The strategic use of historical narratives: a theoretical framework

Abstract

History has long been recognised as a strategic and organisational resource. However, until recently, the advantage conferred by history was attributed to a firm’s ability to accumulate heterogeneous resources or develop opaque practices. In contrast, we argue that the advantage history confers on organisations is based on understanding when the knowledge of the past is referenced and the reasons why it is strategically communicated. We argue that managers package this knowledge in historical narratives to address particular organisational concerns and audiences. As well, we show that different historical narratives are produced with the goal of achieving different organisational outcomes. The success of an organisation is thus dependent on the ability of its managers to skilfully develop historical narratives that create a strategic advantage.

Keywords:

• Historical narratives
• rhetorical history
• legitimacy
• authenticity
• identity
• organisational culture

Notes

1. Coraiola, Foster and Suddaby, “Varieties of History”; Hansen, “Business History”; Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish”; Rowlinson, Hassard and Decker, “Research Strategies.”

2. Jones and Zeitlin, The Oxford Handbook.

3. Lipartito, “Culture and the Practice”; Hansen, “Business History”.

4. Foster et al., “History as Social”; Rowlinson, Casey, Hansen and Mills, “Narratives and Memory”; Schneiberg, “What's on the Path?’; Lametz et al., “New Identities from Remnants of the Past.”

5. Carroll, “Introduction”; Suddaby, Foster and Quinn-Trank, “Rhetorical History.”

6. Barney, “Strategic Factor Markets,” “Is the Resource-Based” and “Firm Resources”; Rumelt, “How Much Does Industry Matter?”

7. Porter, “Clusters and the New”; Saxenian, Regional Advantage.

8. Maclean, Harvey, Sillince and Golant, “Living up to the Past?'; Rowlinson and Hassard, “The Invention.”

9. Decker, “Solid Intentions.”

10. McGaughey, “Institutional Entrepreneurship”; Suddaby et al., “Rhetorical History”; Ybema, “The Invention.”

11. Brunninge,”'Using History.”

12. Anteby and Molnár, “Collective Memory.”

13. Suddaby et al., “Rhetorical History.”

14. Lockett and Wild, “Bringing History (Back).”

15. Adorisio, “Organizational Remembering.”

16. Kroeze and Keulen, “Leading a Multinational.”

17. Brunninge, “Using History”; O’Connor, “Plotting the Organization.”

18. McGaughey, “Institutional Entrepreneurship”; Suddaby and Greenwood, “Rhetorical Strategies” ; Ybema, “The Invention.”

19. Rowlinson and Hassard, “The Invention.”

20. Ibid., 12.

21. Beverland, “Crafting Brand Authenticity.”

22. Ibid., 13.

23. Ibid., 9.

24. Lockett and Wild, “Bringing History (Back)”; Penrose, The Theory.

25. David, “Clio and the Economics”; Hannan and Freeman, “The Population Ecology”; Stinchcombe, “Social Structure.”

26. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies.”

27. Ibid., 9.

28. Ibid., 26.

29. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies”; Suddaby et al., “Rhetorical History.”

30. Carr, What is History?; Collingwood, The Idea of History.

31. Ooi, “Persuasive Histories.”

32. Anteby and Molnár, “Collective Memory”; Brunninge, “Using History”; Delahaye, Booth, Clark, Procter and Rowlinson, “The Genre”; Durepos, Mills and Mills, “Tales in the Manufacture”; Linde, Working the Past.

33. Booth, Clark, Delahaye, Procter and Rowlinson, “Accounting for the Dark Side”; Carroll, “Introduction”; Foster et al., “History as Social Memory” ; Gioia, Corley and Fabbri, “Revising the Past”; Hills, Voronov and Hinings, “Putting New Wine”; Kroeze and Keulen, “Leading a Multinational”; Rowlinson and Hassard, “The Invention.”

34. Linde, Working the Past; Zundel, Holt and Popp, “Using History.”

35. Ibid., 13.

36. Ibid., 16.

37. Clark and Rowlinson, “The Treatment of History.”

38. Kieser, “Why Organization Theory”; Harvey et al., “Conceptualizing Historical Organization Studies” ; Suddaby, Foster and Mills, “Historical Institutionalism.”

39. Durepos and Mills, “Actor–Network Theory”; Rowlinson and Hassard, “Historical Neo-institutionalism”; Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies.”

