| The NEH-Hagley Fellowship on Business, Culture, and Society supports residencies at the Hagley Library in Wilmington, Delaware for junior and senior scholars whose projects make use of Hagley’s substantial research collections. Scholars must have completed all requirements for their doctoral degrees by the February 15 application deadline. In accordance with NEH requirements, these fellowships are restricted to United States citizens or to foreign nationals who have been living in the United States for at least three years. These fellowships are made possible by support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Fellowships may be four to twelve months in length and will provide a monthly stipend of $5,000 and complimentary lodging in housing on Hagley’s property. Hagley also will provide supplemental funds for local off-site accommodations to NEH fellowship recipients who can make a compelling case that special circumstance (e.g. disability or family needs) would make it impossible to make use of our scholar’s housing. Scholars receive office space, Internet access, Inter-Library Loan privileges, and the full benefits of visiting scholars, including special access to Hagley’s research collections. They are expected to be in regular and continuous residence and to participate in the Center’s scholarly programs. They must devote full time to their study and may not accept teaching assignments or undertake any other major activities during their residency. Fellows may hold other major fellowships or grants during fellowship tenure, in addition to sabbaticals and supplemental grants from their own institutions, but only those that do not interfere with their residency at Hagley. Other NEH-funded grants may be held serially, but not concurrently. APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR THE NEH-HAGLEY FELLOWSHIP ON BUSINESS, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY Deadline: February 15 Requirements for application: (Apply online at https://www.hagley.org/research/grants-fellowships/funding-application ). • Current curriculum vitae. • A 3,000-word explanation of the project and its contributions to pertinent scholarship. • A statement of no more than 500 words explaining how residency at Hagley would advance the project, particularly the relevance of our research collections. • A statement indicating the preferred duration of the fellowship. Applicants also should arrange for two letters of recommendation to arrive separately by the application deadline. These should be sent directly to Carol Lockman, clockman@Hagley.org. Questions regarding this fellowship may be sent to Carol Lockman as well. NEH-Hagley Fellow 2021-2022: Dylan Gottlieb Lecturer in History, Princeton University Wall Street & the Remaking of New York Carol Ressler Lockman Business History Conference Manager, Hagley Center |
Tag: business history
EBHA Congress 2022
Dear colleagues,
This is only to remind you that the deadline for paper, session and workshop proposals for the EBHA Congress 2022 (CUNEF, Madrid, 22-24 June 2022) is approaching (January 30). After so many months of restrictions and online conferences, don’t miss this opportunity to discuss your research with your colleagues face to face.
Please visit the congress webpage for further information (https://ebha.org/Madrid2022).
Looking forward to receiving your proposal.
On behalf of the EBHA Council and the local organizing committee,
Adoración Álvaro
EBHA Secretary
Business History Studies Network Virtual Bulletin
The Business History Studies Network (REHE, by its acronym in Spanish) is pleased to be publishing this thirtieth issue of its virtual bulletin. Divided in six sections, the bulletin presents a thorough review of this year’s most important publications and events amongst the business history discipline in Latin America.
Debates (pp. 2-3) reviews the recently published book on Latin American business history. Edited by Andrea Lluch, Martin Monsalve and Marcelo Bucheli, the book compiles 13 chapters about Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Perú and México. It also includes chapters on green businesses, women, criminality and violence, transport, family business, business groups and multinationals.
In Novedades (pp. 4-12), eight books are introduced: (2021).The Emergence of Modern Hospital Management and Organisation in the World 1880s-1930s by Fernández, História de empresas no Brasil by Goularti & Macchione Saes (2021), Los reyes del vino. Los Arizu y el esplendor de la Mendoza vitivinícola by Mateu (2021), El viejo y el nuevo poder económico en la argentina del siglo XIX a nuestros días by Schorr (2021), Estado, industria y desarrollo. Atucha II y la senda del Programa Nuclear Argentino (1979-2014) by Rodriguez (2020), Montevideo al Trote. Historia de sus tranvías de caballos by Halaremicz (2021), Historia de la Fundación Mundo Mujer de Popayán (1985-2015) by Molina & Rojas (2021), and Una historia de semillas, plagas, aguas y energía: El algodón y La Laguna (1880-1960) by Rivas Sada (2021).
In this issue, the editors listed call for papers and events (pp. 13-15) for the next year. Recursos (pp. 16-18) presents new academic endeavours during the pandemic such as the Business History Collective (BizHisCol), the Business History TV, and the HBS Creating Emerging -Markets. In Archivos (pp. 19-20), Mariela Ceva (CONICET/CIS-IDES) introduces the Red de Archivos de Empresas en Argentina.
