| N. S. B. Gras | |
| Birth Name: | Norman Scott Brien Gras |
| Birth Date: | 1884 |
| Birth Place: | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality: | Canadian |
| Thesis Title: | The Evolution of the English Corn Market, 1100–1700 |
| Thesis Year: | 1912 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Edwin F. Gay |
| Discipline: | History |
| Sub Discipline: | Business history |
| Notable Ideas: | Business history |
Norman Scott Brien Gras (1884–1956), known as N. S. B. Gras, was a Canadian professor at the Harvard Business School who invented the academic discipline of business history.
Gras was born in 1884 in Toronto, Ontario.[1] He graduated from the University of Western Ontario.[1] He went on to receive a PhD in economics from Harvard University.[1]
Gras taught economics at the University of Minnesota.[2]
Gras was appointed as Professor of Business History by Dean Wallace Brett Donham in 1927.[2] [3] He invented this new academic discipline, which only existed as his job title at the time.[2] From the outset, Gras made sure to draw a distinction between economic history and business history.[3] For Gras, economic history failed to focus on the role of the businessman as well as the role of business administration.[3] Instead, the main goal of business history was to highlight those two components in the history of corporations and business developments.[3]
Gras served as the president of the Business History Foundation.[4] He was the founder and editor of the Journal of Economic and Business History.[4] He was also the editor of the Harvard Studies of Business History.[4]