The Anglo-European historical turn in organizational theory revisited: a critique from other epistemic geographies

Organizational Theory has engaged with other fields of knowledge since the late twentieth century, particularly at the intersection of business, management, and history. Now, 40 years after the introduction of a promising relationship between history, the past, and historiographical methods in Organizational Theory – under the influence of adjacent fields such as Business History – organizational theorists appear to have moved beyond the debate on whether the past is relevant to organizational research. Instead, the academic discussion has shifted toward how to operationalize this dialogue. In this article, we propose two questions for reflection: Through which epistemologies are historiographical approaches mobilized in Organizational Theory? How do such epistemologies support the methodological operationalization of historiographical research in the field? The reflections developed in this article are structured around three main points, grounded in a critique of the dominant Anglo-European or Euro-North American geography in the epistemology, theory, and historiographic methods within Organizational Theory. First, we revisit the cause-and-effect debate between structure and strategy, influenced by Chandler’s ideas, Edith Penrose’s resource-based view (RBV), and new insights from institutionalists. Second, we examine the recurring calls from critical organizational theorists advocating for a closer integration of Organizational Theory with the discipline of history. These calls played a role in the so-called Anglo-European historical turn in Organizational Theory, introducing new theoretical currents influenced by constructivist and interpretivist ontological perspectives, as well as epistemologies that relativize the past. Third, we highlight the emergence of theoretical currents stemming from the rewriting and contestation of organizational historiography, reinterpreted in epistemic, theoretical, and empirical contexts from diverse geographies of the Global South.