The Virtues of Dialogue between Academics and Business (wo)men: A Historical Retrospect

This article aims to understand the process of production of knowledge in the field of business organization and economics of the firm. The particular feature of this work is that the acquisition of this type of knowledge is greatly assisted by the developments of conversations between academics and industrialists. This key idea is derived from the historical analysis of three early seminars in which this dialog took place. In particular, we look at a method which has been applied in England during the period late 1940s to early 1970s in the following academic seminars: The Seminar in Problems of Administration at the LSE set up and ran by Ronald Edwards (1947-1972); The Industrial Seminar at Birmingham University set up by Leonard Minkes with Philip Sargant Florence as Chairman (late 1950s-1972); and the B.Phil. Seminar in Economics of Industry at the University of Oxford set up by Philip W. Andrews and co-chaired with Elizabeth Brunner (1957-1974). By the mid-1970s, these three seminars ceased to exist and left room to the rapid development of management studies, on the one hand, and to the formalization of industrial economics (game theory), on the other hand. To a large extent, although of different nature, these three seminars reflected a shared effort to provide an empirical approach to the understanding of firms and industries with a particular emphasise on business behaviour and decision-making. This form of empiricism did not only consist of collecting facts but, rather, showed the importance of exchange and dialogues between academics and industrialists which led to a better understanding of economic policy and dynamics of firms. This approach contrasted with the Harvard case study method and with modern seminars in Business Schools. Overall, this article discusses the relevance of conversation between academics and business (wo)men. An historical approach is developed to provide a better understanding of the nature and use of this dialogue. Hence, this article naturally falls into three parts. The first part consists of a general discussion about the idea of empiricism in the field of business organization at a conceptual level. It also contextualizes the three seminars in the broader tendency of empiricism in the UK before and during this period. The second part of the article offers a detailed analysis of the three seminars based on archival sources and one of the author's main recollections (especially in relation to the seminar in Birmingham). The third and last part of this work discusses the validity of our main proposition regarding the use of this kind of approach in modern understanding of organizations dynamics. It also questions the abandonment of such a method in recent developments in business organisation. This work combines both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources were found in the very substantial archives of the Edwards Seminar at LSE and in the large number of boxes left by Philip Andrews and Elizabeth Brunner with respect to the Oxford seminar. David Stout's personal archives were also very helpful in the (re)construction of the content and the orientation of the Oxford seminar in Economics of Industry. Regarding the LSE and the Birmingham seminars, the work also relies on Leonard Minkes' own recollections and personal archives. Secondary sources mainly consist of two published books which are directly or indirectly supported by the material discussed in the seminars (Edwards, Townsend, 1958/1964; Minkes, Nuttall, 1985).