Geoffrey Jones
Biographic Data
| ID | 3945753 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Geoffrey Jones |
| GIVEN NAMES | Geoffrey |
| FAMILY NAME | Jones |
| SIGNATURE | JONES G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Reading |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 91 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 399 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 88 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
Geoffrey Jones and Sabine Pitteloud present the latest research on the global history of multinationals and their impact on society and the environment. Bringing together leading international scholars, these essays survey key themes in our relationship with multinationals, from taxation and corruption to gender and the climate. Though often associated with large corporations like Apple or Nestlé, the contributors highlight the remarkable diversi…
Reclaiming history in IB research
Government, business and making China an educational powerhouse since the 1980s
Can Activists Change Business For Good
Can Activists Change Business For Good
Transitioning from responsible and reactive to deeply responsible and proactive international business
Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of multi-national enterprises in addressing grand societal challenges, emphasising the need for integrating environmental and social aspects into business models. Drawing on the books of Geoffrey Jones (2023) “Deeply Responsible Business” and Rob van Tulder and Eveline van Mil (2023) “Principles of Sustainable Business”, the paper provides comments and analysis of how principles and values can guide eng…
Deeply Responsible Business
Deep responsibility and irresponsibility in the beauty industry
Deep responsibility and irresponsibility in the beauty industry
Cet article utilise le concept de responsabilité profonde pour évaluer la responsabilité sociale de l’industrie de la beauté au fil du temps. Il montre que bon nombre des problèmes actuels de l’industrie ont des racines historiques profondes. Trop d’ingrédients de produits ont comporté des risques potentiels pour la santé. Les consommateurs ont été soumis à des affirmations exagérées et à des idéaux de beauté restreints qui ont porté atteinte à l…
Drivers of Philanthropic Foundations in Emerging Markets
This article discusses the ethics and drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets. A foundation organizes assets to invest in philanthropic initiatives. Previous scholarship has largely focused on developed countries, especially the United States, and has questioned the ethics behind the activities of foundations, particularly for strategic motives that served wider corporate purposes. We argue that philanthropic foundations in emerg…
Engineering Rules
Reviewed by: Engineering Rules: Global Standard Setting since 1880 by JoAnne Yates and Craig N. Murphy Geoffrey Jones (bio) Engineering Rules: Global Standard Setting since 1880 By JoAnne Yates and Craig N. Murphy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. Pp. 416. Engineering Rules examines the history of private voluntary standards from the 1880s until the present day. If the subject summons up mental images of a worthy but rather tediou…
Emboldening and Contesting Gender and Skin Color Stereotypes in the Film Industry in India, 1947–1991
This article examines how the film industry influenced prevailing gender and skin color stereotypes in India during the first four decades after Independence in 1947. It shows that Bollywood, the mainstream cinema in India, shared Hollywood's privileging of paler skin over darker skin, and its preference for presenting women in stereotypical ways lacking agency. The influence of film content was especially significant in India as audiences often …
Business investment in education in emerging markets since the 1960s
This article examines non-profit investments by business in education in emerging markets between the 1960s and the present day. Using a sample of 110 interviews with business leaders from a recently developed oral history database, the study shows that more than three-quarters of such leaders invested in education as a non-profit activity. The article explores three different types of motivations behind such high levels of engagement with educat…
Oral History and the Business History of Emerging Markets
This article highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of creating and making accessible corporate archives in most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It also permits a level of nuance that is hard to obtain even if written archives …
Every Rusty Nail Is Sacred, Every Rusty Nail Is Good
Archaeological investigations at Miners' Fort, a mid-nineteenth-century settler fort located in the US Northwest, is part of a larger inquiry into conflict archaeology and historical memory of settler colonialism and warfare in the region. Built by gold miners, Miners' Fort overlooked the Pacific Ocean and was used significantly when the Tututni, Joshua, and Mikonotunne besieged it for a month during the Rogue River War of 1855-1856. Archaeologic…
Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970
This article examines how businesses perceived political risk in South Asia and Latin America over the last half century. Employing data from an oral history database at Harvard Business School, the article identifies five major sources of political risk: macroeconomic and policy turbulence, excessive bureaucracy, political instability, corruption, and violence. Marked regional differences were identified in perceptions and responses to risks. Ma…
Oral History and Writing the Business History of Emerging Markets
