Research Center in Entrepreneurial History

Former research center at Harvard University (1948–1958).

The Research Center in Entrepreneurial History was a research center at Harvard University founded in 1948 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Led by the American economic historian Arthur H. Cole, the research center attracted numerous grand scholars in the field of business and economic history and economics such as Joseph Schumpeter, Fritz Redlich, and Thomas C. Cochran.[1] The center issued the first academic journal devoted to entrepreneurship named Explorations in Entrepreneurial History. During the time of its existence, the center attracted rising academic stars such as Alfred D. Chandler Jr., who would later become one of the seminal figures in the field of business history. Intellectually, the research center was influenced by the German Historical School and focused on the role of the entrepreneur in the economy.[2] However, historical research on entrepreneurship ran into methodological roadblocks and the research interest moved towards industrial corporations and neoclassical economics.[3] Today, the research center is seen as one of the first modern attempts to research entrepreneurship and understand the impact of entrepreneurial activities on the economy.[4] While historical research on entrepreneurship has not found much resonance in scientific and public debates, recent decades have seen a revival of the theories of Joseph Schumpeter and more recently calls for a revival of research on entrepreneurial history.[2]