COMPARATIVE BUSINESS HISTORY
- Academic year
- 2023/2024 Syllabus of previous years
- Official course title
- COMPARATIVE BUSINESS HISTORY
- Course code
- EM6059 (AF:400003 AR:215708)
- Modality
- On campus classes
- ECTS credits
- 6
- Degree level
- Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
- Educational sector code
- SECS-P/12
- Period
- 1st Term
- Course year
- 2
- Where
- VENEZIA
- Moodle
- Go to Moodle page
Contribution of the course to the overall degree programme goals
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.
Expected learning outcomes
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.
Pre-requirements
Contents
2 - Why history is different? (Rowlinson-Hassard-Decker).
3 - Pre-industrial forms of business (Epstein).
4 - The case of a preindustrial manufacture: ceramics (Favero 2006)*
5 - Industrial revolution and industrious revolution (De Vries 1994)
6 - A theory of the firm (Coase).
7 - Schumpeter: A theory of the enterprise (Langlois).
8 - The macroeconomic context: from the Great Depression to the Great Recession.
9 – Birth of the U-form (Chandler).
10 - The long rise of the corporation (Lamoreaux).
11 - A case of shifting corporate governance (Favero 2012)*
12- An institutional interpretation of the M-form (Williamson). Theoretical approaches to business history (Amatori-Colli, ch.1)
13 - The emergence of the N-form (Powell).
14 - A network firm in evolution (Favero 2005)
15 - Historical alternatives and technological trajectories: the case of the automotive.
Referral texts
Amatori F. & Colli A., 2011, Business History: Complexities and Comparisons, London: Routledge 2011, 272 pp. ISBN: 978-0415423977.
Papers:
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, Old and new ceramics: Manufacturers, products and markets in the Venetian State (17th-18th centuries), in P. Lanaro (ed.), At the center of the Old World: Trade
and manufacturing in Venice and the Venetian Mainland, Toronto: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, pp. 271-315.
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
Lamoreaux N.M., 1998, Partnership, Corporations, and the Theory of the Firm, American Economic Review, 88 (2): 66-71.
Langlois R., 2002, Schumpeter and the Obsolescence of the Entrepreneur, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, WP 19/2002.
Powell W.W., 1990, Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization, Research in Organizational Behavior, 12: 295-336.
Rowlinson M., Hassard J. & Decker S., 2014, Strategies for Organisational History: A Dialogue between Historical Theory and Organisation Theory, Academy of Management Review, 39(3): 250-274.
Williamson O.E., 1981, The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes, Journal of Economic Literature, 19 (4): 1537-68.
Assessment methods
2) Students can, on voluntary basis and in couples, play the role of discussants in a class, reading in advance the text and preparing a series of questions to stimulate class discussion. This work will be evaluate with an additional point to integrate the grade of final exam.
Teaching methods
Teaching language
Further information
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.
Type of exam
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals
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