Author: Steph

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

ToC: Business History 59,2 March 2017

Steph

Original Articles

Business and State in the development of the steel industry in Spain and Italy (c.1880–1929)
Miguel A. Sáez-García
Pages: 159-178 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1172570

Barriers to ‘industrialisation’ for interwar British retailing? The case of Marks & Spencer Ltd
Peter Scott & James T. Walker
Pages: 179-201 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1156088

The parochial realm, social enterprise and gender: the work of Catharine Cappe and Faith Gray and others in York, 1780–1820
Linda Perriton
Pages: 202-230 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1175438

‘The computer says no’: the demise of the traditional bank manager and the depersonalisation of British banking, 1960–2010
Pål Vik
Pages: 231-249 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1177024

The breakdown of the workplace ‘family’ and the rise of personnel management within an Australian financial institution 1950–1980
Monica J. Keneley
Pages: 250-267 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1179286

Mad women: gendered divisions in the Swedish advertising industry, 1930–2012
Klara Arnberg & Jonatan Svanlund
Pages: 268-291 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1182158

Risk management and reinsurance strategies in the Spanish insurance market (1880–1940)
Pablo Gutiérrez González & Jerònia Pons Pons
Pages: 292-310 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1187136

Book Reviews

The power of corporate networks. A comparative and historical perspective
Hubert Buch-Hansen
Pages: 311-312 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1175540

The Qing opening to the ocean: Chinese maritime policies, 1684–1757
Ronald Chung-yam PO
Pages: 312-313 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1192832

Connexions électriques. Technologies, hommes et marchés dans les relations entre la Compagnie générale d’électricité et l’État, 1898-1992
Hubert Bonin
Pages: 313-316 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2015.1095905

Le sacre du roquefort. L’émergence d’une industrie agroalimentaire (fin XVIIIe siècle-1925)
Hubert Bonin
Pages: 316-318 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2015.1123334

Call for Coleman Dissertation Prize (ABH2017)

Steph

Call for Coleman Prize for Best PhD Dissertation

Call for Coleman Prize for Best PhD Dissertation

Named in honour of the British business historian Donald Coleman (1920-1995), this prize is awarded annually by the Association of Business Historians to recognise excellence in new research in Britain. It is open to PhD dissertations in Business History (broadly defined) either having a British subject or completed at a British university. All dissertations completed in the previous calendar year to that of the Prize are eligible. In keeping with the ABH’s broad understanding of business history, applications are strongly encouraged from candidates in economic history, social history, labour history, intellectual history, cultural history, environmental history, the history of science and technology, the history of medicine, or any other subfield.

The value of the prize is £500, sponsored by the Taylor & Francis Group, a scholarly publisher. To be eligible for the Prize, finalists must present their findings in person at the Association’s annual conference, held on 29 June and 1 July 2017 at the University of Glasgow. A complete list of previous winners may be found at http://www.gla.ac.uk/external/ABH/coleman.html.

How to Apply for the Coleman Prize

Supervisors are encouraged to nominate recent PhDs, and self-nominations are also strongly welcomed. Please send a PDF including the title of your PhD dissertation and a brief abstract (up to 2 double-spaced pages) to christine.leslie@glasgow.ac.uk by 15 January 2017. Shortlisted candidates will be requested to submit electronic copies of their theses by 15 February 2017. Finalists will be notified by 15 March 2017.

Deadline for All Submissions

The deadline for receipt of all proposals (papers, session and panels; Coleman Prize, and Tony Slaven Workshop) is 15 January 2017. Acceptance letters will be sent by 15th March 2017.  Everyone appearing on the program must register for the meeting. PhD students whose papers are accepted for the meeting may apply for funds to partially defray their travel costs by applying to the Francesca Carnevali Travel Grant for PhD Students. A limited number of scholarships are available from the Francesca Carnevali fund of the ABH to contribute towards the travel, accommodation, and registration costs of students doing a PhD in the United Kingdom, who are presenting in the Slaven Workshop or the ABH conference. These will be awarded competitively prior to the Workshop. Please indicate in your application whether you would like to be considered for one of these travel grants. To apply for this grant please email Christine.Leslie@glasgow.ac.uk by 31 March 2017.  Further information about the Carnevali Grant will be placed on the ABH website early in the New Year at http://www.gla.ac.uk/external/ABH.

