Geoffrey Jones

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Harvard University

We argue that the field of international business should evolve its rhetoric from the relatively uncontroversial idea that 'history matters' to exploring how it matters. We discuss four conceptual channels through which history matters, illustrating each with a major example. First, historical variation is at least a worthy complement to contempora...

This article examines why organic agriculture and food consumption developed more strongly in some countries than others between the 1970s and the 2000s. The focus is the limited growth of the New Zealand organic sector, which contrasts with countries such as Denmark which were similar in size and shared significant export agri-business sectors, bu...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of multi-national enterprises in addressing grand societal challenges, emphasising the need for integrating environmental and social aspects into business models. Drawing on the books of Geoffrey Jones (2023) “Deeply Responsible Business” and Rob van Tulder and Eveline van Mil (2023) “Principles of Sustai...

This note describes the motivation, structure, and use of the Creating Emerging Markets (CEM) oral history-based project at the Harvard Business School. The project consists of lengthy interviews with businessleaders from emerging markets. By June 2024, 183 interviews had been conducted with business leaders in 34 countries in Africa, Asia, the Mid...

This working paper looks historically at business philanthropy in China. In the West, the literature has distinguished between entrepreneurial and customary philanthropy, while the phenomenon of spiritual philanthropy has been identified in many emerging markets. This working paper argues that these models do not fit the case of China, where philan...

This working paper examines the evolving, complex and multifaceted relationship between the real estate industry and the education sector in China. The current crises in the private education and real estate sectors caused by policy shifts reflect the inter-meshing of the two sectors. The industrialization of real estate and the expansion of privat...

This working paper employs the concept of deep responsibility to assess the social responsibility of the beauty industry over time. It shows that many of today’s problems with the industry have deep historical roots. Products have carried too many health hazards. Consumers have been subject to exaggerated claims and restricted beauty ideals that ha...

Capitalist industry since the Industrial Revolution resulted in enormous productivity increases, wealth creation and sustenance as Earth’s population soared. Yet the business system as it emerged described the impact on the natural environment as “externalities,” and took little responsibility for them. The result was growing ecological damage, whi...

Introduction The capitalist industry that began with the Industrial Revolution resulted in enormous productivity increases, wealth creation and sustenance as Earth's population soared. Yet the business system as it emerged described the varied impacts on the natural environment as ‘externalities’, and took little responsibility for them. The result...

Capitalism is a topic with many thematic strands and multiple geographical and chronological dimensions. As a result, the time, location and drivers of its emergence are the subject of much debate. This book takes a novel approach to the history of capitalism. It provides a series of case studies with the aim of further broadening the historical an...

This chapter uses the intellectual journey of the author as an international business scholar to suggest that crises have been the norm rather than the exception in the history of international business. Over the last 100 years world wars, regional conflicts, the Great Depression, and decolonization are among the shocks which have transformed the p...

Society tends to glorify the get-rich-quick entrepreneur who builds a company, takes it public and then (maybe) contributes to charity. In Leadership to Last, the authors discuss the interviews they and other Harvard faculty have undertaken with iconic leaders in India who have demonstrated leadership to last. There are leaders from South Asia and...

This article examines the B Corporation movement that originated in the United States in 2006. The founders sought to create a new type of company whose governance structure mandated them to consider financial, social and environmental performance. A certification scheme was also introduced. In 2012 a group of Latin American business leaders took t...

This working paper examines the evolution of K-12 education in China, especially between 1985 and the present day, drawing extensive interviews with participants in the educational sector. China has been hugely successful in reaching almost 100 percent literacy, overcoming gender inequality in educational provision, and performing well in harmonize...

This article discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly for stra...

This article examines how the film industry influenced prevailing gender and skin color stereotypes in India during the first four decades after Independence in 1947. It shows that Bollywood, the mainstream cinema in India, shared Hollywood's privileging of paler skin over darker skin, and its preference for presenting women in stereotypical ways l...

This working paper discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly fo...