Varieties of Green Business
This book provides rich new empirical evidence on green business as it examines its variation between industries and nations, and over time. It demonstrates the deep historical origins of endeavors to create for-profit businesses that were more responsible and sustainable, but also how these strategies have faced constraints, trade-offs and challenges of legitimacy. Based on extensive interviews and archives from around the world, the book asks w…
The Alternative Business History
This article suggests that the business history of emerging markets should be seen as an alternative business history, rather than merely adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate strategies and structures of developed economies. The growing literature on the business history of emerging markets addresses contexts that are different from those of developed markets. The…
Creating Ecotourism in Costa Rica, 1970–2000
Between the 1970s and the 2000s, Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This article argues that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a natural resource endowment explanation. While previous literature has emphasized the efforts of the government and nongovernment organizations, this article demonstrates the critical…
Complementary approaches to the identification of bison processing for storage at the Kutoyis complex, Montana
National image as a competitive disadvantage
This article examines why organic agriculture and food consumption developed more strongly in some countries than others between the 1970s and the 2000s. The focus is the limited growth of the New Zealand organic sector, which contrasts with countries such as Denmark which were similar in size and shared significant export agri-business sectors, but whose organic food sector became significantly larger. While the power of incumbent vested interes…
Business groups, entrepreneurship and the growth of the Koç Group in Turkey
This article examines the emergence and development of what became the largest business group in Turkey, the Ko Group. This venture was an important actor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the 1920s. After World War II it diversified rapidly, forming part of a cluster of business groups which dominated the Turkish economy alongside state-owned firms. This article examines how the founde…
Making ‘Green Giants’
This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies, Bayer and Henkel, and traces the evolution of their environmental strategies in response to growing evidence of pollution and resulting political pressures. Although German business has been regarded as pioneering corporate environmentalism, this study reveals major commonalities betw…
Opinions
No available abstract
The Alternative Business History
This article suggests that the business history of emerging markets should be seen as an alternative business history, rather than merely adding new settings to explore established core debates. The discipline of business history evolved around the corporate strategies and structures of developed economies. The growing literature on the business history of emerging markets addresses contexts that are different from those of developed markets. The…
Business History
cross-disciplinary appeal
The Oxford handbook of business history
"This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of research in business history. Business historians study the historical evolution of business systems, entrepreneurs and firms, as well as their interaction with their political, economic, and social environment. They address issues of central concern to researchers in management studies and business administration, as well as economics, sociology and political science, and to historians. They e…
The Rise of Multinationals in Continental Europe
Part 1: Continental European multinationals 1850-1992, Geoffrey Jones continuity and change - German foreign direct investment 1850-1990, Harm G. Schroter Swiss multinational enterprise in historical perspective, Harm G. Schroter outward bound - the rise of Dutch multinationals, B.P.A. Gales securing the markets - Swedish multinationals in a historical perspective, Ulf Olsson the multinational companies of Norway, Fritz Hodne. Part 2: the German …
Managing Political Risk in Global Business
This article is concerned with business strategies of political risk management during the twentieth century. It focuses especially on Beiersdorf, a pharmaceutical and skin care company in Germany. During World War I, the expropriation of its brands and trademarks revealed its vulnerability to political risk. Following the advent of the Nazi regime in 1933, the largely Jewish owned and managed company faced a uniquely challenging combination of h…
Oral History and the Business History of Emerging Markets
This article highlights the benefits that rigorous use of oral history can offer to research on the contemporary business history of emerging markets. Oral history can help fill some of the major information voids arising from the absence of a strong tradition of creating and making accessible corporate archives in most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It also permits a level of nuance that is hard to obtain even if written archives …
Merchants as Business Groups
Merchants formed an important component of British foreign direct investment before 1945. Locating in parts of Asia, Latin America and other developing economies, they often diversified into non-trading activities, including the ownership of plantations. This article examines three such British firms active initially in Asia, though with operations also in North America, Europe, and Africa. Often regarded as handicapped by managerial failings, es…
