Diego Coraiola

New identities from remnants of the past: an examination of the history of beer brewing in Ontario and the recent emergence of craft breweries

Abstract We present an exploratory analysis of historical narratives and data covering 200 years of beer brewing in the Canadian province of Ontario. These data are used to illuminate the process of collective identity emergence in established organisational fields. We argue that established fields are typically littered with identity remnants from ancestral organisations and related institutional configurations that can facilitate the successful emergence of new collective identities. In our analysis we first show how multiple identity elements fell by the wayside as the beer brewing field matured and settled on a corporate path. We go on to detail how some of these identity elements were subsequently recovered during the recent decades which marked the successful emergence and proliferation of craft beer brewing. Our study has implications for research on collective identity and organisational legacy, and we stress the importance of taking a historical lens for understanding present day phenomena.

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.

Useful rhetorical history: An ideographic analysis of Fortune 500 corporations

How history in organizations is understood has changed. A static view of history, one focused on the liabilities brought by history to organizations, has been increasingly questioned leading to the...

Capacidades mnemônicas: Memória coletiva como capacidade dinâmica

Dynamic capabilities (DCs) are the processes that organizations develop to remain competitive over time. However, in spite of the importance of temporality in the development of DCs, the roles of time, history, and memory remain largely implicit. In fact, most studies focus on the past as a source of constraints and limits for managerial action. Alternatively, we advocate for a social constructionist view of the past. Our core argument is that the capacity to manage the past is a critical competence of modern organizations. We argue that organizations can manage their collective memory as resources that aid the objective reproduction and exploitation of existing routines, the interpretive reconstruction and recombination of past capabilities for adaptation to environmental change, and the imaginative extension and exploration of collective memory for anticipated scenarios and outcomes. This renewed view of time, history, and memory is better suited for a dynamic theory of competitive advantage.

Rhetorical analysis of corporate histories

The recent interest in the relationship between history and organizations has fueled the emergence of a general inquiry on how to develop research on history in the field organization studies. Considering the differences in the way historians employ their research methods and account for their methodological rigor, organizational researchers are sometimes puzzled by the lack of clear references and guides that orient how to develop, analyze, and evaluate historical research. Additionally, the influence of social constructionist and relativist schools of thought in the development of more recent historical work tend to conflict with the generally held notion of history as a collection of objective facts, and can add layers of complexity to the understanding of historical accounts of the past. Aligned with these emerging trends on the study of history, we argue that organizations studies still lack a clear framework and an adequate set of procedures to study history in organizations. Our intent in this pape...