What Can Business History Tell Us About Business Performance?

This article reveals how business historians, analysts and managers tackle the key subject of business performance, and identifies the tensions between the principal approaches. Particular attention is devoted to Chandler, Porter and the FMA literature, financial measures, and broader measures, including benchmarking and performance indicators. The conclusion is that historians provide historical assessments that contrast with the more predictive measures of economists and analysts. It is argued that business historians, who emphasise profits, survivability and adaptive capability, can inform the strategic decisionmaking of the contemporary business manager.