COMPARATIVE BUSINESS HISTORY

Consistently with the objectives of the curriculum in English in International Management, the course proposes to students a historical and critical approach to the study of the evolution of business forms and their governance.
In such a perspective, the educational aims of the course are: 1) making the students acquainted with historical debates on business; 2) provide the instruments to set managerial theoretical problems in their proper historical context; 3) understand the scope limiting conditions of managerial theories; 4) understand how the interpretation of the past influences managerial choices.
In particular, after an introduction presenting the peculiarity of a historical approach to business studies, the course will follow a chronological order taking into exam the historical evolution of business and theoretical debates of the time. Some classes will focus on Q&A on the textbook and on the presentation and discussion of case studies.

Knowledge and understanding:
Knowing the main discontinuities in business history, from preindustrial times to the scientific and industrial revolutions.
Understanding the main issues of the debate on business history.
Understanding the peculiar character of historical research vs social sciences.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
Ability to provide a historically consistent definition of business enterprise in different periods.
Ability to set correctly in the historical context the debates on business forms.
Ability to define the scope limiting conditions of managerial theories.

Judgment ability:
Ability to distinguish the forms of business following the historical context.
Ability to identify the influence of the interpretation of the past on managerial choices.

Communication ability:
Ability to publicly present research and to discuss it.

Learning ability:
Ability to read and critically discuss a historical text.
Ability to distinguish between historical rigour and scientific rigour.

Basic knowledge of general history at high-school level.

1 – Introduction. Theoretical approaches to business history
2 - Why is history different? (Rowlinson-Hassard-Decker, 2014)
3 - Pre-industrial forms of business (Epstein, 1998)
4 - Industrial revolution and industrious revolution (De Vries, 1994)
5 – The macroeconomic context 19th -21st Century: Globalization and Deglobalization
6 – Theories of the Firm (Coase, 1935)
7 - Schumpeter: A theory of the enterprise (Langlois, 2002)
8 – From the U form to the M form (Chandler, 1973; Williamson, 1981; Amatori-Colli, 2011, ch.1)
9 - The long rise of the corporation (Jones 2004; 2019, Lamoreaux, 1988)
10 - The emergence of the N-form (Powell, 1990)
11 - A network firm in evolution (Favero 2006)
12 – Business wrongdoing: fraud and corruption (Favero, 2013; Nix et al., 2022)
13- Innovation and Property Rights (Scott - Spadavecchia, 2023)
14- The evolution of the Market for Technology (Lamoreaux - Sokoloff, 2001; Arora -Gambardella, 2010)
15 – Conclusion and preparation for the assessment

Textbook:
Amatori F. & Colli A., 2011, Business History: Complexities and Comparisons, London: Routledge 2011, 272 pp. ISBN: 978-0415423977.

Papers:
Arora A. & Gambardella A., 2010, ‘Ideas for rent: an overview of markets for technology’. Industrial and Corporate Change, 19 (3): 775–803.
Chandler A.D., 1973, Decision Making and Modern Institutional Change, Journal of Economic History, 33(1): 1-15.
Coase R., 1937, The Nature of the Firm, Economica, 4: 386-405.
De Vries I., 1994, The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution, Journal of Economic History, 54(2): 249-270.
Epstein S.R., 1998, Craft guilds, apprenticeship and technological change in preindustrial Europe, Journal of Economic History, 58(3): 684-713.
Favero G., 2006, Benetton: Identifying an Image, Imagining an Identity, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, 06/WP/2006, pp. 1-9.
Favero G., 2013, Foreign family business and capital flight. The case for a fraud to fail, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Department of Management, 27/WP/2013, pp. 1-16
Jones G., 2004. Multinationals and Global Capitalism. Oxford University Press, Chapters 1- 2: 3-41
Jones, G., 1019. International Business and Emerging Markets in Historical Perspective. Harvard Business School Working Paper 18-020.
Lamoreaux N.M., 1998, Partnership, Corporations, and the Theory of the Firm, American Economic Review, 88 (2): 66-71.
Lamoreaux, N.R. & Sokoloff, K.L., 2001. Market trade in patents and the rise of a class of specialized inventors in the 19th century United States. American Economic Review, 91(2), pp.39-44.
Langlois R., 2002, Schumpeter and the Obsolescence of the Entrepreneur, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, WP 19/2002.
Nix, A., Decker, S. & Wolf, C., 2021, Enron and the California energy crisis: The role of networks in enabling organizational corruption. Business History Review, 95(4): 765-802.
Powell W.W., 1990, Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization, Research in Organizational Behavior, 12: 295-336.
Rowlinson M., Hassard J. and Decker S., 2014, Strategies for Organisational History: A Dialogue between Historical Theory and Organisation Theory, Academy of Management Review, 39(3): 250-274.
Scott, P. & Spadavecchia, A., 2023, Patents, market control and the rise of the giant American corporation’, Research Policy, 52/1, p.104651
Williamson O.E., 1981, The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes, Journal of Economic Literature, 19 (4): 1537-68.

The written exam (100% of the final grade) will be based on the course slides and ALL reference texts. Both slides and texts will be made available online. The exam will be with open books and will include an open question on a transversal theme. Students will have an hour to answer. They will be allowed to use books, notes, digital and online materials. However, they are required to answer on the course contents. An antiplagiarism check will be applied to the answers.

written

As for the final grade (how grades will be assigned), regardless of the attending or non-attending modality:
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in case of:
- sufficient knowledge and understanding applied to the programme,
- limited ability to collect and/or interpret data, making autonomous judgments;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to the history of business forms.
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- discrete knowledge and applied understanding of the programme;
- discrete ability to collect and/or interpret data, making autonomous judgments;
- discrete communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the history of business forms;
C. scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- good or excellent knowledge and understanding of the programme;
- good or excellent ability to collect and/or interpret data, making autonomous judgments;
- fully appropriate communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relevant to the history of business forms.
D. Honours will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and understanding applied in relation to the program, judgment skills and communication skills.

Frontal lessons with slideshow, interactive discussion on readings and team works.

Slideshows and all the texts will be made available online.

Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.