A Spirit of Generosity: Philanthropy in the Scotch Whisky Industry

Recent literature on philanthropy and business has focused on the returns to businesses and entrepreneurs from giving. In this article, we show how historical context impacts the motivations and organizational forms created over time in philanthropic giving that effect and affect such returns. We do...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Business history review 2019-01, Vol.93 (3), p.529-552
Main Authors: MacKenzie, Niall G., Gordon, Jillian, Gannon, Martin J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Archives & records
Business
Carnegie, Andrew (1835-1919)
Donations
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Equity stake
Historians
Institutionalism
Motivation
Organizational change
Organizational structure
Ownership
Philanthropy
Privacy
Siblings
Social history
Social responsibility
Society
Trade
Whiskey
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recent literature on philanthropy and business has focused on the returns to businesses and entrepreneurs from giving. In this article, we show how historical context impacts the motivations and organizational forms created over time in philanthropic giving that effect and affect such returns. We do this through the prism of the changing ownership structures in the Scotch whisky industry in the twentieth century using an institutional theory lens. In doing so, we capture the story of three sisters who inherited a Scotch whisky business in the 1940s and transformed it into a hybrid philanthropic-commercial vehicle that remains in operation today. We present an extended theoretical model illustrating the interplay of context, motivation, and organizational structure over time on exchanges of capital in entrepreneurial philanthropy.
ISSN:0007-6805
2044-768X
DOI:10.1017/S000768051900093X