B1. BUSINESS HISTORY AND INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY
(17th - 20th c.)

Business History is a branch of Economic History which flourished after World War II. The core research issues of this branch orbit around the entrepreneur and the firm. The main case studies emanate from commercial, maritime, financial and industrial enterprises. Research projects analyze the evolution of the firm in historical perspective, the typology of the entrepreneur and the interrelations with the political, economic and social environment in the Greek state and the Greek diaspora. This program originated from 1991 in the INR with the study of Greek industry and the preservation of industrial archeology in Greece.

CURRENT RESEARCH ORIENTATIONS

• Diaspora entrepreneurial networks (empirical examples and theoretical approaches)
• The biography of the entrepreneur (typology, national benefactors)
• Personal and group migrations in Greece and the Greek diaspora (development of port cities and economic centres)
• Entrepreneurship as a form of survival in a competing market economy (family firms)

Programme director: Maria Christina Chatziioanou, Research Director