Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T12:14:32.664Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How to Do Things with Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Abstract

Sample selection bias is a common problem in the business history literature. This paper proposes methods for researching and writing the history of firms and industries designed to address the problem. The key elements are a forward-looking perspective and close attention to the development over time of selection environments, the resources individual firms can mobilize, and understanding an agency within the firm or firms.

Type
Manuscript
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2013. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Austin, J. L. How to Do Things with Words: The William James Lectures Delivered at Harvard University in 1955. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1962.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries. New York: The Free Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Jr Saisbury, Stephen. Pierre S. Du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation. New York, 1971.Google Scholar
Collingwood, R.G. The Idea of History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946.Google Scholar
Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.Google Scholar
Dewey, John. Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology. New York: Henry Holt, 1922.Google Scholar
Duhem, Pierre. La theéorie physique, son objet et sa structure. Paris, France: Marcel Riviere, 1914.Google Scholar
Elton, G. R. Fogel, R. W.. Which Road to the Past? Two Views of History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1963.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. A. The Design of Experiments. Edinburgh, Scotland: Oliver and Boyd, 1935.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. W. Engerman, S. L.. The Reinterpretation of American Economic History. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.Google Scholar
Freeland, Robert F. The Struggle for Control of the Modern Corporation: Organizational Change at General Motors, 1924–1970. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Ghemawat, Pankaj. Commitment: The Dynamic of Strategy. New York: Free Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Halévy, Elie. History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century, Volume I: England in 1815. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1961.Google Scholar
Heidegger, Martin. Sein und Zeit. Halle, Germany: Max Niemeyer, 1927.Google Scholar
Hughes, G. E. Creswell, M. J.. An Introduction to Modal Logic. London: Methuen, 1968.Google Scholar
Hume, David. An Abstract of A Book Lately Published entitled, A Treatise of Human Nature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1938.Google Scholar
Hutchins, Edward. Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Keller, Maryann. Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors. New York: Morrow, 1989.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. Raff, Daniel M.G., eds. Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. Raff, Daniel M.G. Temin, Peter, eds. Learning by Doing in Organizations, Markets, and Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern, translated by Catherine Porter, 46. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Lewis, David K.. Counterfactuals. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Little, R. J. A. Rubin, D. B.. Statistical Inference with Missing Data. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1987.Google Scholar
Luce, R. Duncan Raiffa, Howard. Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1957.Google Scholar
Maynard, Micheline. Collision Course: Inside the Battle for General Motors. New York: Carol, 1995.Google Scholar
McCraw, Thomas K, ed. The Essential Alfred Chandler: Towards a Historical Theory of Big Business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Montgomery, David. Workers’ Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggle. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Nelson, Richard R. Winter, Sidney G.. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl R. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Hutchinson, 1959.Google Scholar
Quine, W. v.O. Ullian, J.S.. The Web of Belief. New York: Random House, 1970.Google Scholar
Seabright, Paul B. The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert. Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1957.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. New York: Random House, 1937.Google Scholar
Taylor, A. J. P. The Course of German History. New York: Coward-McCann, 1946.Google Scholar
Taylor, A. J. P., ed. Inside the Business Enterprise: Historical Perspectives on the Transformation and Use of Information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class. London: Victor Gollancz, 1963.Google Scholar
Tukey, John W.. Exploratory Data Analysis. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1977.Google Scholar
Zammitto, John H. A Nice Derangement of Epistemes:Post-Positivism in the Study of Science from Quine to Latour. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.Google Scholar

