Papers presented by Geoffrey Jones since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"Not in the Public Interest: Understanding State-embedded Criminal Actors"

Abstract:

The size of illegal or illicit business is almost by definition hard to measure, but it can be broadly asserted as likely to have been large historically, and – beyond the specific case of financial fraud – little studied in business history. Contemporary estimates provide evidence of the scale of the sector. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in 2009 that transnational organized crime generated $870 billion, or 1.5 per cent of the then global GDP. Although illicit business is found in both developed and developing countries, it is likely to be higher in countries with more fragile institutions. A 2015 study reported that illicit outflows were 3.9 per cent of developing country GDPs, larger than total inward FDI. The illicit sector contains a diverse range of actors, from clusters of individuals to large organized enterprises whose activities span illicit and licit businesses. This paper will span one particular organization form. The Swiss-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime reported in 2021 that “ State actors are the most dominant agents in facilitating illicit economies.” This paper will look historically and comparatively at the circumstances in which state-embedded criminal actors can become significant businesses in developing countries during the twentieth century. It was focus on a number of case studies including the relationship between provincial governors and the drugs trade in Mexico in the first half of the century, Nationalist China in the interwar years, where the criminal Green Gang worked loosely with the government, and the economic activities of the quasi-governmental Revolutionary Guards in Iran after 1980. It shows that state-embedded criminal actors did not proliferate in countries with “weak” institutions, but rather in situations when government both had capabilities and desire for funds to pursue broader political or economic goals.

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2023 Detroit, MI, United States

"Deeply Responsible Business Leaders in History"

Abstract:

This paper explores the history of business leaders who have since the nineteenth century pursued a broader social purpose than simply making profits and who have seen business as a way of improving society, and even addressing the world’s social and environmental challenges. This is defined as deep responsibility, as opposed to corporate social responsibility, which rarely changes anything, and is often primarily public relations. The paper intervenes in the confusing discourse about business responsibility by offering evidence what it has actually looked like in the past. The paper draws on a forthcoming book (which will not be published at the time of the conference) and focusses on five characters. They are Edward Filene, the Boston retailer and promoter of credit unions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Robert Bosch, the founder of the German electronics firm; Anita Roddick, the founder of the The Body Shop, a British beauty business, and a social and environmental activist in the last decades of the twentieth century; and Ibraham and Helmy (father and son) Abouleish, the founders of the SEKEM organic food business in Egypt and social entrepreneurs. These deeply responsible entrepreneurs shared a number of common characteristics. First, they created and sold products and services that were genuinely socially useful. Secondly, they interacted with other stakeholders with respect and humility. Thirdly, they understood the importance of community and believed that business had a role to play in contributing to their vitality. While Milton Friedman argued that businesses pursuing social responsibility were a threat to free societies, the actions of these deeply responsible business leaders created new freedoms. It is evident that deeply responsible businesses have never been the norm. The last part paper explores why this was not the case.

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2023 Detroit, MI, United States

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2022 Mexico City

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