ESRC PhD studentships at Aston

Steph

If you know someone interested in starting a PhD in the area of organizational history, a group of Midlands Universities, including Aston, now offer highly competitive ESRC PhD studentships. Please note the deadline for applications is end of January.

ESRC PhD Studentships in the Social Sciences in the Midlands Graduate School

The Midlands Graduate School is an accredited Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), with the first intake of students to begin in October 2017.

One of 14 such partnerships in the UK, the Midlands Graduate School is a collaboration between the University of Warwick, Aston University, University of Birmingham, University of Leicester, Loughborough University and the University of Nottingham.

The Partnership is looking to recruit top quality social science doctoral students across a range of subjects and interdisciplinary training pathways. Our ESRC studentships – covering fees, maintenance stipend, and support for innovative research training – provide exceptional opportunities for high-achieving and motivated individuals, including opportunities for collaboration.

 

For more information see: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/AWB212/esrc-phd-studentships-in-the-social-sciences-in-the-midlands-graduate-school

 

CfP: Tony Slaven Doctoral Workshop at ABH 2017

Steph

Call for Tony Slaven Doctoral Workshop in Business History, 29 June 2017

Call for Tony Slaven Doctoral Workshop in Business History, 29 June 2017

The ABH will hold its sixth annual Tony Slaven Doctoral Workshop on 29 June, 2017. This event is immediately preceding the 2017 ABH Annual Conference held in Glasgow. Participants in the Workshop are encouraged to attend the main ABH Annual Conference following the Workshop. The Workshop is an excellent opportunity for doctoral students to discuss their work with other research students and practicing academics in business history in an informal and supportive environment. Students at any stage of their doctoral career, whether in their first year or very close to submitting, are urged to come. In addition to providing new researchers with an opportunity to discuss their work with others in a related discipline, the Workshop will also include at least one skills-related session.

The Workshop interprets the term ‘business history’ broadly, and it is intended that students in areas such as (but not confined to) the history of international trade and investment, financial or economic history, agricultural history, not-for-profit organisations, government-industry relations, accounting history, social studies of technology, and historians or management or labour will find it useful. Students undertaking topics with a significant business history element but in disciplines other than economic and business history are also welcome. We welcome students researching any era or region of history.

There will be at least one session led by regular ABH members; in the past these have included ‘getting published’ and ‘using sources’ sessions.  There will be ample time for discussion of each student’s work and the opportunity to gain feedback from active researchers in the field.

How to Apply for the Tony Slaven Workshop

An application should be no more than 4 pages sent together in a single computer file:  1) a one page CV;  2) one page stating the names of the student’s supervisors, the title of the theses (a proposed title is fine),the university and department where the student is registered and the date of commencement of thesis registration; 3) an abstract of the work to be presented.

You may apply via email to Dr Mitch Larson at mjlarson@uclan.ac.uk. Please use the subject line “Tony Slaven Workshop” by the 15 January 2017.

 

Deadline for All Submissions

The deadline for receipt of all proposals (papers, session and panels; Coleman Prize, and Tony Slaven Workshop) is 15 January 2017. Acceptance letters will be sent by 15th March 2017.  Everyone appearing on the program must register for the meeting. PhD students whose papers are accepted for the meeting may apply for funds to partially defray their travel costs by applying to the Francesca Carnevali Travel Grant for PhD Students. A limited number of scholarships are available from the Francesca Carnevali fund of the ABH to contribute towards the travel, accommodation, and registration costs of students doing a PhD in the United Kingdom, who are presenting in the Slaven Workshop or the ABH conference. These will be awarded competitively prior to the Workshop. Please indicate in your application whether you would like to be considered for one of these travel grants. To apply for this grant please email Christine.Leslie@glasgow.ac.uk by 31 March 2017.  Further information about the Carnevali Grant will be placed on the ABH website early in the New Year at http://www.gla.ac.uk/external/ABH.

