Valeria Giacomin - Publications

Work In Progress

Manuscript
- From Forest to Agribusiness: How Global Companies Transformed the Environment of Southeast Asia

(under contract with Yale University Press - Agrarian Studies Series)

The book reveals how global companies made Southeast Asia the world’s powerhouse for rubber and palm oil, while fueling deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate crises. Spanning 150 years of history, it uncovers the corporate strategies and organizational structure behind one of today’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Working Papers

From a Creative Cluster to a Creative Hub: Prêt-à-porter's Emergence in Italy and Milan's Transition to a Fashion Hub, with Sandeep D. Pillai. (under review)
Rubber Manufactures' Investment into Plantation: The case of Pirelli in Java (1920-1940) (under review).
Pirelli's Rubber Plantations in post WWII Java (1940-1955), with Fiorentate Ursone.
Capital, Crops, and Crisis: British Plantation Investment on the London Stock Exchange, 1906–1940, with Matteo Calabrese.
Synthetic Rubber and the End of Plantation Authority: the Remaking of Malaya’s Rubber Economy between 1930–1960.

Datasets

Plantation Economies: London Stock Exchange Company Listings , funded by Junior Bocconi Grant, 2024/2025. with Matteo Calabrese and Francesco Romagnoli.
London Repo: Giacomin, V. & Lutz, C. (2025). Historical London Company Geocoding Pipeline (Early 20th Century) on GitHub. HERE
Southeast Asia Plantations Repo: Giacomin, V., & Lutz, C., & Calabrese, M. (2025). plantation-lse-global-geolocation on GitHub. HERE

Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

Inside the Dollhouse: Litigation, Corporate Power and Competition in the American Mid-20th Century Toy Industry, forthcoming in Business History Review with Marina Nicoli. Winner of EBHA Best Paper Prize 2025.
- This paper reconstructs through papers of Ruth Hander's personal collection and public trial documents from the 1960s, how the US toy manufacturer Mattel systematically used litigation on unfair competition and trademark and copyright infringement to shape the industry's competitive structure and impose the Barbie Doll as "the" 3d-grown-up doll.
How Do SMEs Respond to Deglobalization? Insights from Italian SMEs in the Interwar Period (1936-1943), Journal of Management Studies (2025), with Francesco Romagnoli. DOI
- This paper examines how Italian SMEs adapted their strategies to the turbulent business landscape of the 1930s, shaped by the convergence of domestic autarkic policies and a broader wave of global economic deglobalization.
Business-Government Networks in Small States: The Emergence and Evolution of the Luxembourg Global Mutual Fund Industry, 1945–1988, Business History Review (2025), with Matteo Calabrese. DOI
- This paper looks at how a close-knit community of local professionals and politicians in Luxembourg leveraged the country's small state status within the nascent European Community to become a financial hub specializing in mutual funds.
Entrepreneurial imagination: Insights from construal level theory for historical entrepreneurship. Business History (2024), with Hadar Ram, and Cheryl Wakslak. DOI

Construal Level Theory (CLT) is proposed as a tool to analyze the role of entrepreneurial imagination in evaluating and selecting business opportunities, using Thomas Edison's personal archival documents as a case study.

Entrepreneurship as emancipation: Ruth Handler and the entrepreneurial process ‘in time’ and ‘over time’, 1930s–1980s, Business History (2023), with Christina Lubinski DOI.
- This paper explores the entrepreneurial journey of Ruth Handler, the inventor of the Barbie doll, and how her evolving self-narratives and engagement with the toy industry shaped her emancipatory agency.
Drivers of philanthropic foundations in emerging markets: Family, values and spirituality. Journal of Business Ethics (2022), with Geoffrey Jones. DOI; Also published as HBS working paper.
- The study of CEM oral history interviews across the Global South reveals that philanthropic foundations in emerging markets are often driven by "spiritual philanthropy," embodying personal or family traditions, culture, and religious values.
Internment as a business challenge: Political risk management and German multinationals in Colonial India (1914–1947). Business History (2021), with Christina Lubinski, and Klara Schnitzer. DOI
- This article examines how German multinational enterprises in India managed the internment of their employees in British camps during both World Wars, a political risk that created unexpected networking opportunities.

