We engage in a historical comparative analysis of business leaders ' recollections and memories in the form of oral histories to analyze their ethics behind their foundations ' activity in different countries . Oral history refers to the collection , transcription , and recording of memories and voices directly from participants of past events ( in video or tape interviews ) and their preservation and interpretation as historical sources ( Ritchie , 2010 ) . It is acknowledged as a preferred longitudinal research methodology in emerging economies because alternative data sources , such as wellorganized national and corporate archives , are often absent or inaccessible ( Austin et al . , 2017;Jones & Comunale , 2019 ) .