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Business History and the Problem of Action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2020

Abstract

The problem of action is the problem of both identifying and explaining it. The two aspects are not as distinct as this formulation might suggest, and the present paper focuses on the first, bringing in only as much of the second as is absolutely necessary. (A companion paper focuses on the second in a similar way.) Because business history is for all practical purposes a history of organizations and because action in and by organizations generally implicates those organizations’ routines, addressing the problem of action as business historians encounter it requires discussion of relatively recent literature on the relationship between structure and agency. That discussion raises questions about the meaning of agency in human conduct and in historical analysis. After exposition of some helpful ideas drawn from the sociology literature, this paper draws out implications for writing the business history of firms and industries.

Type
Symposia
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference

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Footnotes

I owe thanks to Thomas Flemming, Michael Gilsenan, Robert Solow, Jeffrey Weintraub, and Sidney Winter for long-(and longer-and-longer-)running conversations and correspondence, to the late Michael Cohen and to Alejandra Irigoin for ultimately profoundly stimulating reading suggestions, and to Andrew Popp and Philip Scranton for generously patient reads of early drafts. Discussant’s comments from Louis Galambos and the succeeding general discussion at the 2017 Multiple Futures for Business History conference at Wharton were also valuable. James Porter gave a sharp-eyed read of the penultimate draft and made very helpful comments. So did seminar audiences at the Berliner Forschungskolloquium Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte and at a meeting of organization studies scholars organized by Daniel Geiger in Hamburg. Wharton’s Dean’s Office and its Mack Institute provided stalwart financial support. The usual disclaimer applies.

