ABSTRACT
Business policy as a field of study was originally conceived as an endeavor to develop the practical skills of managers and establish management as a profession focused on the role of chief executive officers and guided by an ethos of service to society. This chapter offers a historical and epistemological review of the business policy field to illustrate this shift. It analyses the historical evolution of business policy. The chapter outlines the epistemological backdrop underlying the historical change in the field. Strategic management as a field of study evolved from a subject called “business policy,” imparted at Harvard Business School (HBS) and later at other US business schools. Business policy as an academic topic first appeared in 1910, two years after the founding of the HBS. The subject of business policy emerged as an initiative of the first dean of HBS, Edwin Francis Gay, and the entrepreneur Arch W. Shaw, who together designed the course syllabus based on three premises.
