Deadline Extended: EBHA 2018

10 01 2018

The deadline to apply to the European Business History Association conference has been extended to Wednesday, January 31, 2018.
If you have any questions please contact Veronica Binda or Roberto Giulianelli at:
scientific.ebha18@univpm.it

The firm and the sea: chains, flows and connections

Call for Papers, European Business History Association 2018 Conference Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona – Italy September 6-8, 2018

The sea – whether considered as open ocean or as a mass of water bordered by land masses – is an enormous economic resource for mankind. Not only is it the principal way of transportation for goods and humans but it’s also a formidable source of food. Since we want to link the sea with the business unit (the firm, as well as other organizational units like clusters, networks and global value chains) the focus of the next EBHA conference will be on two units of analysis that are both extremely relevant for the sea as well as economic resources – ships and harbors.

In order to perform its function, the ship (a means for transporting goods and people) is run in a very hierarchical way, more than what occurs with a factory or a retail company (two good comparison points). Just as with a factory or retailer, ships embody economic goals to be achieved by workers, managers, and – this is the difference – CEOs whose decisions cannot be challenged given that the cargo and (more importantly) the life of its “inhabitants” can be at stake.

Rarely does the ship stand on its own as a business unit (unless we talk of an activity like fishing which is certainly important). It’s part of a group that refers to a shipowner acting in a very complicated world where the ups and downs of charters and continuous struggles with government regulations and policies render decisions delicate and complex.

The ship is the nexus of a tremendous amount of activity – just consider the shipyards, metallurgic factories, plants producing precision equipment, and those dedicated to heavy machinery. And think of other sectors like the extraction of raw materials and agricultural products that could have a real global circulation in relation to the capacity of the maritime vehicle.

Then there are associated service sectors such as insurance and banking activities focused on navigation (often with government support). Credit for navigation is a landmark of the modern economy with both successes as well as bankruptcies. Also worthy of further study is the role that passenger ships have played in the social and economic development of many nations. From the large ships of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that plied the Atlantic Ocean transporting passengers between the Americas and Europe to the postwar ocean liners that offered a glamorous way to travel to new destinations, ships helped make the tourism industry grow.

And we can’t close our eyes to some of the unlawful activities connected with the world of navigation including the illegal transportation of human beings, prohibited goods, and money laundering. Even today there are occasional episodes of piracy, something that we thought limited to history books and old novels.

The second actor we consider is strictly related to the first one – ports, an unavoidable reference point for ships that make them their destination for the goods and passengers on board. It’s in the port that a ship can stock materials needed when at sea and eventually undergo repairs before embarking on a new journey. We see the port as an

1

entrepreneur (formed by stakeholders with both common and divergent goals) which should be analyzed in an historical perspective. First are the many aspects of the governance of the port: who’s in charge? Is it a function of the State or the military? Is it a managerially run port authority that, even if designated by State powers, has relative autonomy in its actions? Are there private operators who handle the terminals? How does the type of governance impact a port’s efficiency? Second, we have to single out the crowd of operators in a port: maritime agents, stevedores, people who maneuver the cranes, pilots, dock workers. Several of these activities are strictly regulated, at times resulting in strong conflicts between various actors in the port.

The relationship between a port and the areas around it, the presence of appropriate infrastructures, and the many activities making up the field of logistics – all are tremendously important for the port as a kind of entrepreneur. Given their role of stimulating the trade of goods, raw materials and energy sources, the port becomes a key actor of the development of productive areas. Ports can strengthen or even launch the industrial take-off of the territories they supply. Moreover, ports are historically linked to global cities, nodes in a complex network of trade, but also of political international alliances, which emerged progressively in the phases of globalization (from Singapore to Hong Kong and from San Francisco to Yokohama, for example).

Even today seas and their ports remain a theater in which important geo-political and geo-economic stances take place; their relevance for business history can’t be underestimated. From the building or restructuring of infrastructures that are pillars of the first wave of globalization (the Suez and Panama Canals, for example) to new opportunities brought about by the latest waves of globalization, the sea continues to be an essential, physical component of the complex web of trade relations which allow the existence of global value chains that take advantage of its unique means of connection and communication.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

Connections, links and networks in waves of globalization and de-globalization
Characteristics and dynamics of the shipping and logistics industries
The long run transformation of shipbuilding and related industries
The fishing industry
The history of insurance and banking activities related to navigation
Technological developments and their impact on ships and ports
The variety and features of illegal activities connected to sea transport
Features and management of companies connected with the world of navigation
Private and public entrepreneurship in sectors related to sea transportation
Workers and industrial relations in maritime industries
The governance of ports and their transformation over time
Relations of cooperation/competition among maritime companies and ports
The history and development of global value chains and networks
Last, but not least, ports, ships, and even the sea are highly sensitive to technological change and the resulting emergence of competitive and alternative infrastructures (from railways and motorways to airlines and large airport hubs).

