326-470 Theory and Method in Corporate History

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Objectives:

On completion of this subject, students should be able to:

• analyse and describe changing approaches to the writing of corporate history;

• investigate and provide a critique on recent methodological trends in corporate history;

• assess and describe the usefulness and limitations of history and economics in corporate history;

• evaluate and describe the use of quantitative approaches to corporate history;

• identify and provide a commentary on the newest research topics in corporate history.

Content:

This subject focuses on the theory of long run institutional change in modern business enterprise. Topics include American, British and Australian approaches to the modern business corporation; the evolution of internal labour markets and their relationship with work and the labour process; agency theory and microeconomic approaches to institutional change; path dependency; corporate history and economic history; corporate history and history; methods for analysing the international firm; new approaches, including quantitative approaches, to corporate history; and methodological debates in writing and analysing corporate history.

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