The Megacorp as a Social Innovation and Business History

An earlier paper [28] has suggested a conceptual framework for organizing the study of American history. The purpose of this paper is to see how business history, in particular, fits within that framework. The first section summarizes the earlier paper, calling particular attention to one of the points it makes, namely, that the modern corporation, or megacorp, as it emerged within the American context is one of the most important, if not the most important, institutional innovation helping to explain early 20th century American economic growth and late 20th century world growth. The rest of the paper examines business history to see what light it can throw on this very specific example of institutional innovation.