Author: Steph

I am a professor at the University of Birmingham Business School specializing in organizational history and international strategy.

Adam Frost on Chinese Business History

Steph

Business History Review has published an important piece titled “Reframing Chinese Business History” by Adam Frost. This is another example of business history becoming more international to engage more with research on under-represented areas. The article is now available online and open access (see abstract and link below).

OHN will take a break over the holidays, and we wish you a merry Christmas, happy winter holidays, and fingers crossed for the new year, wherever you are!

Abstract

Business history is expanding to include a greater plurality of contexts, with the study of Chinese business representing a key area of growth. However, despite efforts to bring China into the fold, much of Chinese business history remains stubbornly distal to the discipline. One reason is that business historians have not yet reconciled with the field’s unique origins and intellectual tradition. This article develops a revisionist historiography of Chinese business history that retraces the field’s development from its Cold War roots to the present day, showing how it has been shaped by the particular questions and concerns of “area studies.” It then goes on to explore five recent areas of novel inquiry, namely: the study of indigenous business institutions, business and semi-colonial context, business at the periphery of empire, business during socialist transition, and business under Chinese socialism. Through this mapping of past and present trajectories, the article aims to provide greater coherence to the burgeoning field and shows how, by taking Chinese business history seriously, we are afforded a unique opportunity to reimagine the future of business history as a whole.

Access the article here.

Lou Galambos on 19C entrepreneurial culture

Steph

I was very pleased to see a historical piece by the well-known business historian Lou Galambos in the Academy of Management Perspectives recently. His contribution features in an issue that features articles on digital globalization, platform business models, and AI – it is great to see how AOM journals have opened up to a more pluralistic understanding of what management research can be.

The Entrepreneurial Culture: Mythologies, Realities, and Networks in Nineteenth-Century America

Louis Galambos

Academy of Management Perspectives Vol. 35, No. 4

Published Online: 29 Nov 2021 https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2019.0132

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is the driving force of capitalism; this article takes an historical lens to explore the culture that sustains that process. Behavioral economics provides an intellectual framework for analyzing the great variety of entrepreneurial enterprises that thrived in nineteenth-century America. Failures abounded, but the search for new opportunities continued and, by 1900, the frontier and the First and Second Industrial Revolutions had brought America to global industrial leadership and to the edge of a challenging cultural, political, and economic transition.

Great new tool available via the BHC

Steph

The Business History Conference´s Collective Bibliography is a searchable database of references related to the following themes:

  • Business history and race
  • Gender and business history
  • Business history in Latin America
  • Business and Power

Users of the tool, which is open to all on the BHC´s website, can search by collections (see themes above), by type of document, and by key terms. The database contains over 1000 references contributed by scholars in business history. The Business History Conference continues to expand this resource and soon will add a collection on Chinese business history and Teaching resources in business history.

For contributions or questions, please contact the BHC´s web editor [web-editor at thebhc.org]

Newcastle Business History Group Seminar series

Steph

 Newcastle Business School 

BUSINESS HISTORY GROUP 

Seminar Series 

2021-22  

19th January 2022 Dr Jessica van Horssen (Leeds Beckett University): Medical Risks vs. Financial Rewards: Corporate Social Responsibility in the Global Asbestos Trade, 1930-197 

23rd February 2022 Dr Andrew Smith (University of Liverpool): How Do Professionals Investors Benefit from Learning About Financial History? Insights from an Interview-Based Study 

March 2022 Professor Jillian Gordon and Professor Niall MacKenzie (University of Glasgow): TBC 

20th April 2022 Dr Peter Buckles (University of Liverpool): Crisis and Uncertainty in the Bristol-West India Sugar Trade, 1783-1802 

May 2022 BHG Research Showcase Event Two 

8th June 2022 Professor Daniel Raff (University of Pennsylvania): Historical Explanation Reconsidered and Some Tasks for Business History 

For more information, please get in touch with the seminar convenors: Dr Ian Jones and Ellie Charalambous 

Email: ian.g.jones@northumbria.ac.uk 

Twitter: @bhg_nbs 

CfP: Special Issue in Accounting History

Steph

We are pleased to announce that the Call for Papers on the theme “Accounting for Death: An historical perspective” which is to be guest-edited by Professors Lee Moerman and Sandra van der Laan. The call can be found at: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/ACH/AH%20CFP%20Accounting%20for%20Death%20Final-1636352407.pdf.

Research into accounting for death tends to identify death as a transactional phenomenon used in calculative practices; or a consequence of organisational or institutional activity that gives rise to demands for accountability. In situations where death is the consequence of intended or unintended organisational or institutional activity, the responsibility is to render an account of death. In order to reorient the analytical focus to death as a phenomenon in accounting studies, the term necroaccountability has been introduced into the lexicon (Moerman and van der Laan, 2022 forthcoming).  However, to date, a few scattered studies in accounting history have closely examined the relationships between accounting and death whether in regards to necroaccountability or other angles that are outlined in the call for papers. Author(s) are encouraged to submit their papers for peer review, with the final date for submission of papers to the special issue being 15 September 2023. Potential contributors are welcome to contact the Guest Editors to discuss their proposed topics at: Lee Moerman, University of Wollongong (leem@uow.edu.au) Sandra van der Laan, The University of Sydney (sandra.vanderlaan@sydney.edu.au).