CfP: ABH 2017 Glasgow: The Human Factor in Business History

Steph1 Comment

Association of Business Historians Annual Conference 2017

‘The Human Factor in Business History’

University of Glasgow,
29 June – 1 July 2017

Call for Papers

Understanding the strategy and structure of firms forms a vital part of the discipline of business history, as does the deployment of essential tools such as typologies of company forms, theories of the firm and firm growth and so on. But it is vital, too, for business historians to recognise and investigate those who stand at the heart of business history: the people who create firms, those who own them and those who work for them in various capacities (whether in head offices, in back offices or on the shop floor) to enable companies to function effectively (or, alternatively, passably or dysfunctionally). It is, after all, people who develop and deploy the skills, relationships and capabilities to allow all of this to happen. Just as important, though, is the human impact of the firm and other organisations that employ people, not least because even today those employed spend a very large proportion of their time in the workplace. Indeed, they are usually engaged for more time there than in any other activity with the exception of sleeping. The firm is therefore a place not only for work, which itself involves considerable human interaction, but also a focus for social life and identity. The theme of the 2017 ABH conference is ‘The human factor in business history’.

Proposals for individual papers or for full sessions, panel discussions or other 2 session formats are invited on this topic, broadly conceived. Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:

  • Entrepreneurs, managers and/or workers
  • Leadership in business
  • Biographical and prosopographical approaches to business history
  • Networks and hierarchies in business as social systems
  • Cross-cultural issues in business and management
  • The impact of automation and technology on human interaction in the workplace
  • Industrial relations and human resource management
  • Gender roles and relations in the workplace
  • The human bases of company behaviour and misbehaviour
  • The human factor in SMEs, family enterprise, corporations and/or MNEs
  • Local, regional, national and transnational networks and business
  • The workplace as a community and focus for identity
  • Business and social movements
  • The impact of work and production on humans and the physical environment

As always, the ABH also welcomes proposals that are not directly related to the conference theme. How to submit a paper or session proposal The program committee will consider both individual papers and entire panels. Individual paper proposals should include a one-page (up to 300 word) abstract and one-page curriculum vitae (CV). Panel proposals should include a cover letter stating the rationale for the panel and the name of its contact person; one-page (300 word) abstract and author’s CV for each paper; and a list of preferred panel chairs and commentators with contact information.

The deadline for submissions is 15 January 2017. Your application for the conference should come through our online submission platform.

Please use the following link: Submit your Papers or Sessions.

First you make a choice for uploading a single paper or a full-session. After pressing each button you will find a mask guiding you through the upload process. Please have available your CV and your Abstract. Any other idea regarding the conference – workshops, poster sessions, or panel discussions – must be suggested directly to the Programme Committee.

CfP: Techniques of the Corporation

Steph

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Techniques of the Corporation”

4-6 May 2017, University of Toronto
Technoscience Research Unit

Conference organization

Justin Douglas
Bretton Fosbrook
Kira Lussier
Michelle Murphy

How do corporations know themselves and their world? Over the last 150 years, corporations, like universities and laboratories, have generated an abundance of knowledge-making techniques in the form of psychological tests, efficiency technologies, scenario planning, and logistical systems. As dominant forms of the last century, corporations are assembled with instruments, infrastructures, and interventions that arrange and rearrange the dynamics of capitalism. These techniques of the corporation have filtered into our daily lives, influencing everyday understandings of self, inequality, environment, and society.

Techniques of the Corporation will assemble an interdisciplinary network of established and emerging scholars whose work contributes to the critical study of the techniques, epistemologies, and imaginaries of the 20th-century corporation. This conference aims to foster a timely conversation between Science and Technology Studies (STS) approaches and the recent histories of capitalism. We treat the corporation in the same way that historians of science and STS scholars have approached science, colonialism, and militarism as generative sites for knowledge production, value-making, and technopolitics. The conference takes as its starting place North American corporations with the understanding that corporations are multinational forms with complex transnational histories. Building from the recent history of capitalism, we attend to the entangled genealogies of corporations with slavery, exploitation, environmental destruction, colonialism, and inequality.

Hosted by the Technoscience Research Unit at the University of Toronto, this event will be an intimate multi-day conversation between established and emerging scholars in the fields of STS, history of science, and the history of capitalism. Techniques of the Corporation will be headlined by keynote speaker Joseph Dumit, and features invited talks by Dan Bouk, Elspeth Brown, Deborah Cowen, Orit Halpern, Louis Hyman, Michelle Murphy, Martha Poon, and Elise Thorburn. The conference will be an immersive experience in the Greater Toronto Area with meals and cocktails provided.

