ABH Provisional Programme 2014
Newcastle University Business School
FRIDAY, 27 JUNE
9.30 – 10.45 Registration and Tea/Coffee (Newcastle University Business School)
11.00 – 12.30 Keynote Address: Roy Suddaby, University of Alberta
“Institutions and History: The Historic Turn in Management Theory”
12.30 – 13.30 Lunch
13.30 – 15.00 Parallel Session 1
Session 1-A: Corporate Growth and Decline(1)
Chair: Tom McGovern
Shigehiro Nishimura, Kansai University: “Institutions for global technology flows: the development of
the electrical industry during the interwar period”.
Tom McGovern (Newcastle University Business School) & Tom Mclean, Durham University: “The
genesis of the electricity supply industry in Britain: A case study of NESCo”.
Sam McKinstry, Ying Yong Ding & Ron Livingstone, University of the West of Scotland: Jacksons of
Symington, Scotland: a long-term view of the family values/strategy nexus in a rural meat
business c.1890-1981.
Session 1-B: Industrial Policy and Government Intervention
Chair: Rory Miller
John Wilson (Newcastle University Business School) & Mark Billings, University of Exeter:
“Ferranti and the NEB: the implications of government intervention”.
Niall Mackenzie & Andrew Perchard, University of Strathclyde: “Blinded by the light? The rhetoric of
State-led innovation in the UK after 1945”.
Neil Rollings, University of Glasgow: “The Industrial Policy Group in the 1960s and early 1970s:
mixing business with politics”.
Session 1-C: Brands and Branding
Chair: Teresa da Silva Lopes
Michael Heller, Brunel University: “The General Post Office in the 1930s and the Resolution of
Contradiction: the rise of an iconic brand”.
David Higgins, Newcastle University Business School, “Collective versus private ownership of GI’s:
the UK-US experience in the nineteenth century”.
Dana Kakeesh, University of York: “The Impact of strategic Airlines Alliances on the Brand
Management Practices”.
Session 1-D: International Business
Chair: Laurence Mussio
Peter Miskell & Teng Li, University of Reading, “Hollywood studios, independent producers and
international markets: globalisation and the US film industry c.1950-1965”.
Howard Cox & Simon Mowatt, Auckland University of Technology, “The second coming of Condé
Nast: To transnational twice over”
Maki Umemura, Cardiff University, “Sowing the seeds of domestic success and global failure: the
Galapagosization of the Japanese cosmetics industry, 1923-2011”.
Session 1-E: Professions and the Organisation of Work
Chair: Mairi Maclean
Ian Kirkpatrick (University of Leeds), Matthias Kipping (Schulich Business School), Daniel Muzio
(Newcastle University Business School) & Bob Hinings (University of Alberta), “The
Occupational Capture of Professions: The Case of Management Consulting”.
Michael Weatherburn, Imperial College, “Scientific Management at Work: Charles Bedaux, Liberal
Technocrats, and the Triumph of Scientific Management in Britain, 1920-50”.
James Wilson, Glasgow University, “Management of the Portsmouth Block Mill, 1803-1812”.
15.00 – 15.15 Tea/Coffee
15.15 – 16.45 Parallel Session 2
Session 2-A: Entrepreneurship
Chair: John Wilson
Bernardita Escobar Andrae, Diego Portales University: “Widowhood and business activity: were
widows running late husbands’ firms or did they start their own? Evidence from nineteenth
century Chile”.
Paolo Di Martino & Jennifer Aston, University of Birmingham & Oxford University: “Risk and success:
re-assessing female entrepreneurship in late-Victorian and Edwardian England”.
Nur Suhaili Ramli, University of York: “World Successful Brands Developed by the Immigrant
Entrepreneurs”.
Session 2-B: Crisis Management in Banking
Chair: Ranald Michie
Victoria Barnes & Lucy Newton, University of Reading, “Crisis and accountability: bank management,
directors and the governance of joint-stock banks, 1826-1844”.
Laurence Mussio, McMaster University, “Crisis leadership in North America’s dangerous decade:
risk, return and reward at Bank of Montreal, 1860-1870”.
Matthias Kipping (Schulich Business School) & Gerarda Westerhuis, Utrecht University:
“Antecedent of Crises: Turning Bankers into Managers”.
Session 2-C: Financialized Accounts, Strategy and Control
Chair: Steve Toms
Tom McLean (Durham University), Tom McGovern & Shanta Davie, Newcastle University Business
School: “Accountants, engineers and company growth: a case study of Clarke Chapman
1864-1914”.
Alistair Dobie, University of Stirling: “Accounting, financial and management controls in the Reform
of Monastic decay: the English Benedictines from Innocent iii to the Reformation”.
Colin Haslam & Giuliano Maielli, Queen Mary, University of London: “Reframing GM’s Business
Strategy 1909-1940: A Financialized Account”.
