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HAI 1CHS - The Company in Its Historical and International Setting* (Q1)

Faculty
TBA
Course Coordinator
Alfred Reckendrees (are.lpf@cbs.dk, Department of Management, Philosophy and Politics
Course content, structure and teaching
The aim of the course is to provide the students with a basic knowledge and understanding of the economic history and the development of capitalist societies. It analyses and compares the rise and the evolution of a variety of capitalist economies.The students learn to understand the role of companies, entrepreneurs and regulators in the development of modern capitalisms and they get insight in the relations between the institutional arrangements of societies, the companies’ strategies and organizational changes over time. The course focuses on the role played by big companies and their management and helps to understand the internal dynamics of the growth and expansion of enterprises in their interaction with various national and international environments. The course will be concerned with
  • the most important differences between the capitalist systems in three European countries (Great Britain, Germany and Denmark) and two large Non-European economies (United States and Japan) from appr. 1850 to 2000
  • the dynamic relationship between capitalist societies, companies and entrepreneurs over time
  • different concepts of capitalist development namely the “Business Systems” approach, Chandler’s concept of “Corporate Capabilities and the three pronged investments” and Joseph Schumpeters theory of entrepreneurship, creative destruction and adaptive/creative responses to institutional change
  • the concept of the three industrial revolutions and Kondratievs’ theory of long waves
The students create relevant knowledge of economic and business development and, by comparative analysis of firms and business systems, they create skills in analyzing business cases. They learn to identify and to analyze the roles of entrepreneurs, companies, the state and institutional arrangements for economic development and strategic decision making. The students learn to apply different theoretical concepts in order to explain empirical economic and business development.
Learning Objectives
In order to receive the high grade 12 the students’ presentation must be comprehensible, precise and structured and it requires excellence on three levels:
  1. It must demonstrate a high level of knowledge on important aspects, events and patterns in the development of capitalism in Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, United States, and Japan from app. 1850 to 2000.
  2. It must show a high level of command of Chandler’s “Organizational Capability” concept, Schumpeter’s “Entrepreneur” theory and the ability to use these concepts and theories in an analysis of the role played by companies and entrepreneurs in the development of the above mentioned capitalist societies.
  3. It must demonstrate a high level of command of important concepts of economic change namely the three industrial revolutions and the Kondratiev waves. This knowledge must be combined with the ability to analyze (1) and (2) in a dynamic perspective and thus to combine concrete knowledge, concrete theories and a long term perspective of economic change.
Type of examination, exam aids and assessment
Written 4 hour closed book exam, graded by internal examiner on the 7-point scale. The make-up and re-examination takes place according to the same rules as the regular examination.
Exam aids: No aids allowed other than basic language dictionaries (e.g. from mother tongue to English and visa versa and English/English).
Teaching methods
The course is based on a combination of lectures, case study discussions, written assignments and student group work including presentations. The course will employ student expert groups and a guest lecture from a British university.
Course literature
  • Chris Freeman, Francisco Loucã: As time goes by. From the Industrial revolutions to the Information revolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002 (paperback) (extracts)
  • Alfred Reckendrees (ed.): Compendium. The Company in Its Historical and International Setting CBS 2008.
    1. The compendium includes texts from:Thomas McCraw (ed.): Creating Modern Capitalism. How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1997
    2. Susanna Fellman et al. (eds.): Creating Nordic Capitalism. The Development of a Competitive Periphery, London: Palgrave MacMillan 2008

Last updated by Communications & Marketing 05/05/2010