International business (IB) as a discipline has given limited attention to contemporary grand challenges of inequality, global warming, aging populations, endemic health crises, and de-globalization, in all of which multinationals are either central to the problem or may offer some solutions. A historical perspective makes clear the reason for this...

This working paper examines the social impact of the film industry in India during the first four decades after Indian Independence in 1947. Its shows that Bollywood, the mainstream cinema in India and the counterpart in scale to Hollywood in the United States, shared Hollywood’s privileging of paler skin over darker skin, and preference for presen...

This chapter examines the evolution of luxury tourism and its environmental impact. Whilst mass tourism is widely seen as environmentally damaging, the impact of luxury tourism is nuanced. During the first stage of the growth in the nineteenth century, the numbers of people involved were small, and some companies understood the need to con serve th...

The last decade has witnessed an increasing interest in the use of history and historical research methods in strategy research. We discuss how and why history and historical research methods can enrich theoretical explanations of strategy phenomena. In addition, we introduce the notions of “history-informed strategy research,” distinguishing betwe...

Research Summary We articulate the value of historical methods and reasoning in strategic entrepreneurship research and theory. We begin by introducing the papers in the special issue, contextualizing each within one of five broader methodological approaches, and elaborating on the applicability of each to other topics in entrepreneurship research....

This article examines non-profit investments by business in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from a recently developed oral history database, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such leaders invested in education as a non-profit activity. The art...

This book is the first systematic study of the business history of Turkey and its predecessor the Ottoman Empire from the nineteenth century until the present. It places the distinctive characteristics of capitalism in Turkey within a global and comparative perspective, dealing with three related issues. First it examines the institutional context...

This working paper examines why a significant number of businesses have made non-profit investments in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from an oral history database at the Harvard Business School, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such leaders...

This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory.The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge flowing from the home country. This is not an accurate description of how global firm...

This article highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of creating and making accessible corporate archives in most countries in Africa, Asia, a...

This is a podcast about a Harvard Business School case on the US cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein. Rubinstein, who was born in Poland and built businesses in Australia and France before moving to the United States during World War 1, was a pioneer of the American luxury cosmetics industry. She has been called the most successful female entr...

This podcast examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. He created a diversified business group, linked to the political elite, integrating Argentina into the trading and financial networks of the first global economy. The Harvard...

This chapter examines international business in emerging markets over the long run. It shows how the strategies of Western multinationals evolved over time. In the first era of globalization in the nineteenth century, Western firms sought access to resources, and they faced little political risk due to Western imperialism. The main risks were logis...

Business history and strategy research have traditionally had a close relationship. Thus, Chandler’s seminal research is often seen as key input into the development of strategy as an academic research field. Historical research methods and historical data are used to study a diverse set of strategic issues including industry evolution, technology...

This working paper highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of corporate archives in most countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Oral his...

This article contributes to the literature on political risk in business and economic history by examining both new perspectives (risk encountered by companies domestically, rather than risk for foreign investors) and new settings (emerging markets economies in Latin America and South Asia). It makes use of the Creating Emerging Markets oral histor...

This article examines how businesses perceived political risk in South Asia and Latin America over the last half century. Employing data from an oral history database at Harvard Business School, the article identifies five major sources of political risk: macroeconomic and policy turbulence, excessive bureaucracy, political instability, corruption,...

Published at a time of ever-increasing warnings that the pace of climate change and other environmental changes risks making the Earth unsustainable within our own lifetimes, this book looks at the past of green business to identify lessons for the future. It provides rich new evidence and insights on green business as it examines its variation bet...

This working paper examines the impact of modern business enterprise on the natural environment of Latin America during the globalization waves between the nineteenth century and the present day. It argues that although global capitalism created much wealth for the region, this was at the cost of massive ecological destruction in Latin America. Dur...

This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge flowing from the home country. This is not an accurate description of how global fir...