Finally, the section on Tesis (p. 21-22) presents the summary of two doctoral thesis: Beatriz Rodriguez-Satizabal (Queen Mary University of London) on Colombian business groups, 1950-1980 and Carlos Abel Gutiérrez (Universidad Nacional de La Plata) on regional investment in the building sector, 1992-2011.
Message from the BAM MBH Track
British Academy of Management
Management and Business History Track
Track Chairs
- James Fowler, University of Essex James.Fowler@essex.ac.uk
- Roy Edwards, University of Southampton r.a.edwards@soton.ac.uk
Track description:
This track encourages the growing number of management and business historians who work in business schools and social science departments to engage in constructive debate with a wide range of management scholars. The 2022 conference theme, ‘Reimagining business and management as a force for good’ offers ample opportunity to explore the value of historical study for current management.
In this track we specialize in chronologically or longitudinally motivated research. Histories of organizations, industries and institutions give us the opportunity to understand how managers have dealt with reinventing themselves in the past. History is replete with makeovers. We would welcome papers that explore how businesses and managers have responded to the requirement to change themselves, change the narrative about themselves, or both. How did this happen, and how successful was it? History allows us to both challenge and develop theory by exploring its explanatory power in relation to real events where the outcomes are already known.
We welcome papers, symposia or workshop proposals either using new and innovative methodologies or applying archival methodology to a new disciplinary context. We are also interested in context specific papers using more traditional historical methodology but which take innovative approaches to relate their findings to wider social science concerns including the diversity of experience in present day businesses, regions and communities. While the main conference theme ought to feature prominently in all submissions, we encourage cross-disciplinary papers and workshop submissions that link different Tracks.
As a group we are inherently multi-disciplinary and believe in the application of theory to historical analysis, and there is no single epistemology for approaching this. We aim to encourage theoretically orientated social science history with a clear relationship to present day debates in the management discipline. Contributions might focus on, but are not limited to: the economic or social history of business, historical case studies for theory
building, theoretical contributions on the relevance of history to management studies, the uses of history, and history as a method for management studies. Please note though that while we are open-minded, work without a historical dimension will not be accepted.
This article is a useful initial point of reference:
Tennent, K. (2020). Management and business history – a reflexive research agenda for the 2020s. Journal of Management History. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-09-2020-0061.
These articles offer commentary on the ‘dual integrity’ of business history methods as a combination of social science and historical craft:
Decker, S., Usidken, B., Engwall, L. & Rowlinson, M. (2018). Special issue introduction: Historical research on institutional change. Business History, 60(5). pp613-627. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2018.1427736
Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Clegg, S.R., (2016). Conceptualizing historical organization studies. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), pp.609-632. DOI: 10.5465/amr.2014.0133
Rowlinson, M., Hassard, J. & Decker, S. (2014). Research Strategies for Organisational History: A Dialogue between Historical Theory and Organisation Theory. Academy of Management Review, 39(3), pp250–274. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2012.0203
Some theoretical and empirical examples of the genre of work that we seek to welcome include:
Fowler, J., & Gillett, A. (2021) Making a hybrid out of a crisis: historical contingency and the institutional logics of London’s public transport monopoly, Journal of Management History, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-01-2021-0003
Gandy, A., & Edwards, R. (2017). Enterprise logic vs product logic: the development of GE’s computer product line, Business History, 59(3), pp431-452. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2018.1462796
Gillett, A. & Tennent, K. (2018). Shadow hybridity and the institutional logic of professional sport: Perpetuating a sporting business in times of rapid social and economic change. Journal of Management History, 24(2), pp.228-259. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2017-0060
Hamilton, S. (2016). Revisiting the History of Agribusiness, Business History Review, 90(3), pp541-545. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S000768051600074X
Hollow, M. (2014) ‘Strategic Inertia, Financial Fragility and Organizational Failure: The Case of the Birkbeck Bank, 1870–1911’, Business History, 56(5), pp. 746–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2013.839660
Lane, J. (2019) Secrets for Sale? Innovation and the Nature of Knowledge in an Early Industrial District: The Potteries, 1750–1851, Enterprise and Society, 20(4), pp861-906. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2019.8
Maclean, M., Shaw, G., Harvey, C. and Booth, A., (2020). Management learning in historical perspective: Rediscovering Rowntree and the British interwar management movement. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 19(1), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2018.0301
Mollan, S. & Tennent, K. (2015). International taxation and corporate strategy: evidence from British overseas business, circa 1900–1965. Business History, 57(7), pp.1054-1081. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2014.999671
Tennent, K., Gillett, A. and Foster, W., 2020. Developing historical consciousness in management learners. Management Learning, 51(1), pp.73-88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507619869669
Funded PhD positions
PhD positions: Coventry University, UK, and Erasmus University, Rotterdam, invite applications for two, fully-funded PhD positions (one at each university). The successful applicants will join a team of historians working on Historical Tensions between International Business and National Taxation – a four-year project commencing in Spring 2022.
