A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE MUSEUMS OF VOLVO AND ISUZU: LEVERAGING AN UNTAPPED ASSET FOR INVESTIGATING NARRATIVES IN BUSINESS HISTORY

Abstract

This paper argues that an international comparative study of corporate museums can be an effective primary source to enrich the field of business history by allowing researchers to go beyond explicit narratives to unearth important hidden narratives. Such a study was conducted by analysing the corporate museums of Volvo and Isuzu along with the corporate documents of both companies and academic literature on the automobile industry. Both companies are leading manufacturers of buses and trucks and thus have much in common but the narratives presented at their corporate museums are found to be strikingly different. Volvo, for example, is proud to demonstrate its collaboration with the Swedish government while Isuzu, on the other hand, is determined not to mention its relationship with the Japanese government and the military. Conducting more of these types of comparative
studies of corporate museums between different countries, regions, industries and companies could advance the “historical methods of management” to achieve a nuanced understanding of business history and historical organization studies.