Abstract: In recent years, research on corporate history has drawn increasing attention from the academic community. Without breakthroughs in research perspectives and methods, relevant research still remains within the frameworks and structures such as property rights, governance structure, and surplus distribution although a large amount of historical data has been excavated and sorted out. Researchers repeat the problems and even conclusions of their predecessors. Specifically, previous studies on corporate history are blocked by the research themes and paradigms of economic history, neglecting the fact that the primary driving force of a company, as an organization, is self-sustaining, and its primary goal is profitability. In order to further promote the study of corporate history, it is necessary to take the enterprise and its development & evolution as the core, i.e. a historical writing style that focuses on the enterprise as the main driving force, and that we call it the corporate history.

Key words: corporate history, economic history, enterprises, internalization