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Philosophical Investigations. Translated by Anscombe, G. E. M.. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1953.Google Scholar
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Woodward, Joanne. Management and Technology. London: HMSO, 1958.Google Scholar
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Davidson, Donald. “Actions, Reasons, and Causes.” Journal of Philosophy 60, no. 23 (November 7, 1963): 685700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debreu, Gerard. “Uncertainty.” Chap. 7 in The Theory of Value. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1954.Google Scholar
Eldredge, Niles, and Gould, Stephen J.. “Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism.” In Models in Paleobiology, edited by Schopf, T. J. M., 82115. San Francisco: Freeman Cooper, 1972.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Mische, Ann. “What Is Agency?American Journal of Sociology 103, no. 4 (January 1998): 9621023.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry G. “The Problem of Action.” American Philosophical Quarterly 15, no. 2 (April 1978): 157162.Google Scholar
Granitz, Elizabeth, and Klein, Benjamin. “Monopolization by ‘Raising Rivals’ Costs’: The Standard Oil Case.” Journal of Law and Economics 39, no. 1 (April 1996): 147.Google Scholar
Hall, R. L., and Hitch, C. J.. “Price Theory and Business Behavior.” Oxford Economic Papers os-2, no. 1 (May 1939): 1245.Google Scholar
Kipping, Matthias, Daniel Wadhwani, R., and Bucheli, Marcelo. “Analyzing and Interpreting Historical Sources: A Basic Methodology.” In Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods, edited by Bucheli, Marcelo and Wadhwani, R. Daniel, 305330. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Raff, Daniel M. G., and Temin, Peter. “Against Whig History.” Enterprise and Society 5, no. 3 (September 2004): 376387.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Towards a New Synthesis of American Business History.” American Historical Review 108, no. 2 (April 2003): 404433.Google Scholar
Lucas, Robert. “Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique.” Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 1, no. 1 (January 1976): 1946.Google Scholar
Mills, C. Wright. “Grand Theory.” In The Socialogical Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” Philosophical Review 60, no. 1 (January 1951): 2043.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G.Hannah on Hollywood History: Exploring the Limits of the Chandlerian Model and Some Reflections.” Business History 61, no. 7 (September 2019): 11081128.Google Scholar
Ross, Steven A.The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal’s Problem.” American Economic Review 52, no. 3 (May 1973): 134139.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H., Jr.A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation.” American Journal of Sociology 98, no. 1 (July 1992): 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” In Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms, edited by Levine, Donald N., 324339. Essay translated by Edward A. Shils. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. Original German publication 1903.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. “Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations.” Journal of Law & Economics 22, no. 2 (October 1979): 233261.Google Scholar
Winter, Sidney G. “Habit, Deliberation, and Action: Strengthening the Microfoundations of Routines and Capabilities.” Academy of Management Perspectives 27, no. 2 (June 2013): 120137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G. “Business History among the Social Sciences.” Unpublished manuscript, last modified March 2019.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G. “Explanation, Historical Explanation, and Some Tasks for Business History.” Unpublished manuscript, last modified March 2020.Google Scholar
Integrated Postsecondary Education Survey (IPEDS), National Center for Educational Statistics. Accessed December 19, 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Translated by Bartlett, Robert C. and Collins, Susan D.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. Translated by Pogson, F. L.. London: Allen & Unwin, 1910. Reprint, New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1960. Original French publication 1889.Google Scholar
Burns, Tom, and Stalker, G. M.. The Management of Innovation. London: Tavistock, 1961.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Cyert, Richard M., and March, James G.. A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. Human Nature and Conduct. New York: Henry Holt, 1922.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. The Division of Labor in Society. Translated by Simpson, George. New York: Free Press, 1984. Original French publication 1893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durkheim, Emile. The Rules of Sociological Method. Edited by Catlin, George E. G.. Translated by Mueller, John Henry and Solovay, Sarah A.. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1938. Original French publication 1895.Google Scholar
Flynn, John T. God’s Gold: The Story of Rockefeller and His Times. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1932.Google Scholar
Galbraith, John Kenneth. The New Industrial State. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1967.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Vol. 1: Power, Property, and the State. London: Macmillan, 1981.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. New Rules of Sociological Method: A Positive Critique of Interpretive Sociologies. London: Hutchinson, 1976.Google Scholar
Harborne, W. Stuart Jr. The Profitability Test: Does Your Strategy Make Sense? Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Hume, David. Enquiries concerning Human Understanding and concerning the Principles of Morals. Edited by Selby-Bigge, L. A.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975. Originally published in 1748.Google Scholar
Keynes, John Maynard. General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. London: Macmillan, 1936.Google Scholar
Knight, Frank L. Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Paul R., and Lorsch, Jay W.. Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration. Boston: Harvard Business School, 1967.Google Scholar
Le Bon, Gustav. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. Translator unidentified. New York: Viking, 1960. Original French publication 1895.Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Raw and the Cooked. Translated by John, and Weightman, Doreen. New York: Harper and Row, 1969. Original French publication 1964.Google Scholar
Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Translated by Jacobson, Claire and Schoepf, Brooke G.. New York: Basic Books, 1963. Original French publication 1958.Google Scholar
Locke, John. An Essay concerning Human Understanding . Edited by Nidditch, Peter. 1690. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975. Originally published in 1689.Google Scholar
Marshall, Alfred. Principles of Economics. 8th ed. London: Macmillan, 1920.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert. Philosophy of the Present. La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing, 1932.Google Scholar
Nelson, Richard R., and Winter, Sidney G.. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. The Structure of Social Action. New York: Free Press, 1937.Google Scholar
Parsons, Talcott. The Social System. Glencoe IL: Free Press, 1951.Google Scholar
Taylor, A. J. P. The Course of German History: A Survey of the Development of Germany since 1815. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1945.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. D. Organizations in Action. New York: McGraw Hill, 1967.Google Scholar
Tönnies, Ferdinand. Community and Society. Translated by Loomis, Charles P.. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1957. Original German publication 1887.Google Scholar
Tucker, Robert C., ed. The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: W. W. Norton. Various editions.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Edited by Roth, Günther and Wittich, Claus. Translated by Fischoff, Ephraim, et al. New York: Bedminster, 1968. Original German publication 1922.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Philosophical Investigations. Translated by Anscombe, G. E. M.. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1953.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Translated by Ogden, C. K.. London: Kegan Paul, 1922.Google Scholar
Woodward, Joanne. Management and Technology. London: HMSO, 1958.Google Scholar
Cohen, Michael D.Reading Dewey: Reflections on the Study of Routines.” Organization Studies 28, no. 5 (May 2017): 773786.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. “Actions, Reasons, and Causes.” Journal of Philosophy 60, no. 23 (November 7, 1963): 685700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debreu, Gerard. “Uncertainty.” Chap. 7 in The Theory of Value. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1954.Google Scholar
Eldredge, Niles, and Gould, Stephen J.. “Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism.” In Models in Paleobiology, edited by Schopf, T. J. M., 82115. San Francisco: Freeman Cooper, 1972.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Mische, Ann. “What Is Agency?American Journal of Sociology 103, no. 4 (January 1998): 9621023.Google Scholar
Frankfurt, Harry G. “The Problem of Action.” American Philosophical Quarterly 15, no. 2 (April 1978): 157162.Google Scholar
Granitz, Elizabeth, and Klein, Benjamin. “Monopolization by ‘Raising Rivals’ Costs’: The Standard Oil Case.” Journal of Law and Economics 39, no. 1 (April 1996): 147.Google Scholar
Hall, R. L., and Hitch, C. J.. “Price Theory and Business Behavior.” Oxford Economic Papers os-2, no. 1 (May 1939): 1245.Google Scholar
Kipping, Matthias, Daniel Wadhwani, R., and Bucheli, Marcelo. “Analyzing and Interpreting Historical Sources: A Basic Methodology.” In Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods, edited by Bucheli, Marcelo and Wadhwani, R. Daniel, 305330. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Raff, Daniel M. G., and Temin, Peter. “Against Whig History.” Enterprise and Society 5, no. 3 (September 2004): 376387.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Towards a New Synthesis of American Business History.” American Historical Review 108, no. 2 (April 2003): 404433.Google Scholar
Lucas, Robert. “Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique.” Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 1, no. 1 (January 1976): 1946.Google Scholar
Mills, C. Wright. “Grand Theory.” In The Socialogical Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Quine, Willard Van Orman. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” Philosophical Review 60, no. 1 (January 1951): 2043.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G.Hannah on Hollywood History: Exploring the Limits of the Chandlerian Model and Some Reflections.” Business History 61, no. 7 (September 2019): 11081128.Google Scholar
Ross, Steven A.The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal’s Problem.” American Economic Review 52, no. 3 (May 1973): 134139.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H., Jr.A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation.” American Journal of Sociology 98, no. 1 (July 1992): 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” In Georg Simmel on Individuality and Social Forms, edited by Levine, Donald N., 324339. Essay translated by Edward A. Shils. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. Original German publication 1903.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. “Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations.” Journal of Law & Economics 22, no. 2 (October 1979): 233261.Google Scholar
Winter, Sidney G. “Habit, Deliberation, and Action: Strengthening the Microfoundations of Routines and Capabilities.” Academy of Management Perspectives 27, no. 2 (June 2013): 120137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G. “Business History among the Social Sciences.” Unpublished manuscript, last modified March 2019.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel M. G. “Explanation, Historical Explanation, and Some Tasks for Business History.” Unpublished manuscript, last modified March 2020.Google Scholar
Integrated Postsecondary Education Survey (IPEDS), National Center for Educational Statistics. Accessed December 19, 2019. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/.Google Scholar