Historia Empresarial: Pasado, Presente y Retos de Futuro (review)

Books such as Historia Empresarial. Pasado, Presente y Retos de Futuro rarely are published in the field of Spanish economic history. This book also is unusual because of the high number of foreign authors included and because it devotes serious attention to methodological issues with a comparative perspective. Moreover, the editor, Professor Carmen Erro from University of Navarra, has carried out his task on the slippery ground of business history.

Opening the first part ("The Theoretical Basis of the Discipline"), Jesús M. Valdaliso (University of the Basque Country) and Santiago López (University of Salamanca) ask "Is business history useful?" and give many examples to conclude persuasively that the answer is "yes." Then Alan Roberts (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), a researcher on accounting, points out the role of theory in business history and disparages commissioned history. Miguel A. Martínez-Echevarría (University of Navarra) contests the fundamentals of neoinstitutionalism— the confrontation between firms and markets—and supports theories closer to management. Finally, in a soft landing—the title of the chapter is "From Theory to Practice . . . "—Matthias Kipping (Pompeu Fabra University) and Núria Puig (Complutense University of Madrid) examine the important role of consultants in the spread of management thought.

The second part of the book ("Writing and Researching Business History") begins with a panoramic essay by Teresa Tortella (Historical Archive of the Bank of Spain) about business archives. While it may not be possible to write true business history without using archival sources, this is not so for museums, according to the head of the Institute of Railway Studies & Transport History, Colin Divall, in his contribution to the book. To close this part, Carmen Erro and his colleague Francisco J. Caspistegui reflect on the crucial connection between managers and business historians through "business culture."

The third and final part of the work is devoted to "The Results: A Historiographical Assessment" and gathers eight ambitious contributions. David B. Sicilia (University of Maryland) starts by summarizing what has happened in the United States, the core of modern business history, where the relationship with economic theory has been not as controversial as in other countries and where cultural approaches to the subject have gained prominence in recent years. Then Andrew Godley (University of Reading) portrays business history in the United Kingdom as very concerned with the disappointing economic development since 1870, which often is attributed to lack of ability on the part of the business class. The debate has been smoother in German business history, a case left in the hands of Toni Pirenkemper (University of Colonia) in this book. This is a discipline with eager patrons—firms tend to forge ahead of researchers in their interest in the subject—but the lack of interest among patrons in applying economic or business theoretical issues is startling.

The work by Takeo Kikkawa (University of Tokyo) on Japan is too short, it seems to me. Japan has been able to build an alternative to American management, but business history there rarely goes beyond coffee table books. Ludovic Cailluet (University of Toulouse) says something similar about business history in France, where business organizations must be analyzed "beyond the mere monograph" (p. 290). About Italy, Luciano Segreto (University of Florence) is more optimistic, proclaiming that the Italian business history is "one of the most rich and prolific in the world" (p. 303) and features authors who are capable of giving birth to new theoretical arguments (for example, Giacomo Becattini) and new evidence (e.g., Andrea Colli) in favor of the possibilities of the family business and the "industrial districts" launched by SMEs.

In the last pages of the book, we can find critical assessments of the Spanish and Latin American historiography in business history. Albert Carreras, Xavier Tafunell (both at the Pompeu Fabra University) and Eugenio Torres (Complutense University of Madrid) are responsible for the Spanish case and, from my point of view, they carry out their task successfully. The...