U.S. Multinationals in British Manufacturing before 1962
This article presents a new database on U.S. multinationals active in British manufacturing between 1907 and 1962. Britain was the largest European host economy for U.S. direct investment in manufacturing and the second largest host worldwide. This article identifies the industrial distribution and mode of entry of U.S. investors, and offers explanations for the time trends which are shown. It goes on to trace the evolution of U.S. subsidiaries, …
Family Capitalism
European integration and corporate restructuring
European integration and corporate restructuring: the strategy of Unilever, c.1957‐c.1990. While much has been written about the politics of European integration, discussion about the role of business in this process has been largely confined to lobbying activities. This article focuses on the business reaction to European integration. It highlights the constraints facing one of Europe's largest firms in building a regional detergents business. T…
Foreign Multinationals in British Manufacturing, 1850–1962
This essay draws on a new database to describe the dimensions and characteristics of 685 foreign companies which established British manufacturing subsidiaries between 1850 and 1962. The numbers of foreign companies grew from the 1890s, expanded rapidly in the inter-war years, and even more rapidly from the 1950s. The majority were American, and were clustered in chemicals, mechanical and electrical engineering, metal goods, motor vehicles and fo…
Foreign multinationals and British industry before 1945
Business groups, entrepreneurship and the growth of the Koç Group in Turkey
This article examines the emergence and development of what became the largest business group in Turkey, the Ko Group. This venture was an important actor in the emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey from the 1920s. After World War II it diversified rapidly, forming part of a cluster of business groups which dominated the Turkish economy alongside state-owned firms. This article examines how the founde…
Control, Performance, and Knowledge Transfers in Large Multinationals
This article considers key issues relating to the organization and performance of large multinational firms in the post-Second World War period. Although foreign direct investment is defined by ownership and control, in practice the nature of that “control” is far from straightforward. The issue of control is examined, as is the related question of the “stickiness” of knowledge within large international firms. The discussion draws on a case stud…
The Gramophone Company
In this article Dr. Jones traces the history of the Gramophone Company—an early British multinational—between 1898 and 1931. Drawing on hitherto untapped archival sources, he provides a detailed narrative of the firm's history while at the same time placing it within the context of British multinational expansion as a whole. Of particular interest is his discussion of the firm's “special relationship” with the American-based Victor Company—a rela…
Complementary approaches to the identification of bison processing for storage at the Kutoyis complex, Montana
Making ‘Green Giants’
This article examines the evolution of corporate environmentalism in the West German chemical industry between the 1950s and the 1980s. It focuses on two companies, Bayer and Henkel, and traces the evolution of their environmental strategies in response to growing evidence of pollution and resulting political pressures. Although German business has been regarded as pioneering corporate environmentalism, this study reveals major commonalities betw…
Diversification Strategies of British Trading Companies
This article examines the diversification strategies and organisational competencies of Harrisons & Crosfield between 1900 and 1980. This firm was of the largest ‘agency houses’ in Southeast Asia and one which had played a prominent role in the development of the Malayan rubber industry. By the 1970s Harrisons & Crosfield resembled a sogo shosha in terms of its product and geographical diversification. This diversification was incremental, and of…
A History of the Burmah Oil Company, 1886-1924
The British Government and the Oil Companies 1912–1924
The overwhelming majority of studies of the relationship between the British government and private industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are, in reality, merely studies of the government's policy towards industry. The attitude of private industry towards the government has been almost entirely neglected, and this has inevitably led to a distorted understanding of the relationship as a whole. It is, for example, hardly ever made expl…
Lightning‐induced magnetic anomalies on archaeological sites
Recent studies of known lightning impacts and laboratory testing of samples from a suspected lightning‐induced anomaly appearing in magnetic survey data allow us to characterize these formerly enigmatic responses. Remanent magnetization associated with the current path of a lightning discharge produces strong anomalies that can be recognized in magnetic survey data, and can be identified positively using laboratory methods. Copyright © 2005 John …
Varieties of Green Business
This book provides rich new empirical evidence on green business as it examines its variation between industries and nations, and over time. It demonstrates the deep historical origins of endeavors to create for-profit businesses that were more responsible and sustainable, but also how these strategies have faced constraints, trade-offs and challenges of legitimacy. Based on extensive interviews and archives from around the world, the book asks w…
