(Roman Private Share Company as Radical Novelty)
Purpose – The paper retraces the genesis of private share company in Ancient Rome as one of the greatest innovation in the history of management.
Design/methodology/approach – Relying on a thorough and systematic analysis of the available historical material, and modern research, the author reconstructs the first known form of private share company and traces its emergence in late Republic and early Empire Rome.
Findings – The scope of commercial partnerships and bounds preventing them from concentration of capitals are shown. The popular myth of private corporations allegedly existing in Ancient Rome is debunked. The author reveals how existing business elements (union of co-owners, the module “slave – peculium – free administration” from individual enterprise, and the principle of inseparability of joint ownership) had been combined to form private share company. Are demonstrated its chief differences from corporation, and the untenability of attempts to deny it as a reality in Ancient Rome. By way of summing up, the pattern of innovations is brought into relief.
Research limitations/implications – The material opens new vistas for historians and allows them to draw a more exact and comprehensive picture of Roman private entrepreneurship, experts in management to retrace the background of modern forms of business organizing, and a more broad circle of researchers to see what is the real path of radical innovations – from the need for it to its implementation. The author’s conclusions give scholars a key to understanding breakthrough phenomena of history
Practical implications – The results obtained may be employed in many courses related to the history of economics, business, management, innovations etc. Besides, they allow practitioners to see plainly the origins of new business forms and learn how to make for them or facilitate their growth.
Social implications – The author’s conception of viable novelties sheds light on the processes of social development and modernization. It provides an effective instrument for planning reforms and managing their implementation.
Originality/value – The framework of Roman private share company and many allied issues are investigated for the first time. The design of the new type of enterprise is presented as a functional request from the estate of private entrepreneurs it responds to, what explains why the new organizational form, despite its radical nature, proved to be quite efficient and caught on in business. The author infers from his findings a generalized pattern of innovations able to integrate into reality.
Keywords: innovation, private share company, commercial partnership, corporation, business in Ancient Rome.