All submissions must follow the journal’s style guidelines found on the SAGE website: https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/ACH. 

Best wishes.

Carolyn, Carolyn and Laura

Carolyn Cordery, Carolyn Fowler and Laura Maran

Editors, Accounting History

Hagley History Hangout: Fashion Capitals

Steph

In the course of the twentieth century, Italy succeeded in establishing itself as one of the world’s preeminent fashion capitals, despite the centuries-old predominance of Paris and London. This book traces the story of how this came to be, guiding readers through the major cultural and economic revolutions of twentieth-century Italy and how they shaped the consumption practices and material lives of everyday Italians. In the interview with Roger Horowitz, Executive Director of Hagley Center, Emanuela Scarpellini explores the economic and cultural changes that made it possible for Italian fashion to rise to world prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. She also uncovers the important role played by the DuPont Company in this process, using documents from the Hagley archives to show the company encouraged and promoted the use of synthetic fibers in clothes created by Italian designers.  

Emanuela Scarpellini is Professor of Modern History at the University of Milan, Italy. She is the author of several books, including Material Nation: A Consumer’s History of Modern Italy (2011) and Food and Foodways in Italy from 1861 to the Present (Palgrave, 2016). 

The audio-only version of this program is available on our podcast.

 Interview available at  https://www.hagley.org/research/history-hangout-emanuela-scarpellini .

Recorded on Zoom and available anywhere once they are released, our History Hangouts include interviews with authors of books and other researchers who have use of our collections, and members of Hagley staff with their special knowledge of what we have in our stacks. We began the History Hangouts earlier this summer and now are releasing programs every two weeks on alternate Mondays. Our series is part of the Hagley from Home initiative by the Hagley Museum and Library. The schedule for upcoming episodes, as well as those already released, is available at  https://www.hagley.org/hagley-history-hangout. 

Unlocking our Digital Past – 2nd workshop

Steph

For those with an interest in digital history and digital archives, reflections and presentations from the second workshop of the “Unlocking our Digital Past” are available here: https://unlockingourdigitalpast.com/blog-2/

Also AEOLIAN (AI for Cultural Organisations), an international network, runs events – to find out more you can join their mailing list to receive the latest news: https://www.aeolian-network.net/join-aeolian-2/

Accounting History Symposium

Steph

Dear Accounting History supporters and friends,

The 16th Accounting History Symposium is fast approaching and will be held on Friday, December 3rd, 2021 from 8:00 am (AEST)* to 11 am (AEST).

Registrations for the event are now open.

Attendance to the event is free and open to both members and non-members of the AH-SIG. Only pay attention to the TIME ZONE*

You can register at this link.

https://forms.gle/pXuLfeZKNNXbA8p99

Best wishes

Giulia Leoni Accounting History SIG convenor

*Friday, December 3rd, 2021 10:00am NZ 

*Thursday, December 2nd, 2021 9:00pm London 

*Thursday, December 2nd, 2021 10:00pm Rome

Chinese Business History Workshop

Steph

The deadline to submit proposals for the Chinese Business History Workshop to be celebrated during the #BHC2022MexicoCity meeting has been extended until November 30, 2021.  For more information about the workshop go to:  https://thebhc.org/chinese-business-history-workshop.  

Hagley History Hangout: US supermarkets

Steph

In this episode,  Gregory Hargreaves interviews James McElroy about his dissertation project “Racial Segmentation & Market Segregation: The Late-Twentieth-Century History of the American City Supermarket, 1960-1990.” In support of his research, McElroy, PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota, received an exploratory research grant from the Hagley Center for the History of Business, Technology, & Society. In “Racial Segmentation & Market Segregation,” McElroy offers a social and busines history of supermarkets that links the production and distribution of marketing knowledge with the shaping of urban spaces and communities in the latter half of the twentieth century. The process revealed is one in which market segmentation based upon racialized stereotypes informed the segregation of American cities we live with today.

The audio only version of this program is available on our podcast.

 Interview available at  https://www.hagley.org/research/history-hangout-james-mcelroy.

Recorded on Zoom and available anywhere once they are released, our History Hangouts include interviews with authors of books and other researchers who have use of our collections, and members of Hagley staff with their special knowledge of what we have in our stacks. We began the History Hangouts earlier this summer and now are releasing programs every two weeks on alternate Mondays. Our series is part of the Hagley from Home initiative by the Hagley Museum and Library. The schedule for upcoming episodes, as well as those already released, is available at  https://www.hagley.org/hagley-history-hangout.