Ernst Abbe's Scientific Management : Theoretical Insights from a Nineteenth-Century Dynamic Capabilities Approach

`Scientific management` is the label Frederick Taylor attached to the system of shop-floor management devised by him. In this article we present our discovery of very different `scientific` management principles that, roughly concurrently with Taylorism, were developed by German physicist-turned-manager Ernst Abbe and that are codified in the statutes of the Carl Zeiss Foundation created by Abbe. They exhibit striking parallels to resource- and capability-based theories of the firm, and indicate managerial challenges that warrant further theoretical elaboration. Abbe develops an account for managing a science-based firm and securing its long-term competitiveness, giving detailed prescriptions with regard to the type and scope of a firm`s activities, its organizational set-up and its labor relations. We highlight some of the most characteristic features of Abbe`s thought, discuss its effects on the development of the firms owned by the Zeiss Foundation, and compare it to and draw out implications for present-day management theory