We invite emerging and established scholars in diverse fields (including business history; labour history; anthropology; geography; economic sociology; media studies; critical race studies; architecture studies; feminist and sexuality studies; environmental studies; and cultural studies) to explore the techniques, epistemologies, and imaginaries of corporations. Our overall goal is to crystallize a new field, culminating in a field-defining publication. We welcome work on corporate practices that exceed calculative logics, such as work on social relations, affective and psychological states, and speculative futurities.  In addition to traditional papers, the conference encourages creative methods to query corporate forms, including art installations, videos, interactive multimedia projects, and role-playing games. Applications for travel assistance will be arranged after acceptance.

Corporate practices, include, but are not limited to:

management sharing economy data management
marketing risk management corporate culture
planning corporate responsibility consulting
infrastructure sustainability research and development
logistics corporate design intellectual property
gaming precarity affective labor
racial surveillance architecture transnational capital

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words and a CV to the conference organizers at corporatetechniques@gmail.com by 13 January 2017.

AOM 2018: Call for reviewers for MH division

Steph

As readers of this blog, you may well be attending the Academy of Management conference next year. Please sign up to review for the Management History division in order to review submissions to help our community to grow!

Participate in the 
77th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
August 4-8, 2017
Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Call for Reviewers

We would like to invite all members to sign up as volunteer reviewers of proposals received for the 77th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. We encourage you to sign up as a volunteer reviewer for the divisions or interest groups (DIGs) that you are planning to submit to, or DIGs you are interested in, or DIGs that you are a member of. Divisions and Interest Groups will also be following up with those of you who have reviewed in the past. Please note that even if you have reviewed in the past, you still need to sign up again to review for the 2017 Annual Meeting.

Reviewer Sign Up: NOW
Review Period: January 18, 2017 – February 16, 2017

You can sign up to review for a maximum of two (2) divisions and/or interest groups, and you may be asked to review up to three (3) submissions (papers and symposia) for each division or interest group that you select. The maximum number of review assignments that you could potentially receive is six (6).

To sign up, please visit our website. You will have to choose your areas of expertise (keywords) for the divisions or interest groups for which you want to review. The signup process should not take more than 10 minutes. Reviewers are advised to carefully review the reviewer guidelines and resources on the Reviewer Information website.

AOM 2017: Call for PDWs MH division

Steph

MANAGEMENT HISTORY (MH)

PDW Chair: Dan Wadhwani; University of the Pacific; dwadhwani@pacific.edu

2017 MH Division Professional Development Workshops: Call for Proposals

The Management History Division is a diverse and inclusive community of scholars devoted to historical reasoning and research as an essential and unique approach the study of organizations, organizing, and management. The division embraces history in its multiple forms – as a set of methods, as a form of theorizing, and as a topic – and seeks to foster engagement with historical reasoning throughout the AoM as a way to deepen discourse about the nature of management and its role in organization and society: past, present, and future.

The Division invites proposals for Professional Development Workshops (PDW) for the 2017 Academy of Management meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. PDWs are scheduled to be held between Friday, August 4 and Saturday, August 5, 2017 from 8am to 8pm. We are especially keen to receive bold proposals that broaden the range of topics, expand the types of methods, and deepen the engagement with theory in management history. The conference theme is “At the Interface.” With this in mind, the MH Division especially encourages PDW proposals that explore the interfaces between history and other divisions of the Academy, examining the creative and untapped possibilities for research and dialogue between history and other fields of management research.

The PDW format is very flexible and can take nearly any form (workshops, tutorials, panels, debates, round table discussions, offsite facility tours, journal editorial panel sessions, etc.) and address varied topics (Research Methodologies, New Member Welcome, PhD/New Faculty consortium, Dissertation Workshops, Teaching and Pedagogical issues, Getting Published, etc.). We encourage submissions of creative ideas for interactive sessions that actively engage participants in learning new forms of interpretation, acquiring new skills and techniques, or addressing pressing issues or questions. Normally, PDW sessions are 2 hours or longer; but if a shorter session is appropriate proposers should request that in their proposal.

In developing your proposal, we encourage you to read the PDW Guidelines for Submission. The submission website will open Tuesday, November 15, 2016 and the deadline for receipt of proposals is Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 5pm ET (NY Time), through the Academy’s submission website.

If you would like to engage in an exploratory discussion about a PDW idea or proposal, of if you simply have a question or concern about the process, please contact PDW Chair Dan Wadhwani (dwadhwani@pacific.edu).

