Rohm and Haas: A Century of Innovation (review)

The simple title, Rohm and Haas: A Century of Innovation, neatly summarizes and yet belies the complexities within. This book addresses what author Regina Lee Blaszczyk refers to as an exploration of how Rohm and Haas evolved from a small family firm with transatlantic connections in 1909 into a multinational enterprise some one hundred years later.

In addition to being highly respected and influential in the field of industrial research, Blaszczyk is a woman concerned with uncovering and capturing the sometimes subtle nuances of corporate growth. The importance of this contribution must not only be exaggerated but it also should not be underrated, as the quality of our understanding of the increasing globalization of production and its related problems depends largely on the broadness of our frame of reference. Global firm strategies and government policy decisions result from the consideration of combinations of a number of relevant factors. With the inclusion of this book, history, it is argued, is a very relevant factor. Just as the annual rings of the oak tree reveal its historical formation and growth, this book discloses not only a firm’s but also an industry’s development as laid down layer-by-layer upon inherited, previous structural formations.

In this volume, Blaszczyk reveals the highs and lows experienced, over time, as Rohm and Haas exploited a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment by embracing new technologies to gain competitive advantage. Upheavals changed the face of this specialty chemical company. The author neither dramatizes challenges such as the 1973–1974 oil crises, economic recession, war, and the protection of intellectual property rights nor overlooks the importance that a growing middle class around the world, with increased disposable income, had on product development and the company’s stock price.

The book both assists scholars and offers researchers a model in identifying the particular role of an individual firm—Rohm and Haas—in advancing the development of a host location over time—the city of Philadelphia, a nation, and an industry.

The structure of the world economy was very different in 2009 than it was back in 1909. The liberalization of international trade and investment regimes, the steady progress made in multilateral trade negotiations and technological gains in communications, and transportation and management skills created the opportunity for firms to achieve an increasingly greater degree of interpenetration of markets and production. This reviewer would have liked to have seen the author’s research expanded to include specifics of the role that the firm’s founders Otto Haas and Otto Rohm played in not only exploiting these developments but also, perhaps, in shaping today’s deeply integrated or globalized world economy. This is not a criticism of the author’s oversight, but rather an expression of how I would have liked to have read and learned more.

Blaszczyk’s research approach covers the interwoven issues relevant to business courses offered at scholastic institutions around the world. The actions and experiences of Rohm and Haas highlight the importance of brand identity (a very powerful component in product marketing), international trade, patents, licensing and royalties, diversification as well as mergers and acquisitions, the development of human capital, and the importance of research and development as the firm plowed profits back into business growth. The book is an excellent case study source for advanced business analysis as it traces Rohm and Haas’s network of headquarter and subsidiary operations and highlights the firm’s adaptive strategy to become simultaneously globally integrated and locally responsive.

Rohm and Haas: A Century of Innovation exemplifies international business theory from John H. Dunning’s seminal research into the motivations for firms seeking an increased geographical footprint, to Raymond Vernon’s product cycle theory, etc., implicitly if not explicitly.

I am impressed by Blaszczyk’s ability to draw upon solid research sources, to include qualitative material from executive interviews, and extract the relevant from what must have been a mountain of company archive material. I...