Articles and Chapters

Cohen, Michael D. “Reading Dewey: Reflections on the Study of Routine.” Organization Science 28, no. 5 2007: 773–86.Google Scholar
David, Paul A. “Transport Innovation and Economic Growth: Professor Fogel On and Off the Rails.” Economic History Review 22, no. 3 (December 1969): 506–25.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. “Actions, Reasons, and Causes.” Journal of Philosophy 60, no. 23 (November, 1963): 685700.Google Scholar
Duhem, Pierre. “Physical Theory and Experiment.” In Can Theories be Refuted? Essays on the Duhem-Quine Thesis, edited by Harding, Sandra G. 140. Boston: Dordrecht-Holland, 1976.Google Scholar
“Excerpts from Two Wilson Hearings on Defense Appointment.” New York Times, January 24, 1963: 8.Google Scholar
Fogel, R.W. “The New Economic History: Its Findings and Methods.” Economic History Review 19, no. 3 (December 1966): 642–56.Google Scholar
Fridenson, Patrick. “Business Failure and the Agenda of Business History.” Enterprise and Society 5, no. 4 (December 2004): 562–82.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. “The Methodology of Positive Economics.” In Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.Google Scholar
Hannah, Leslie. “Marshall’s ‘Trees’ and the Global Forest: Were ‘Giant Redwoods’ Different?” In Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms, and Countries, edited by Lamoreaux, Naomi R. Raff, Daniel M.G. Temin, Peter. 253–93. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Harding, Sandra G. “Introduction.” In Can Theories Be Refuted? Essays on the Duhem-Quine Thesis, edited by Harding, Sandra G. Boston: Dordrecht-Holland, 1976.Google Scholar
Heckman, James J. “The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection, and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models.” Annals of Economic and Social Measurement 5, no. 4 1976: 475–92.Google Scholar
Heckman, James J. “Sample Selection Bias as Specification Error.” Econometrica 47, no. 1 1979: 153–61.Google Scholar
Hempel, Carl G. Oppenheim, Paul. “Studies in the Logic of Explanation.” In Aspects of Scientific Explanation, edited by Hempel, Carl G. New York: Free Press, 1965.“High Quality Theory.” Strategy Research Initiative. http://strategyresearchinitiative.wikispaces.com/High+Quality+Theory.Google Scholar
John, Richard R. “Business Historians and the Challenge of Innovation: A Literature Review focusing on The Challenge of Remaining Innovative: Insights from Twentieth-Century American Business edited by Clarke, Sally H. Lamoreaux, Naomi R. Usselman, Steven W. ” Business History Review 85, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 185201.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. “Reframing the Past: Thoughts about Business Leadership and Decision Making Under Uncertainty.” Enterprise and Society 2 no. 4 (December 2001): 632–59.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. “Against Whig History.” Enterprise and Society 5, no. 3 (September 2004): 376–87.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. Raff, Daniel M.G. Temin, Peter. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Towards a New Synthesis of American Business History.” American Historical Review 108, no. 2 2003: 404–33.Google Scholar
Leamer, Edward E. “Let’s Take the Con Out of Econometrics.” American Economic Review 73, no. 1 (March 1983): 3143.Google Scholar
McCloskey, D.N. “Does the Past Have Useful Economics.” Journal of Economic Literature 14, no. 2 (June 1976): 434–61.Google Scholar
McGahan, Anita M. Porter, Michael E. “How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?”. Strategic Management Journal 18, no. 5 (July 1997): 1530.Google Scholar
McGahan, Anita M. Porter, Michael E. “What Do We Know about Variance in Accounting Profitability?”. Management Science 48, no. 7 (July 2002): 834–51.Google Scholar
McGahan, Anita M. Porter, Michael E. “Comment on ‘Industry, Corporate and Business-Segment Effects, and Business Performance: A Non-Parametric Approach’.” Strategic Management Journal 26, no. 9 (September 2005): 873–80.Google Scholar
Quine, W.V. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.” Philosophical Review 60 (1) (January 1951): 2043.Google Scholar
Quine, W.V. “Two Dogmas in Retrospect.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 21, no. 3 1991: 265–64.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel M.G. “Wage Determination Theory and the Five-Dollar Day at Ford.” Journal of Economic History 48, no. 2 (June 1988): 387–99.Google Scholar
Raff, Daniel. “The Teaching of Business History in the United States.” Entreprises et Histoire 57 (December 2009): 4866.Google Scholar
Redlich, Fritz. “‘New’ and Traditional Approaches to Economic History and their Interdependence.” Journal of Economic History 25 no. 4 (December 1965): 480–95.Google Scholar
Ruefli, T.W. Wiggins, R.R. “Industry, Corporate, and Business-Segment Effects and Business Performance: A Non-Parametric Approach.” Strategic Management Journal 24 no. 9 (September 2003):861–79.Google Scholar
Rumelt, Richard. “How Much Does Industry Matter?”. Strategic Management Journal 12 no. 3 (March 1991): 167–85.Google Scholar
Schmalansee, Richard. “Do Markets Differ Much?”. American Economic Review 75, no. 3 (June 1985): 341–51.Google Scholar
Smith, Kerri. “Neuroscience vs. Philosophy: Taking Aim at Free Will.” Nature 477 (October 1, 2011): 2325.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. “The Economies of Scale.” Journal of Law and Economics 1, no. 2 (October 1958): 5471.Google Scholar
Temin, Peter. “Introduction.”In New Economic History: Selected Readings, edited by Peter Temin, 8. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.Google Scholar
Thomas, Keith V. “Working Methods.” London Review of Books 32, no. 11 (June 10, 2010): 3637.Google Scholar
Tucker, Robert C. “Stalinism as a Revolution from Above.” In Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation, 77108. New York: W.W. Norton, 1977.Google Scholar
Tversky, Amos Kanheman, Daniel. “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.” Science 185, no. 4157 (September 27, 1974): 1124–31.Google Scholar
Waring, Geoffrey F. “Industry Differences in the Persistence of Firm-Specific Returns.” American Economic Review 86, no. 5 (December 1996): 1253–65.Google Scholar
Winter, Sidney G. “Developing Evolutionary Theory for Economics and Management.” In Great Minds in Management: The Process of Theory Development, edited by Hitt, Michael Smith, Ken G. 510–47.New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar

Case Studies and Typescripts

Badaracco, Joseph L. Jr. “General Motors’ Asian Alliances.” Harvard Business School Case 9-388-094, 1988.Google Scholar
Bresnahan, Timothy F. Raff, Daniel M.G. “Plant Shutdown Behavior during the Great Depression and the Structure of the American Motor Vehicle Industry.” (typescript, The Wharton School)Google Scholar
McMahan, Anita M. “Saturn Corporation in 1998.”Harvard Business School Case 9-799-022, 1998.Google Scholar
Stuart, Harborne. “Value Creation, Competition, and Business Strategy.” (typescript, New York University Stern School of Business)Google Scholar