Uniting business history and global environmental history

Smith, Andrew; Greer, Kirsten

doi:10.1080/00076791.2017.1338688

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 94 publications

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“…Looking at the history of businesses can provide insights for current and future action. As pointed out by Smith and Greer (2017), researching historical change on the level of the firm can help to "understand the specific circumstances in which companies change their strategies so as to protect the environment" (p. 989). The emergence of environmentalism in business has become an increasing focus of business historians.…”

Section: Research Gap: Historical Perspective and Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sufficiency as trend or tradition?—Uncovering business pathways to sufficiency through historical advertisements

2023

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Climate change and dwindling resources underline that we need to bring production and consumption levels in line with planetary boundaries. Consumption, particularly in high-income communities, needs to be reduced and stabilized at sustainable levels. Businesses can play a key role as suppliers of goods and services and creators of demand. Some companies are rising to the challenge and promoting less consumption or “sufficiency” through long product lifetimes, repair services or rental offers, but they remain niche actors in the economic system. Similarly, while circular initiatives gain traction across sectors, firms focus primarily on recycling and efficiency improvements rather than supporting more radical “Reduce” strategies. To engage companies in promoting sustainable levels of consumption, it can be helpful to understand pathways of established businesses who currently promote sufficiency. What can we learn from companies that currently promote sufficiency in their communications? Have they always advocated sufficient consumption, or have they changed recently? Through a historical perspective, we provide insights on the pathway of sufficiency for three companies. A document analysis of historical advertisements shines light on the messaging to potential customers over time. It is combined with an analysis of contemporary communications to connect the companies' past and present sufficiency approaches. Understanding different pathways to sufficiency can help modern-day businesses to reconsider their own business models and orientation. It can also point out levers for policy to support a transformation toward sustainable and circular business models that promote living within planetary boundaries.

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Section: Research Gap: Historical Perspective and Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sufficiency as trend or tradition?—Uncovering business pathways to sufficiency through historical advertisements

2023

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The Nature of Failure: The Protracted Demise of the American-Colombian Corporation, 1909–1960

Ausdal¹

2021

Enterp. Soc.

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For 50 years, the American-Colombian Corporation owned the largest property in Colombia: the Lands of Loba. While the principal investors, men from Utah and later also Laurance and Nelson Rockefeller, dreamed of making a fortune from this tropical “fairyland,” none of their plans bore fruit and they eventually lost control to thousands of so-called squatters. To explain the failure of an American free-standing company, this article emphasizes misguided perceptions and a challenging external environment rather than managerial inexperience. Examining recycled notions of tropical abundance demonstrates how ideas of nature can influence investment decisions. Overlapping property rights and tension between possession and title complicated company efforts to raise capital. Local resistance and a fractured political landscape further limited its influence. Ultimately, the very scale of the property both generated delusions of grandeur and frustrated the company’s territorial control.

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Renewing Business History in the Era of the Anthropocene

Bergquist¹

2019

Bus. Hist. Rev.

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This special issue is concerned with new approaches in business history to exploration of the role of business in both creating and addressing the mounting environmental crisis that has become apparent over the last half century. Two decades have passed since Business History Review published a pioneering special issue on business and the natural environment. The guest editors of that issue, Christine Rosen and Christopher Sellers, called for an “ecocultural approach” to business history and noted that strikingly little attention had been given to the issue of business and the natural environment in the field.

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Uniting business history and global environmental history

Cited by 8 publications

References 94 publications

Sufficiency as trend or tradition?—Uncovering business pathways to sufficiency through historical advertisements

Sufficiency as trend or tradition?—Uncovering business pathways to sufficiency through historical advertisements

The Nature of Failure: The Protracted Demise of the American-Colombian Corporation, 1909–1960

Renewing Business History in the Era of the Anthropocene

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