Session 2-D: The Disconsolation of Work
Chair: Ed Barratt
Mike French, University of Glasgow: “Changes and continuities in white-collar work during World
War 1: employment, earnings and enlistment in J&P Coats’ offices”.
Andrew Popp, University of Liverpool: “The broken cotton speculator”.
Session 2-E: Reacting and Adapting to Crisis
Chair: Eugene Choi
Sheryllynne Haggerty, University of Nottingham: “Abolition of the British Slave Trade as a Crisis:
Coping, Management and Adaptation, 1788-1815”.
Emily Buchnea, University of Warwick: “Merchants and the ‘very serious Evil’: Exploring the Impact
of Epidemics and Quarantine on Transatlantic Trade”.
Neveen Abdelrehim & Shraddha Verma, University of York: Oil and Independence: the case of
Burmah Oil Company 1947-1986”.
16.45 – 17.00 Tea/Coffee
17.00 – 18.00 Coleman Prize
18.00 – 19.00 Break
19.00 – 20.00 Drinks Reception at the Discovery Museum (supported by Taylor and Francis Publishing)
20.00 – 22.00 Conference Dinner (Discovery Museum)
SATURDAY, 28 JUNE
8.30 – 8.50 Registration and Tea/Coffee
9.00 – 10.30 Parallel Session 3
Session 3-A Financial Information in a Historic Context
Chair: Rob Bryer
Anthony Miller & David Oldroyd , Durham University: “An information-economics perspective on the
objectives of financial reporting and the related cost-benefit framework, drawing on
contemporary and historical evidence”.
Weipeng Yuan (Chinese Academy of Social Science), Richard Macve & Debin Ma, London School of
Economics: “The development of Chinese accounting and bookkeeping before 1850: insights
from the Tŏng Tài Shēng business account books (1798-1850)”.
Peter Sims (London School of Economics) & Stephanie Collet, ECSP Europe: “From Chaos to Order:
National Consolidation and Sovereign Bonds in Uruguay 1890-1914”.
Session 3-B: Governance and Organisational Forms
Chair: Ray Stokes
Edward Barratt, Newcastle University Business School: “Modernising’ Government – the case of the
cooperatives of the Civil Service”.
Yves Levant (University of Pau and SKEMA Business School), Leïla Maziane (University of Ben Msik
Casablanca)& Raluca Sandu (SKEMA Business School): “Crisis of capitalism and the search for
alternative models. The Pirate Republic of Salé (1627-1668): a critical analysis”.
Session 3-C: Historical Theory and Organisational Theory (1)
Chair: Stephanie Decker
Dan Wadhwani, University of the Pacific: The uses of history in new market emergence: savings
banks and the origins of the personal finance industry in the United states”.
Anna Linda Musacchio Adorisio, Copenhagen Business School: “Tales of the financial crisis:
historicizing narratives of the global transformation of the banking industry”.
Session 3-D: Archives: Interpretation and Evidence
Chair: Mike Anson
Roy Edwards, University of Southampton: “Echoes of the Past through lenses of the present:
Interpreting Archives in Business History”.
Sarah Wilson, University of York: “Interpreting Legal Records for Business Historians”.
Steven Toms, University of Leeds: “Fixed costs, the rate of profit and the length of the working day:
Evidence from the Factory Act debates, 1832-1847”.
Session 3-E: Bank-Industry Relationships in the 20th Century
Chair: Lucy Newton
Andrew Smith, University of Liverpool: “Trading With the Enemy: HSBC’s Relationships with German
Companies during the First World War”.
John Wilson (Newcastle University Business School), Gerhard Schnyder (Kings College, University of
London) & Anna Tilba (Newcastle University Business School): “The Great Divide? Bank–
industry relationships and corporate networks in Britain, 1904-2003”.
Julie Bower, University of Birmingham: “The formation of industrial conglomerates in the post-World
War II era: the role of banking and finance”.
10.30 – 10.45 Tea/Coffee break
10.45 – 12.15 Parallel Session 4
Session 4-A: Economic Reconstruction
Chair: Niall Mackenzie
Roger Lloyd-Jones & M.J.Lewis, Sheffield Hallam University: “Britain in the aftermath of the Great
War: the state, business and labour and the challenge of reconstruction, c1917-21”.
Armin Grünbacher, University of Birmingham, “Renewal – challenge – continuity. The role of the
Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHK) in the immediate post-war years in Germany as
defender of entrepreneurial independence and mentality”.
Raluca Sandu, SKEMA Business School, “USAid role in (re)building the market in transitional
economies: the case of the emergence of investor relations (IR) in Romania”.
Session 4-B: Managing the Public Sector
Chair: Tom McLean
Ray Stokes & Stephen Sambrook, University of Glasgow: “Crises, solutions and accountability in
British municipal solid waste handling, 1850-2000”.
Laurence Ferry, Newcastle University Business School: “Public sector in crisis? – (modern) origins of
(r)evolution in England’s municipalities corporate governance analysed through an analytics
of government framework”.