Business investment in education in emerging markets since the 1960s. Business History (2021), with Geoffrey Jones, and Erica H. Salvaj. DOI; Also published as HBS working paper.
- An analysis of 110 oral history interviews with business leaders from the Global South from the CEM database shows that over three-quarters invested in education in different forms, driven by values, context, and firm-focused motivations.
The transformation of the global palm oil cluster: dynamics of cluster competition between Africa and Southeast Asia (c. 1900–1970). Journal of Global History (2018). DOI
- The paper analyzes the historical shift of the global palm oil cluster from Africa to Southeast Asia, highlighting the role of institutional frameworks, knowledge transfer, and entrepreneurial strategies.
The emergence of an export cluster: traders and palm oil in early twentieth-century Southeast Asia. Enterprise & Society (2018). Winner of Mira Wilkins Prize for the Best Article In Comparative International Business History In E&S, 2019. DOI
- This article analyzes the vertical integration of trading firms into plantation agriculture, arguing that this strategic move was a key driver of specialization and the emergence of the rubber and late palm oil cluster in early twentieth-century Southeast Asia.

Negotiating cluster boundaries: governance shifts in the palm oil and rubber cluster in Malay(si)a (1945–1970 ca.). Management & Organizational History, (2017). DOI
- This paper investigates the evolution of governance structures within Malaysia's palm oil and rubber industries from 1945 to 1970, focusing on how cluster boundaries were redefined in response to post-colonial political and economic shifts.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Multinationals and Global Value Chains, in Geoffrey Jones and Sabine Pitteloud (eds.), Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society, pp. 90-114. Cambridge University Press. with Andrea Colli. (2026) DOI.
- This chapter examines how multinational corporations have historically structured and governed global value chains, analyzing their multidimensional impact on international production and the global economy.

Perspectives on oral history for historical research. In Stephanie Decker, William M. Foster, and Elena Giovannoni (eds.), Handbook of Historical Methods for Management, pp. 121-139. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023. DOI

This chapter discusses the use of oral history as a valuable method for historical research in management studies.

Singapore, Global city ante litteram in early twentieth century Southeast Asia. In Nicholas J. White, and Anthony Webster (eds.), Singapore–Two Hundred Years of the Lion City, pp. 61-79. Routledge, 2019. DOI
- This chapter argues that early twentieth-century Singapore functioned as a "global city" in Southeast Asia, displaying characteristics of a central international hub for commerce and finance before the concept was formally defined.
Clusters as spaces for global integration. In Teresa da Silva Lopes, Christina Lubinski, and Heidi Tworek (eds.), The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business, pp. 264-278. Routledge, 2019. DOI
- This chapter frames industrial clusters as essential spaces where local actors and firms connect with and contribute to the broader processes of global economic integration using historical case studies.

Book Reviews

Review of Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia. By Michael Vatikiotis, Orion Publishing, 2017. In Business History Review 93, no. 3 (2019): 653-656. DOI
Review of Natural Resources and Economic Growth. Learning from history. Edited By Marc Badia-Miró, Vicente Pinilla, Henry Willebaldin, Routledge, 2015. In Business History 60, n. 6(2017): 933–935. DOI

Teaching Material

Deglobalization and Alternative Futures, HBS Module Note, with Geoffrey Jones, 2022. HERE
- This technical note reviews the evidence for a current era of de-globalization, exploring factors that have slowed or redefined global economic integration and outlining four alternative future scenarios.

Historical Entrepreneurship, USC Module Note, with Christina Lubinski and Dan Wadhwani, 2020. HERE
Velasca: Organizing Growth, USC Teaching Case, with Dan Wadhwani, 2021 HERE
Entrepreneurial Imagination: Ruth Handler and the Barbie Doll, USC Teaching Case, with Christina Lubinski, 2020. HERE
Josiah Wedgwood: Creating Desire in the 18th Century, USC Teaching Case, with Andrew Popp, 2020. HERE

Kenyan Community Currencies, USC Teaching Case, with Ester Barinaga, 2020. HERE
Danfoss and the Danish Variety of Capitalism, USC Teaching Case, with Christina Lubinski and K. Nørgaard Modvig, 2020. HERE
Instagram for Educators, USC Teaching Case, with Christina Lubinski, 2020. HERE
Joan Bavaria and Multi-dimensional Capitalism, HBS Teaching Plan, No. 318-008, July 2018, with Geoffrey Jones. HERE
Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, HBS Teaching Plan, No. 318-081, December 2017 with Geoffrey Jones. HERE
Opium and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth Century, HBS Teaching Plan, No. 818-063, October 2017, with Geoffrey Jones. HERE

Work In Progress

Manuscript

From Forest to Agribusiness: How Global Companies Transformed the Environment of Southeast Asia

(under contract with Yale University Press - Agrarian Studies Series)

Working Papers

Datasets

Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

Chapters in Edited Volumes

Book Reviews

Teaching Material