Hundred years of corporate planning. From industrial capitalism to intellectual monopoly capitalism through the lenses of the Harvard Business Review (1922–2021)

Abstract This article reopens the issue of corporate planning (CP) by exploring its evolving role in capitalism. We analyze the content of Harvard Business Review from its foundation in 1922 until 2021, using text mining and network analysis techniques. Our results show that CP remains at least as crucial in the age of intellectual monopoly capitalism as in the age of industrial capitalism dominated by the integrated modern corporation. Yet, we identify qualitative transformations in CP regarding its purpose, its means, the type of knowledge predominantly mobilized, and its temporality.