Kevin Tennent & Alex Gillett, University of York: “Lessons from the Past: Managing the 1966 World
Cup Preparation Process”.
Session 4-C: Taxation and Public Expenditure in the 20th Century
Chair: Andy Holden
Janette Rutterford & Peter Walton, Open University: “The War, Taxation and the Blackpool Tower
Company”.
Zoi Pittaki, University of Glasgow: “Post-Second World War Greek Economy and Taxation from a
Historical Perspective”.
Florian Gebreiter, University of Aston: “Health, nationalisation, and the insoluble problem of health
expenditure”.
Session 4-D Historical Theory and Organisational Theory (2)
Chair: Alan McKinlay
Andrea Whittle & John Wilson, Newcastle University Business School: “Ethnomethodology and the
production of history: Studying ‘history-in-action”.
William Foster, Diego Coraiola, Roy Suddaby & Elden Wiebe, University of Alberta: “Giving voice to
corporate archivists: How corporate archivists activate corporate narratives”.
Mairi Maclean (University of Exeter Business School) & Charles Harvey, Newcastle University
Business School: “Coming to Terms with the Past? Narrative, Metaphor and the Subjective
Understanding of Transition”.
Session 4-E Innovation and Technological Change
Chair: Mitch Larson
Andrew Smith (University of Liverpool) and Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, University of Bangor: “Managing
technological change in Hong Kong’s retail banking (1945-2005)”.
David Bowie, Oxford Brookes University: “Diffusion of services innovation in mid-to-late nineteenth
century English hotels: the Continental and American plan”
12.15 – 13.00 Lunch
13.30 – 15.00 Parallel Session 5
Session 5-A Accounting, History and Organisational Theory
Chair: Sam McKinstry
Christopher Napier (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University ), Gary Carnegie (Royal
Holloway, University of London) & Lee Parker (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
University ): “Accounting History and Theorizing about Organizations”.
Alistair Mutch (Nottingham Trent University) & Alan McKinlay (Newcastle University Business
School): “Accountable Creatures’: Scottish Presbyterianism, accountability and managerial
capitalism”.
Rob Bryer, Warwick University: “Socialism, accounting, and the creation of ‘consensus capitalism’ in
America, circa.1935-1955”.
Session 5-B Fraud and Failure in Banking
Chair: Mark Billings
Matthew Hollow, Durham University: “Prevention vs. Manipulation: A Long-Term Historical
Perspective on Corporate Fraud in the UK Financial Sector”.
Ranald Michie, Durham University: “Bank failures in Britain, 1866 – 2008: Causes, contagion and
coping”.
Chris Swinson, Durham University: “The Stock Exchange Crash of 1929: an exercise in crisis
management
Session 5-C: Managing Corporate Crisis
Chair: Andrew Popp
Eugene Choi, Ritsumeikan University: “Leadership for crisis management: reconsidering the
corporate governance of Hyundai-Kia Motors Corporation”.
Stephen Sambrook, University of Glasgow: “To melt, or not to melt…recognising and coping with
crisis in the British optical glass industry, 1840-1920”.
Álvaro Ferreira da Silva & Pedro Neves: University of Lisbon: “In the making: Portuguese business
groups and the financial crisis”.
Session 5-D Religion, Philanthropy and Social Development
Chair: Roy Edwards
Andy Holden, Newcastle University Business School: “Accounting for the changing nature of
philanthropy in the late 19th century – the Newcastle Infirmary”.
Arun Kumar, Lancaster University: “What Development? Whose Modernity? Which Nation? Tatas’
Philanthropy and Development in postcolonial India”.
Daniel Rossall Valentine, Oxford University and Regents University London: A crisis in Victorian corporate governance – How managerial mistakes led Lancashire shareholders to collude with Scottish sabbatarians and ended Sunday trains on the Glasgow – Edinburgh railway for eighteen years from 1846 to 1864.
Session 5-E Corporate Growth and Decline (2)
Chair: Peter Miskell
Richard Coopey, Aberystwyth University: “Jacking up the profits: Towards a business history of
recreational drugs in Britain in the 20th century”.
Peter Scott & James Walker, University of Reading: “Producer-driven value chains for the inter-war
US radio equipment sector: were dealers ‘over-sold’ on marketing?”
Robert Greenhill & Rory Miller, University of Liverpool, “Business, the Chilean State, and the
Changing Nitrate Commodity Chain, 1918-33”.
15.00 – 15.15 Tea/Coffee break
15.15 – 16.45 Session 6 Round Table and Panel Discussion:
Rethinking Business History? Between Economic History and Organisational History
Convenors: Stephanie Decker & Michael Rowlinson
Panel: Alan McKinlay, Roy Suddaby, Alistair Mutch, Dan Wadhwani, John Wilson.
The Past Speaks 
Leave a Reply