Franco Amatori

Who is Franco Amatori?

Franco Amatori is professor of economic history at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.

Due to a Fulbright Scholarship, Amatori spent three semesters in the individual studies program of Harvard Business School under the tutelage of Alfred D. Chandler, Jr..

Since then, Prof. Amatori has pioneered the academic study of business history in Italy. He has translated Chandler's works into Italian. Also, with Andrea Colli, Prof. Amatori co-authored a synthesis of Italian industrialization, published in 1999, Impresa e industria in Italia dall'Unità a oggi.

Critics however point to the limited scope of Amatori's work. In particular, they speak of the strict adherence to a narrow "business history" model at the same time that the scholars, including the influential group of Italian economic historians, increasingly emphasize the importance of strong theoretical and empirical analysis of the historical context of economic globalization.