National image as a competitive disadvantage
This article examines why organic agriculture and food consumption developed more strongly in some countries than others between the 1970s and the 2000s. The focus is the limited growth of the New Zealand organic sector, which contrasts with countries such as Denmark which were similar in size and shared significant export agri-business sectors, but whose organic food sector became significantly larger. While the power of incumbent vested interes…
The Growth and Performance of British Multinational Firms before 1939
Onn the basis of a case study of the Dunlop Rubber Company this article examines two aspects of the growth of British multinational enterprise before the Second World War. First, why did British manufacturing firms establish factories in foreign countries? Second, what did firms gain from this strategy? The first question has attracted some comment, although generalizations have continued to rest on a combination of inadequate secondary literatur…
Creating Ecotourism in Costa Rica, 1970–2000
Between the 1970s and the 2000s, Costa Rica became established as the world’s leading ecotourism destination. This article argues that although Costa Rica benefited from biodiversity and a pleasant climate, the country’s preeminence in ecotourism requires more than a natural resource endowment explanation. While previous literature has emphasized the efforts of the government and nongovernment organizations, this article demonstrates the critical…
The British Government and the Oil Companies 1912–1924
The overwhelming majority of studies of the relationship between the British government and private industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are, in reality, merely studies of the government's policy towards industry. The attitude of private industry towards the government has been almost entirely neglected, and this has inevitably led to a distorted understanding of the relationship as a whole. It is, for example, hardly ever made expl…
The State and Economic Development in India 1890-1947
The role of the State in promoting Indian economic development in the nineteenth century is one of several aspects of modern Indian economic history which have been 're-interpreted' in recent years. The conventional wisdom once portrayed the policy of the British government in India as one essentially geared to serving British economic interests. By means of 'discriminatory interventionism' in economic affairs, it was argued, the Government encou…
Entrepreneurship
Corporate Growth
Book Notes
The State and the Emergence of the British Oil Industry
Lombard Street on the Riviera
* I would like to thank Barclays Bank International, Lloyds Bank International, Lloyds Bank Limited, the Midland Bank, and the National Westminster bank for permission to consult their archives. Mr Edwin Green, Dr Leslie Hannah and Professor Leslie Pressnell, the archivists of the above banks and an anonymous referee made some very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. Notes * I would like to thank Barclays Bank International, Lloyd…
European Direct Investment in the USA before World War I
Some Recent Histories of International Oil
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Oil
The Growth of International Business
The State and the Emergence of the British Oil Industry
The History of the British Petroleum Company
Multinational Chocolate
(1984). Multinational Chocolate: Cadbury Overseas, 1918–39. Business History: Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 59-76
A History of the Burmah Oil Company, 1886-1924
The Growth and Performance of British Multinational Firms before 1939
Onn the basis of a case study of the Dunlop Rubber Company this article examines two aspects of the growth of British multinational enterprise before the Second World War. First, why did British manufacturing firms establish factories in foreign countries? Second, what did firms gain from this strategy? The first question has attracted some comment, although generalizations have continued to rest on a combination of inadequate secondary literatur…
Performance review at the GLC ‐a model for the ‘eighties
The Gramophone Company
In this article Dr. Jones traces the history of the Gramophone Company—an early British multinational—between 1898 and 1931. Drawing on hitherto untapped archival sources, he provides a detailed narrative of the firm's history while at the same time placing it within the context of British multinational expansion as a whole. Of particular interest is his discussion of the firm's “special relationship” with the American-based Victor Company—a rela…
Expansion, Crisis, Reconstruction
C. Reviews and notes
FAHARIS AL‐MAKHTUTAT AL‐'ARABIYYA FI AL‐'ALAM. Compiled by KURKIS ‘AWWAD. Kuwait, Ma'had al‐Makhtūtat al‐'Arabiyya, 1984. 2 vols. 445; 448pp. A SURVEY OF THE SCIENTIFIC MANUSCRIPTS IN THE EGYPTIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY. By DAVID A. KING. (American Research Center in Egypt: Catalogs, 5.) Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, 1986. xiv, 331pp. (incl. illustrations on pp.221–331). US $54.50 (cloth); US $39.50 (paperback). AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ISLAMIC SCIENCE…
The End of Insularity
History of the British Bank of the Middle East, I
Multinationals
Foreign multinationals and British industry before 1945
British Multinationals
Economics (54 works) · Political science (53 works) · Business (52 works) · Law (28 works) · Law (21 works) · Business history (20 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (19 works) · History (19 works) · Economic history (18 works) · Management (17 works)