Resourceful and socially connected

The business biography of Danish tobacco entrepreneur Laurits Andersen in treaty-port China, 1890-1922

Public PhD defence by Peter Roy Harmsen.

 Read thesis (secured pdf) - (including English and Danish abstracts)

 

The Danish entrepreneur Laurits Andersen (1849-1928) lived most of his life in China, where he became one of the leading figures in the establishment of the country’s modern tobacco industry. This thesis presents a chronological account of his life while also challenging existing constraints on the historical business biography and proposing new ways to expand the genre’s methodologies.

Social network analysis is one such methodology. While this methodology has been in use for decades and has developed a set of sophisticated tools made accessible through modern software programs, the methods have mostly been used on contemporary cases, whether in entrepreneur studies or outside. This thesis proposes to apply it more actively on historical cases as well.

The thesis proposes ways to make data of a sufficient detail and granularity available through new means of mining existing historical sources for useful information. It advocates using traditional sources such as letters and newspapers in combination to tease out new data in sufficient amounts to enable quantitative methods to reach new insights.

At the same time, the thesis argues that a mixed methodology will provide the fullest account of historical matters. The methodology is mixed not only in combining qualitative and quantitative research but also by mixing historical and social science theories and approaches in analyses of past periods and people.

Based on these methodologies, this thesis concludes that Andersen was successful in China through his skillful, strategic operation of the various social networks he was part of, as he leveraged an ever-evolving set of skills to deploy a variety of resources, especially of a technological nature, at the same time as he positioned himself centrally to control information flows within his networks.

The thesis proposes that, partly due to the quantitative nature of much of the methodology adopted, the insights gained about Andersen’s life and career can be generalized to the level of the class of western entrepreneurs in China at the turn of the 20th century, thus enriching the genre of historical biography.

 

 

Den danske entreprenør Laurits Andersen (1849-1928) boede i Kina det meste af sit liv, og han blev en af de ledende skikkelser i etableringen af landets moderne tobaksindustri. Denne afhandling udgør en kronologisk beretning om hans liv, men udfordrer samtidig også eksisterende begrænsninger, som den historiske erhvervsbiografi lider under, og foreslår nye måder at udvide og berige genrens metoder på.

Social netværksanalyse er en sådan metode. Mens denne metode har været anvendt i årtier, og dens udøvere har udviklet sofistikerede redskaber, som er blevet gjort tilgængelige gennem moderne softwareprogrammer, anvendes social netværksanalyse hovedsagelig på moderne cases, hvad enten det gælder entreprenørstudier eller andre forskningsfelter. Denne afhandling er et forsøg på at anvende metoden mere aktivt også på historiske emner.

Afhandlingen udvikler metoder til at akkumulere data af den nødvendige detaljegrad gennem afsøgning af eksisterede historiske kilder med henblik på at uddrage nyttig information. Den slår til lyd for at benytte traditionelle kilder som breve og aviser i kombination for at indsamle data i tilstrækkelig store mængder til, at kvantitative metoder kan bringes i anvendelse og ny viden produceres.

Samtidig argumenteres der i afhandlingen for, at en metode, der kombinerer forskellige tilgange, vil føre til den mest dækkende beskrivelse af historiske emner. Det er en metode, der ikke bare kombinerer kvalitative og kvantitative elementer, men også teorier og metoder fra historievidenskaben og samfundsvidenskaberne for at opnå en dybere indsigt i fortiden og dens mennesker.

Med udgangspunkt i disse metoder konkluderer denne afhandling, at Andersen havde succes i Kina gennem behændig, strategisk navigering af de forskellige sociale netværk, som han var en del af, idet han konstant udviklede og anvendte sine evner og ressourcer, specielt på det teknologiske område, og samtidig positionerede sig selv centralt i sine netværk, så han kunne kontrollere de informationsstrømme, der passerede mellem netværkenes medlemmer.

Det er desuden afhandlingens konklusion, at det som følge af nogle af de anvendte metoders udpræget kvantitative karakter er muligt at generalisere den indsigt i Andersens liv og karriere, som er opnået, og dermed nå til en bredere erkendelse af den virkelighed, som vestlige entreprenører i Kina befandt sig i omkring forrige århundredskifte. Resultatet bidrager i videre forstand til en metodologisk berigelse af den historiske biografi som genre.

 

Assessment committee

  • Associate professor Margaret Mehl, Chair (University of Copenhagen)
  • Professor Klaus Mühlhahn (Zeppelin Universität)
  • Professor Robert Bickers (University of Bristol)

Moderator of the defence

  • Associate professor Jesper Nielsen (University of Copenhagen)

Copies of the thesis will be available for consultation at the following three places:

  • The Information Desk of the Library of the Faculty of Humanities
  • Reading Room East of the Royal Library (the Black Diamond)
  • The Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Karen Blixens Plads 8, building 10