This working paper provides a new perspective on how businesses have responded to political risk in South Asia and Latin America over the last half century. The existing business history literature on political risk is focussed on the experiences of Western multinationals in the twentieth century, especially in Nazi Germany and the post-colonial de...

This chapter explores the British experience in a volume which examines the historical evolution of business groups in developed Western economies. The chapter argues that during the nineteenth century British merchant houses established business groups with diversified portfolio and pyramidal structures overseas, especially in developing economies...

Reviews current methodologies employed in business history, including Chandlerian, econometric, history of capitalism, organizational history, transnational history and the alternative business history of emerging markets. Calls for business historians to invest energy in debating alternative approaches, and generally raising methodological standar...

This article suggests that the business history of emerging markets should be seen as an alternative business history, rather than merely adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate strategies and structures of developed economies. The growing literature on the business hi...

This book provides the first global history of green entrepreneurship from the nineteenth century to the present day. Beginning with pioneering (and often eccentric) figures in organic foods and wind and solar industry before World War 1, the book follows the story of the remarkable men and women who defied convention and imagined that business cou...

In order to make quality strategic decisions, managers need a deep understanding of industry dynamics and enterprise capabilities. In this book, we present a conceptual framework that will help executives lead their organizations in highly competitive global markets. For some, it will change frames of reference and accepted priorities in terms of w...

The article discusses the growth of the beauty industry in Latin America, and its bias towards celebrating whiter rather than dark skins. Although alleged Latin American fascination with beauty is regularly ascribed to culture, Latin sensuousness and machismo attitudes, this article shows that the growth of the industry was shaped by corporations l...

Emerging markets are characterized by underdeveloped institutions and frequent environmental shifts. Yet they also contain many firms that have survived over generations. How are firms in weak institutional environments able to persist over time? Motivated by 69 interviews with leaders of emerging market firms with histories spanning generations, w...

Research Summary: Emerging markets are characterized by underdeveloped institutions and frequent environmental shifts. Yet they also contain many firms that have survived over generations. How are firms in weak institutional environments able to persist over time? Motivated by 69 interviews with leaders of emerging market firms with histories spann...

Between the 1970s and the 2000s, Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This article argues that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a natural resource endowment explanation. While previous literature has emphasized t...

The Laws of Globalization and Business Applications employs a variety of empirical methodologies to establish two broad regularities that apply to international activity at the firm, industry, and country levels - the law of semiglobalization and the law of distance - and explores some of their implications for business. Part I presents evidence in...

Background : Implementation of the educational milestones benefits from mobile technology that facilitates ready assessments in the clinical environment. We developed a point-of-care resident evaluation tool, the Mobile Medical Milestones Application (M3App), and piloted it in 8 North Carolina family medicine residency programs. Objective : We s...

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Between the 1970s and the 2000s Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This working paper suggests that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a natural resource endowment explanation. The paper argues that the ecotouris...

During the first global economy of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Argentina became one of the richest countries on earth, while Chile was an economic backwater. During the contemporary era of globalization, liberalization and institutional reforms in Chile provided a context in which business grew, while in Argentina, inst...

Diversified business groups are well-known phenomenon in emerging markets, both today and historically. This is often explained by the prevalence of institutional voids or the nature of government-business relations. It is typically assumed that such groups were much less common in developed economies, and largely disappeared during the twentieth c...

This Harvard Business School case, co-authored with Alexander Atzberger, explores the creation of the Rolex watch by Hans Wilsdorf in the early twentieth century, and how he developed it as a luxury brand. At the time Wilsdorf entered the watch industry, watches were carried in pockets, while the few wristwatches in existence were worn by upper cla...

This article examines the emergence and development of what became the largest business group in Turkey, the Koc Group. This venture was an important actor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the 1920s. After World War II it diversified rapidly, forming part of a cluster of business groups...

We develop a theory of reputation as a key determinant of long run success in emerging markets. We conceptualize reputation as a meta-resource that can substitute for voids in information intermediaries by providing transactional confidence through informational cues. This allows a firm to better capitalize on new opportunities and respond to threa...