wide variation in organizational form and entrepreneurial behavior. It concludes with the main contributions of business history to the study of entrepreneurship, and proposes a renewed research agenda.
Globalizing the Beauty Business Before 1980
| Author: | Geoffrey G. Jones |
|---|---|
| Published: | July 11, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | June 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Even six-month-old infants may understand what makes faces "attractive," regardless of ethnicity, but adults vary considerably in how they present themselves through clothes, hairstyles, and physical appearance. Studying the period from 1945 to 1980, this paper examines the drivers of the globalization of beauty; the strategies that firms employed to overcome challenges to globalization; and the outcomes, including the level to which globalization has brought about a homogenization of beauty ideals and practices.
Nationality and Multinationals in Historical Perspective
| Author: | Geoffrey G. Jones |
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| Published: | July 10, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | May 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Many people believe that globalization has caused companies to lose their national identity. This study traces the history of corporations and nationality and finds that multinational companies have always had ambiguities, particularly before World War I. National subsidiaries became stronger in the twentieth century, and companies like Ford, for example, would feel very American in the United States, but have a more local identity in another part of the world. In the twenty-first century, globalization has caused a reemergence of issues concerning corporate nationality. However, this research shows that in many ways corporate affiliation with a country may matter more than ever.
Schumpeter's Plea: Rediscovering History and Relevance in the Study of Entrepreneurship
| Authors: | Geoffrey G. Jones and Dan Wadhwani |
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| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | February 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Academic studies of entrepreneurship have focused on people and firms but ignored the context of history. The result is an over-reliance in the experiences of high-tech start-ups in the U.S., leading to generalizations using empirical evidence from an exceptional and atypical industry and location. Economist Joseph Schumpeter believed the study of entrepreneurial behavior made little sense without the equal study of the broader industrial, social, and economic setting in which they operated. An exchange between historical and social scientific approaches will yield far richer understanding.
Published in 2005
Unilever: Transformation and Tradition
| Published: | November 28, 2005 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
In a new book, professor Geoffrey Jones looks at Unilever's decades-old transformation from fragmented underperformer to focused consumer products giant. This epilogue summarizes the years 1960 to 1990.
Restoring a Global Economy, 1950–1980
| Published: | August 22, 2005 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
In his recent book Multinationals and Global Capitalism, professor Geoffrey Jones dissects the influence of multinationals on the world economy. This excerpt recalls the rebuilding of the global economy following World War II.
Published in 2004
Bringing History into International Business
| Authors: | Geoffrey G. Jones and Tarun Khanna |
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| Published: | July 5, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | September 2004 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
International Business scholars often talk about history, but rarely take it seriously. The first generation of International Business scholars placed a high priority on evolutionary and historical perspectives and methodology, but little work these days grapples with the history of International Business or uses historical data to explore an issue. Jones and Khanna discuss new avenues for researching business groups in history and in contemporary emerging markets, resource-based and path-dependent theories of the firm, and foreign direct investment and development over time.
Business History around the World
| Q&A with: | Geoffrey G. Jones |
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| Published: | May 3, 2004 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
One way to understand management trends and ideas today is to look at yesterday. HBS entrepreneurship professor Geoffrey G. Jones and co-editor Franco Amatori have done just that with their new book, Business History around the World.
Published in 2002
Unilever—A Case Study
| Published: | December 9, 2002 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
As one of the oldest and largest foreign multinationals doing business in the U.S., the history of Unilever's investment in the United States offers a unique opportunity to understand the significant problems encountered by foreign firms. Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey Jones has done extensive research on Unilever, based on full access to restricted corporate records. This recent article from Business History Review is the first publication resulting from that research.
Foreign Multinationals in the U.S.: A Rocky Road
| Q&A with: | Geoffrey G. Jones |
|---|---|
| Published: | September 2, 2002 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Why do many of the world’s leading multinationals experience managerial and performance problems in the United States? The answers, as offered by Harvard Business School professor Geoffrey G. Jones, provide lessons for all companies operating on foreign soil.
Published in 2001
Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
| Published: | March 12, 2001 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
It was a business world defined by globalization and growing interdependency. But it's not international trade circa 2000. As HBS professor Geoffrey Jones points out, the "global economy" first emerged in the 1870s.
