Research on Business and Entrepreneurship History of India – Reflections on the State of the Art and Future Directions

Abstract

In this paper we provide a report of the insights from the round table held at the Indian Institute of Bangalore (IIMB) on August 28, 2009. The round table, organized by the N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at IIMB, brought together a distinguished and eclectic panel of scholars to converse about the domain of business and entrepreneurship history of India, the perspectives that they had gathered over decades of research, the broad themes that hold promise for rich research possibilities, and the gamut of methodological approaches available; overall identifying the challenges and the interesting research questions within this domain. The implications are considered for management education in business and entrepreneurial history, covering aspects of curriculum, pedagogy and resources. We also fully document the proceedings of the round table in detail within this paper to enable future work in this space.

Keywords: Business history, Business Research in India, Economic history, Entrepreneurial history