Harvard Business School and case study research

Ellen O’Connor

Chapter 66 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Historical Organisation Studies, 2026, pp 240-241 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Harvard University founded its Graduate School of Business Administration (GSBA, now Harvard Business School [HBS]) in 1909. Because Harvard was the nation's leading educational institution and served the society's top ranks, this move would elevate business as a profession and as an academic discipline. HBS thus undertook to build a science of business administration. It failed to do so. Instead, it developed a teaching tool and method that fueled the growth of undergraduate business schools. This success underscored the need for a basic science. The field took economics as a proxy. However, in addressing the violent industrial crises of the day, HBS won a place in the curriculum for psychology, which admitted human factors that economics ignored.

Keywords: Harvard Business School; Case method; Human relations; Graduate schools of business; Administrative science; Professional education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332922
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