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A Spirit of Generosity: Philanthropy in the Scotch Whisky Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2019

Niall G. MacKenzie ,
Jillian Gordon  and
Martin J. Gannon
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

philanthropyScotch whiskyinstitutional theoryfamily business
Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 93 , Issue 3: Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy , Autumn 2019 , pp. 529 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2019 

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