Skip to main content

Dr Joe Lane

Lecturer in Strategy

Co-Director of the Centre for Economic Institutions and Business History
Programme Director for International Business and Management
Assessment Lead - Business & Management UG Programmes

Joe Lane resized 75nhoemsn

Specialisms

  • , 
  • Business and Economic History, 
  • Industrial districts, 
  • Innovation and intellectual property, 
  • The Industrial revolution, 
  • Craft-based industries

Location

143, Henley Business School, Whiteknights

Dr Joe Lane is a business historian working on knowledge and innovation strategies of firms in industrial districts since the First Industrial Revolution.

Dr Joe Lane is a Lecturer in Strategy at Henley Business School. He holds a PhD in Economic History from the London School of Economics, where he subsequently worked before joining Henley in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is Programme Director for BSc in International Business and Management.

Joe is a module convenor at undergraduate level and on the Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship programme. His areas of teaching expertise are in business strategy, management research, the history of innovation and business history.

Grants and Research Projects

His published research broadly focuses on patents, innovation and industrial clusters since the middle of the eighteenth century. Joe welcomes enquiries from PhD candidates in these or broader areas of business and economic history, and currently has two active research projects in specific areas:

  • Industrial Clusters: Knowledge, Innovation and Sustainability in the UK: this research applies a historical perspective to the development of industrial clusters with a view to developing contemporary policy implications. It is launched from a book that Joe co-edited on industrial clusters, which was published by Routledge in July 2022.
  • Historical Patents and nature of knowledge: this research stream focuses on building a new database of British patents from 1750-1945, and subjects them to machine-learning textual analysis techniques. The research aims to determine how the way in which patents were written over time helps us understand the patenting behaviours of individuals and firms over time as the knowledge-base for innovation changes.

Awards

  • 2019 – ‘Coleman Prize’ for best thesis in Business History at ABH Conference
  • 2019 – ‘Best Developmental Paper’ at British Academy of Management Conference

Reference: Billington, S. and Lane, J. (2025) Procuring promising provisions: the British patent system and the Navy Proviso, 1794-1831. European Review of Economic History. ISSN 1474-0044 (In Press)
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane
Reference: Corker, C., Lane, J. and Wilson, J. (2024) Knowledge flows and industrial clusters: assessing the sources of competitive advantage in two English regions. Enterprise and Society. ISSN 1467-2235 doi: 10.1017/eso.2023.55
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane
Reference: Lane, J. (2023) The trees of the forest: uncovering small-scale producers in an industrial district, 1781-1851. Enterprise & Society, 24 (3). pp. 702-730. ISSN 1467-2227 doi: 10.1017/eso.2022.7
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane
Reference: Lane, J. (2022) Knowledge, identity and cooperation in an early industrial cluster: The Potteries in 1775. In: Wilson, J. F., Corker, C. and Lane, J. (eds.) Industrial Clusters Knowledge, Innovation Systems and Sustainability in the UK. Routledge International Studies in Business History. Routledge. ISBN 9780367465223
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane
Reference: Corker, C., Lane, J. and Wilson, J. F. (2022) Critical perspectives on industrial clusters. In: Wilson, J. F., Corker, C. and Lane, J. (eds.) Industrial Clusters Knowledge, Innovation Systems and Sustainability in the UK. Routledge International Studies in Business History. Routledge. ISBN 9780367465223
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane
Reference: Wilson, J. F., Corker, C. and Lane, J. (2022) Industrial clusters in Great Britain: framing the debate. In: Wilson, J. F., Corker, C. and Lane, J. (eds.) Industrial Clusters Knowledge, Innovation Systems and Sustainability in the UK. Routledge International Studies in Business History. Routledge. ISBN 9780367465223
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane
Reference: Lane, J. (2019) Secrets for sale? Innovation and the nature of knowledge in an early industrial district: the potteries, 1750-1851. Enterprise & Society, 20 (4). pp. 861-906. ISSN 1467-2235 doi: 10.1017/eso.2019.8
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Joe Lane

Dissertation

This module leads to the production of a dissertation of 10,000 words, excluding title page, contents page, tables, illustrations and their captions, appendices and bibliography. The aim is to allow...

Module code: MM358

Introduction to Business and Management

This module provides an introduction to Business and Management by exploring the organisation's environmental context. The module considers: The influences on organisations, including its consumers and competitors, stakeholders, and local...

Module code: MQ1IBM
Module code: MM296

Organisational growth

This module explores themes of strategy, culture and change, and considers how they relate to and impact on each other in order to promote or hinder effective growth within an...

Module code: MQ3ORG

Past Events

11 December 2024 ❘ Henley Business School, Whiteknights Campus
20 April 2022 ❘ Henley Business School
31 August 2022 ❘
9 September 2021 ❘ Online

British Academy of Management Annual Conference

2 September 2020 ❘

A History of Industrial Clusters: Knowledge, Innovation Systems and Sustainability in the UK

4 March 2020 ❘ Henley Business School

The 24th Annual Congress of the European Business History Association

10 September 2020 ❘

Association of Business Historians Annual Conference

26 June 2020 ❘