“The Vast and Unsolved Enigma of Power”: Business History and Business Power

Abstract

Business is commonly regarded as one of the powerful actors in the world today. However, this position is neither as straightforward as often believed nor particularly new. Nevertheless, business historians have not focused on the topic of business power to date, often leaving it as something lurking in the background of their analyses. There are signs that this may be beginning to change with the growth of studies on the history of capitalism, but this revised presidential address encourages business historians to engage more fully and explicitly with the concept of power and to recognize the different ways in which the concept can be used to enlighten the study of business history.

Framing Political Issues in Food System Transformative Changes

“…While it is widely accepted as common sense that corporations have the power to influence social, economic, and political life, social science scholars have not yet developed a specific theory of corporate power. As an example, in his literature review, Rollings, Neil (2021) notices that "notwithstanding business power is a relevant concept to much existing business history research, power is dealt with implicitly and indirectly in the majority of this historiography, if it is dealt with at all".…”

Tendencias investigativas en el área de historia empresarial: una aproximación bibliométrica

“…Los resultados señalaron que 1. INTRODUCTION Given the current global uncertainty and the multiple actors that make up the business environment, business is regarded as one of the most crucial topics in the world today (Rollings, 2021;Camillus, 2016). In fact, researchers' interest in the field of business history has increased recently.…”