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Cited by 12Management Theory and PracticeManagement and Marketing EducationManagement and Organizational Studies

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Setting the Habit of Capitalization: The Pedagogy of Earning Power at the Harvard Business School, 1920-1940

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Muniesa, Fabian·2016·GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
DOI 10.12759/hsr.41.2016.2.196-217
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Abstract

The quandaries of business valuation have marked the pedagogy of business administration since early attempts at institutionalizing the managerial discipline. It is however now commonly admitted, at least in legitimate financial and entrepreneurial circles, that the value of a business (that is, the monetary assessment of a functioning enterprise established in a competitive environment) resides primarily in its earning power or, in other words, that what a business is worth equals its capacity to generate a stream of revenues for the investor or investors that provide it with funding. How did this idea take shape and how did it permeate the business mind? An examination of early pedagogical materials at the Harvard Business School (an influential reference for the socialization of the businessperson) and, in particular, of the vagaries of the idea of capitalization and its exercising in the classroom provides a fine occasion to advance understanding of the meaning of such ideals of business and business value, and of their institutionalization. This empirical study can, in turn, be employed in order to discuss and refine critically our interpretation of what a convention of economic valuation is and how it operates.

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Cited by

Metadata

Authors
Muniesa, F.
Venue
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Publisher
GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Published
2016
Volume
41
Issue
2
Pages
196-217
DOI
10.12759/hsr.41.2016.2.196-217
OpenAlex
W2262397156
Cited by
12
References
0
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2
FWCI
3.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • Historical social research (cc-by)
  • Historical social research
Funders
  • Harvard Business School
  • FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (263529)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management Theory and Practice
  • Social Sciences › Education › Management and Marketing Education
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
Keywords
Harvard Business School, business valuation, earning power, capitalization, business education, history of management thought, 1920s-1940s

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