CfP: PDW on International Business and Civilizations

Steph

PDW Call for Papers

International Business and Civilizations

Deadline: Friday, January 15, 2017 for abstracts

Thursday, March 30, 2017
Embassy Suites Denver Downtown
1420 Stout Street, Denver, Colorado, 80202, USA

Organized under the auspice of the BHC workshop committee Contact: Teresa da Silva Lopes (teresa.lopes@york.ac.uk), Heidi Tworek (heidi.tworek@ubc.ca) and Christina Lubinski (cl.mpp@cbs.dk) 

In recent years, both business historians and international business scholars have grown increasingly interested in the promise of using historical sources, methods and reasoning in international business research. History, it has been argued, can be valuable in addressing a number of limitations in traditional approaches, including in accounting for contexts and institutions, in understanding the relationship between international entrepreneurship and economic change, in providing multi-­‐‑ level perspectives on international business and in showing connections between business and regional ways of life. Business historians have for long engaged with business behavior across borders and international opportunity recognition and are increasingly making their work pertinent to new audiences, in international business scholarship and at business schools.

With the Business History Conference devoting the 2017 annual conference to the theme of “civilizations,” the preceding one-­‐‑day Paper Development Workshop offers developmental feedback to papers explicitly targeting the double audience of international business and history scholars. The purpose of the workshop is to support the development of historical research on international business for publication in high-­‐‑quality outlets, including “The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business.” In addition, workshop participants will discuss how to address the common challenge of writing for a dual audience of historians and international business scholars, including more explicitly presenting the engagement with theory and demonstrating the contribution historical methods and sources make to studying international business phenomena.

We invite papers that explore broad connections between international business and society, the mutual influences of business and culture, the impact of international business activities on home and host countries, the emergence of standards for moral and legitimate international business behavior, and the positive and negative effects of business activities across borders and over time. Authors are encouraged to address what “global” means in the context of their respective work, how the global nature of business changed over time and which actors contributed to this change. All papers should expand current thinking on international business by addressing long-­‐‑term developments based on historical sources and methodologies and by exploring arguments and methods capable of explaining change over time.

We welcome work-­‐‑in-­‐‑progress at all stages of development. Interested scholars may submit two types of submissions for discussion: full research papers (8,000 words) or paper ideas (1,000 to 3,000 words). The workshop will take place immediately before the BHC meeting and at the same location. Paper selection and registration is separate from the annual meeting; participation in both BHC meeting and workshop is possible. There will be a modest registration fee to recover catering costs.

If you are interested in participating, please submit an initial abstract of max. 300 words and a one-­‐‑page CV before Friday, January 15, 2017 to Teresa da Silva Lopes (teresa.lopes@york.ac.uk), Heidi Tworek (heidi.tworek@ubc.ca) and Christina Lubinski (cl.mpp@cbs.dk). Invitations to the PDW will be sent out before February 15, 2017. Full paper (8,000 to 12,000 words) or paper idea (1,000 to 3,000 words) submissions will be expected by Friday, March 3, 2017. Please feel free to contact the organizers with your paper ideas if you are interested in early feedback or want to inquire about the fit of your idea with this PDW.

ToC: BH 59, 1 January 2017

Steph

Business History, Volume 59, Issue 1, January 2017 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

The stagflation crisis and the European automotive industry, 1973-1985

This new issue contains the following articles:

Editorial

Perspectives articles for Business History
Pages: 1-3 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2017.1254935

Introduction

The stagflation crisis and the European automotive industry, 1973–85
Jordi Catalan Vidal
Pages: 4-34 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1237505

Articles

Voluntary export restraints between Britain and Japan: The case of the UK car market (1971–2002)
James T. Walker
Pages: 35-55 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2015.1038519

The West Midlands automotive industry: the road downhill
Tom Donnelly, Jason Begley & Clive Collis
Pages: 56-74 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1235559

Industrial policy and the British automotive industry under Margaret Thatcher
Tommaso Pardi
Pages: 75-100 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1223049

Path-dependent product development and Fiat’s takeover of Lancia in 1969: meta-routines for design selection between synergies and brand autonomy
Giuliano Maielli
Pages: 101-120 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2015.1038520

Growth amid a storm: Renault in Spain during the stagflation crisis, 1974–1985
Tomàs Fernández-de-Sevilla
Pages: 121-140 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1223050

 

Reversing gear: trade union responses to economic crises at Opel (1974–1985)
Thomas Fetzer
Pages: 141-157 | DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1223627