Historical Tensions between International Business and National Taxation: A Challenge for Europe Today
A team of business historians from the University of Bayreuth (Germany), Erasmus University (Rotterdam), Charles University (Prague), and Coventry University (UK), are being funded by the VolkswagenStiftung for a project that aims to analyse the historical dynamic of the conflict of interest in relation to taxation between nation states and multi-national enterprise (MNE). The historical cases examined in the project aim to reveal the complexity of multi-layered interaction between states and MNE, and the long historical path-dependence of MNE and their global network of specialists.
Coventry University and Erasmus University are now inviting applications from suitably-qualified graduates for fully-funded PhD studentships – one to be held at each university – to join the team in May 2022 and start work on the project. The successful candidates will receive comprehensive research training including technical, personal and professional skills. In addition, the studentships include funding and support for participation, together with the project’s other PhD students, in various European PhD education programmes, such as summer schools and courses.
The Coventry University PhD project comprises a case study of BP in the course of the twentieth century. Against a background of international ideological ruptures (First World War, 1930s Great Depression, Second World War, de-colonisation, the coming of the Iron Curtain and fall of the Berlin Wall), the CU project will also focus on the nationalisation policies of the postwar Labour government, and the progressive privatization of BP from 1979 under Thatcher.
For further details please contact Professor Neil Forbes n.forbes[at]coventry.ac.uk
The Erasmus University PhD project comprises a case study of the Anglo-Dutch Unilever since the merger in 1930. Against a background of major international ruptures (1930s Great Depression, Second World War, de-colonisation, the coming of the Iron Curtain and fall of the Berlin Wall) this project will focus on Unilever’s connections to other multinational companies in the UK and the Netherlands and particularly its relations with the Dutch and British governments. Command of the Dutch and English languages is a precondition.
For further details please contact Professor Ben Wubs wubs[at]eshcc.eur.nl
Job opportunity in Digital Strategy Research
Happy holidays everyone, and here is a quick holiday announcement of a new paid-for role at the BHC!
Applications Invited for Research Associates (8 months) for Digital Strategy Research Project of the Business History Conference
About the BHC
The Business History Conference is a scholarly organization devoted to encouraging all aspects of research, writing, and teaching about business history and about the environment in which businesses operate. Founded in 1954, the organization is now international in scope, with approximately 30 percent of its membership residing outside North America.
About the project
The BHC´s digital presence began under the leadership of Pat Denault in the early 2000s. Now the BHC manages a website, a blog, and social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). In addition, especially with the coronavirus pandemic, some of its regular events have become virtual, thus the BHC increasingly relies on digital technology to connect with its members. Anticipating more changes to the technological and economic environment, BHC´s Web Editor (Paula de la Cruz-Fernández) and Web Administrator (Shane Hamilton) have received authorization from the BHC Trustees to initiate a thorough review of our current digital strategies. This review of officers’ and members’ expectations and experiences of our existing digital tools, as well as consideration of best practices being pioneered by other organizations in a turbulent environment, will guide the future digital work of our officers and directors.
The BHC invites applications for two research positions, each eight months in duration. The work begins in February and continues through September (a total of 30 weeks). We expect the researchers to work 10 hours a week ($20/hour). One of the researchers must be fully bilingual in Spanish and English.
The researchers will, in coordination with the BHC Electronic Media Oversight Committee and the BHC Web Editor and Web Administrator:
- Review current platforms and usage of them.
- Interview users of web platforms and events (both in person and online interview).
- Run focus groups to learn more about perceptions related to the Annual Meeting, the Doctoral Colloquium, and the Mid-year event among others.
- Research what other organizations are doing in regards to online initiatives and virtual/hybrid meetings.
- Collect pertinent information in terms of digital best practices for scholarly organizations.
- Assist in the creation of a strategy report.
Requirements to apply:
- One of the researchers must be bilingual.
- Graduate students / emerging scholars are encouraged to apply.
- Strong awareness of digital communications technologies, including social media tools, web platforms, and video conferencing platforms, though advanced technical skills (e.g., coding, server or database management) are not necessary.
- Knowledgeable or familiar with scholarly associations and also with business history.
Application process:
- Send a letter of interest explaining your experience in digital projects and potential contributions to the project.
- Brief CV.
Send documents in one PDF file to the project directors Paula de la Cruz Fernandez and Shane Hamilton at web-editor@thebhc.org by January 14th, 2022.
Adam Frost on Chinese Business History
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
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
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
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
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
Organizational History Network 