ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how historical studies contribute to theory development in management by first examining the nature of theory. It complements Rowlinson contribution by discussing the general merits of historiography as well as its specific advantages relative to the traditional methods employed by management researchers. The chapter uses the example of the vertical integration between General Motors (GM) and Fisher Body in 1926 to illustrate the nature of historical explanation and, more importantly, the merits of historical studies. It focuses on organizational history, which "draws upon concepts from organization theory and the wider social sciences and humanities". The chapter discusses the deductive-nomological model and the mechanismic approach that span across the natural and social sciences, corresponding respectively to Salmon's argument that scientific explanations take two general forms: appealing to a general law or a mechanism. Many mechanisms proposed through management theories consist of chains of causal links in which one event leads to another.
