A breakthrough in business management (Roman private share company as radical novelty)

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to retrace the genesis of private share company in Ancient Rome as one of the greatest innovation in the history of management.

Design/methodology/approach

Relying on a thorough and systematic analysis of the available historical material, and modern research, the author reconstructs the first known form of private share company and the way it came into being under late Republic and early Empire.

Findings

The scope of commercial partnerships and bounds preventing them from concentration of capitals are shown. The popular myth of private corporations allegedly existing in Ancient Rome is debunked. The author reveals how existing business elements (union of co-owners, the module “slave – peculium – free administration” from individual enterprise, and the principle of inseparability of joint ownership) had been combined to form private share company. Are demonstrated its chief differences from corporation, and the untenability of attempts to deny the real existence of private share companies in Ancient Rome. By way of summing up, the pattern of innovations is brought into relief.

Research limitations/implications

The material opens new vistas for historians and allows them to draw an exacter and more comprehensive picture of Roman private entrepreneurship. Experts in management get an opportunity to retrace the background of modern forms of business organizing. A broader circle of researchers may see what the real path of radical novelties – from the need for them to their implementation – is. And altogether, the author’s conclusions provide scholars with a key to understanding breakthrough phenomena of history.

Practical implications

The results obtained may be used in many courses related to the history of economics, business, management, innovations, etc. Besides, they allow practitioners to discern plainly the origins of new business forms and learn how to make for them or facilitate their growth.

Social implications

The author's conception of viable novelties sheds light on the processes of social development and modernization. It may serve as an effective instrument in planning reforms and managing them.

Originality/value

The framework of Roman private share company and many allied issues are investigated for the first time. This type of enterprise is presented as a response to the functional request from private entrepreneurs. That is why the new organizational form, despite its radical nature, proved to be quite efficient, and caught on in business. The author infers from his findings a generalized pattern of innovations able to get integrated into reality.

Citation

Petrosyan, A.E. (2020), "A breakthrough in business management (Roman private share company as radical novelty)", Journal of Management History, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 186-215. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-05-2019-0035