Business History

Business history in modern form begins with Alfred Chandler who constructs as a new object of analysis ?administrative coordination.? Historical work today follows his breakthrough in tracing the effects and expansion of this object of analysis in the spread of the multiunit enterprise, of economies grounded in ?imperfect competition and misallocation of resources,? and of interplays between strategizing subjects in the coordinative force-field (e.g., as managers vs. owners, as cooperative alliances and cartels, in the construction of ?the customer?). Additionally, research now has global geographical scope, and incorporates the study of such issues as gender, ethnicity, and elite formation, while deepening the studies of business functions, of the growth of management knowledge and education, and of business?government relations. Radical theorizing also proliferates on both managerial and antimanagerial sides of current debates. The possibility emerges of new horizons for thinking the relations of business history to strategic management. One such horizon involves thinking ?administrative coordination? as object of analysis alongside Michel Foucault's newly discovered focus on ?governmental management.? We wait to see if or when such rethinkings may shift the boundaries of business history and strategy discourses in the way that Chandler did.