Professor
Geoffrey Jones
“It is important to learn from the past of businesses if we are to build a more responsible and sustainable future”
What I’m Reading
Recommendations
About me
Current Book Projects
What I’m Reading
Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World (Riverhead Books, 2024).
I recently finished Atossa Araxia Abrahamian’s The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World (Riverhead Books, 2024). This fascinating book explores the thousands of extraterritorial zones—such as free trade zones, flags of convenience, and offshore detention centers—that operate as a shadow network within our global economy. Abrahamian’s thought-provoking analysis reveals how these spaces disrupt traditional notions of sovereignty and accountability, creating a parallel universe that profoundly shapes our world.Benjamin T. Smith’s
The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade (W.W. Norton, 2021).
This detailed history traces the roots and growth of the Mexican drug trade. Smith doesn’t shy away from placing significant blame on U.S. policies and demand, providing a nuanced perspective on the socio-economic forces behind one of the most persistent global challenges.Recommendations
Geoffrey Jones, Yuan Jia-Zheng, Yuhai Wu & Qianru Wang
Government, business and making China an educational powerhouse since the 1980s.
China’s K-12 education system has achieved remarkable success since the 1980s, with high literacy rates, widespread basic education, and gender equality. This article explores how a blend of public and private interests—the “walking on two legs” approach-fueled this success, particularly through the rise of private tutoring or “shadow education.” However, a major policy shift after 2016 aimed to address systemic inequalities and regional disparities, reflecting broader moves towards greater centralization in education policy.”
Creating Emerging Markets
Access interviews with business leaders in emerging economies
The Creating Emerging Markets oral history project co-directed by Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna has discussed the responsibility of business with nearly 200 top business leaders in the Global South.
With almost 190 in-depth interviews conducted across 34 countries, Creating Emerging Markets captures the voices of business leaders shaping the global economy and offers valuable insights on innovation, leadership, family business, business and education, and business-government relations.
Deeply Responsible Business, A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership
Offers an invaluable historical perspective on business responsibility from the 1800s Quaker capitalism to Modern B-Corps
Published by Harvard University Press
About me
Professor
Geoffrey Jones
Geoffrey Jones is the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School. He was born in Birmingham in Britain, and worked briefly at the chocolate company Cadbury that is discussed in Deeply Responsible Business before earning his B.A. and Ph.D degrees at Cambridge University. He also holds an honorary Doctorate in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School and an honorary Ph.D degree from the University of Helsinki. He taught at Cambridge University, the London School of Economics, and Reading University, and held Visiting Professorships in Colombia and Japan, before moving to the United States in 2000. He is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and an International Fellow of the British Academy. He became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and now lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Current Book Projects
I am writing a business history of the Global South since World War I, provisionally titled Forging Businesses in the Global South: Entrepreneurship, Resilience, and Risk, under contract with Cambridge University Press.
This book explores the creation and growth of locally owned businesses in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America over the past century. It highlights how entrepreneurs in the Global South, despite challenges such as colonial legacies and global economic inequalities, built enterprises that contributed to bridging the gap between richer and poorer regions. A central theme is resilience, showcasing how these entrepreneurs navigated risks and setbacks to create lasting businesses.
I am also co-editing The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals & Society with Sabine Pitteloud, also under contract with Cambridge University Press. This volume provides an accessible overview of recent developments in the history of multinationals, focusing on their societal impacts. Contributors include leading scholars, and I have authored chapters on multinationals and corruption, as well as multinationals and the environment.