40. Jenkins, “On ‘What is History?’.”

41. Ibid., 16, 1271.

42. Adorisio, “Organizational Remembering”; Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish.”

43. Booth et al., “Accounting for the Dark Side.”

44. Gioia, Corley and Fabbri, “Revising the Past.”

45. Brunninge, “Using History”; Ybema, “Managerial Postalgia.”

46. Brunninge, “Using History.”

47. Ybema, “The Invention.”

48. Chreim, “The Continuity–Change Duality.”

49. O’Connor, “Plotting the Organization.”

50. Newton, “From Freemasons.”

51. Ibid., 11, 20.

52. Ibid., 11.

53. Ybema. “Managerial postalgia.”

54. Brown and Humphreys. 'Nostalgia and the Narrativization.”

55. Ibid., 13, 157.

56. Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives.

57. Ibid., 56.

58. Ibid., 16, 1265.

59. Maclean, Harvey and Chia, “Sensemaking, storytelling.”

60. Linde, Working the Past.

61. Brunninge, “Using History,” 16.

62. Ravasi and Schultz, “Responding to Organizational.”

63. Linde, Working the Past.

64. Kaplan and Orlikowski, “Temporal Work”; O’Connor, “Plotting the Organization.”

65. Bell, “Ways of Seeing”; Booth et al., “Accounting for the Dark Side.”

66. Craig, “Petites Bourgeoises”; Gamber, “A Gendered Enterprise”; Yeager, “Women in Business.”

67. Mckenna, “Writing the Ghost-writer Back in.”

68. Bell, “Ways of Seeing.”

69. McQuarrie, “Breaking Kayfabe.”

70. Durepos, Mills and Mills, “Tales in the Manufacture.”

71. Ravasi and Schultz, “Responding to Organizational.”

72. Carroll, “Introduction”; Ybema, “Talk of Change.”

73. Carroll, “Introduction”; Gioia and Chittipeddi, “Sensemaking and Sensegiving.”

74. Gioia et al., “Revising the Past”; Weick, The Social Psychology.

75. Chreim, “The Continuity–Change Duality”; Ybema, “Talk of Change.”

76. Selznick, Leadership in Administration.

77. Ibid., 12.

78. Ibid., 12, 522.

79. Ibid., 12, 526.

80. Schultz and Hernes, “A Temporal Perspective.”

81. Peterson, “In Search of Authenticity.”

82. Beverland, “Crafting Brand Authenticity”; Carroll, “Introduction.”

83. Dalpiaz, Rindova and Ravasi, “Where Strategy Meets”; Hills et al., “Putting New Wine”; Jones, Anand and Alvarez, “Manufactured Authenticity.”

84. Cutcher, “Creating Something.”

85. Foster et al., “History as Social.”

86. Holt, “Jack Daniel's America.”

87. Carroll and Wheaton, “The Organizational Construction of Authenticity,” 257.

88. Ibid., 87, 271.

89. Ibid., 87, 272.

90. Holt, How Brands Become Icons.

91. Ibid., 90.

92. Ibid., 87.

93. Mordhorst, “Arla and Danish.”

94. Ibid., 93, 117

95. Brunninge, “Using History”; McGaughey, “Institutional Entrepreneurship”; Suddaby and Greenwood, “Rhetorical Strategies of Legitimacy.”

96. Foster and Hyatt, “Inventing Team Tradition.”

97. Carstairs, '"Roots" Nationalism”; Foster, “History as Social”; Hearn, “Productivity and Patriotism.”

98. Ibid., 13.

99. Hills et al., “Putting New Wine.”

100. Hargadon and Douglas, 2001.

101. The concept of skeuomorph comes from the Greek words skéuos (container, tool) and morphḗ (form or shape) and was coined to mean a specific kind of objects or features which were created with the purpose of mimicking the traces or characteristics of existing artefacts and elements from the past.

102. Taylor and Freer, “Containing the Nuclear Past.”

103. Ibid., 102, 584.

104. Ibid., 90.

105. Collins and Porras, Built to Last; Rowlinson and Hassard, “The Invention.”

106. Linde, Working the Past.

107. Gioia et al., “Revising the Past”; Ybema, “Talk of Change.”

108. Ibid., 19.

109. Ibid., 13.

110. Ibid., 43.

111. Geiger and Antonacopoulou, “Narratives and Organizational Dynamics.”

112. Ibid., 13.

113. Chreim, “The Continuity–Change Duality.”

114. Dawson and McLean, “Miners’ Tales.”

115. McGaughey, “Institutional Entrepreneurship”; Ybema, “Talk of Change”; Ybema, “The Invention.”

116. Anteby and Molnár, “Collective Memory”; Maclean et al., “Living up to the Past?”