Learning to Use the Past: the Development of a Rhetorical History Strategy by the London Headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company

Smith, ADA ORCID: 0000-0002-8589-7608 and Simeone, D (2017) Learning to Use the Past: the Development of a Rhetorical History Strategy by the London Headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company. Management and Organizational History, 12 (4). pp. 334-356.

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Abstract

Organization studies scholars are increasingly interested in how managers use the past to obtain competitive advantage. Little research has been done on the history of the corporate use of history which means that we know little about the circumstances in which the corporate use of rhetorical history was pioneered. This paper historicizes rhetorical history. It uses the experience of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) to develop understanding of how companies used the past to advance interests in the face of political threats. Founded in 1670, the HBC is one of the oldest firms in the Western world. For much of its history, its senior managers invested few resources in the firm’s ‘heritage infrastructure’ and rarely used history in its communication with outside stakeholders. This paper shows how it learned to use history as a strategic asset gradually and by observing other firms. At the end of World War I, it began to make substantial investments in heritage infrastructure. This allowed the firm to turn its long history into an asset. This paper stresses the politicized nature of the corporate use of the past.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Rhetorical history, uses of the past, historical narratives, storytelling, history
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	16 Aug 2017 07:27
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 06:57
DOI:	10.1080/17449359.2017.1394199
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3008986