2

The role played by firms and entrepreneurs in shaping the development of maritime exchanges of goods, services, and information, or in integrating economies and cultures
Seas, ports and climate change
Dynamics and impact of governmental policies and regulations on navigation
The political economy of connections and links
The impact of ports on their surrounding territory and vice versa
The geography and features of global cities and their transformation
The role of the sea in shaping the emergence and consolidation of different kinds of
capitalism

Migrations flows across the sea
Passenger travel and the growth of tourism
International investments in the maritime industries
The relationships among port cities seen as nodes of a global network where
dimensions and scope change over time

The organizers expect to receive proposals related to some of the suggestions outlined above. But consideration will also be given to papers covering other aspects of the broader conference title.

In the event of a business history topic without ties to the sea or the firm, consideration will be given, provided that the proposal demonstrates originality and that this forum could be a useful place for further reflection.

We also invite other formats, such as panels and roundtables, poster sessions for Ph.D. students, workshops aiming to start collaborative projects, and “toolkit sessions”. Proposals should be directed to the paper committee as well.

Requirements for proposals

The submission system consists of a template that specifically asks for

(1) Author information: affiliation, short CV, authored publications related to the paper proposal

(2) An abstract of no more than 800 words

(3) Additional information important to the program committee: clear statement of the research question (not more than 150 words), brief information on the theoretical/conceptual framework used, major research areas to which the paper relates

(4) Joint papers need a responsible applicant who will be at the conference if the proposal is accepted.

Please have this information ready to enter into the submission system via copy and paste.

Requirements for panel proposals and roundtables

The criteria for single paper proposals also apply to session and roundtables proposals. There is, however, a specific template for session proposals.

3

Sessions can be ninety minutes long (usually three papers) or two hours in order to accommodate more papers. A successful panel/roundtable leaves significant time for the audience to raise questions, to comment and to generally discuss the panel’s theme.

A session proposal should not be made up of participants exclusively from one country. The program committee retains the right to integrate papers into sessions as they see fit.

Please note that paper, session/panel proposals must be submitted via the congress website (use this link http://ebha.org/public/C9 to upload proposals). See the Conference Website (http://ebha18.univpm.it) for further details.

The deadline is Monday, January 15, 2018.

If you have any questions please contact Veronica Binda or Roberto Giulianelli at:

scientific.ebha18@univpm.it


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CFP: The firm and the sea: chains, flows and connections

14 11 2017

AS: I’m sharing this CFP, which is for a conference that will take place in the lovely city of Ancona. Thanks to Veronica Binda for sending these images of the city and venue.

The firm and the sea: chains, flows and connections

Call for Papers, European Business History Association 2018 Conference Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona – Italy September 6-8, 2018

The sea – whether considered as open ocean or as a mass of water bordered by land masses – is an enormous economic resource for mankind. Not only is it the principal way of transportation for goods and humans but it’s also a formidable source of food. Since we want to link the sea with the business unit (the firm, as well as other organizational units like clusters, networks and global value chains) the focus of the next EBHA conference will be on two units of analysis that are both extremely relevant for the sea as well as economic resources – ships and harbors.

In order to perform its function, the ship (a means for transporting goods and people) is run in a very hierarchical way, more than what occurs with a factory or a retail company (two good comparison points). Just as with a factory or retailer, ships embody economic goals to be achieved by workers, managers, and – this is the difference – CEOs whose decisions cannot be challenged given that the cargo and (more importantly) the life of its “inhabitants” can be at stake.

Rarely does the ship stand on its own as a business unit (unless we talk of an activity like fishing which is certainly important). It’s part of a group that refers to a shipowner acting in a very complicated world where the ups and downs of charters and continuous struggles with government regulations and policies render decisions delicate and complex.

The ship is the nexus of a tremendous amount of activity – just consider the shipyards, metallurgic factories, plants producing precision equipment, and those dedicated to heavy machinery. And think of other sectors like the extraction of raw materials and agricultural products that could have a real global circulation in relation to the capacity of the maritime vehicle.

Then there are associated service sectors such as insurance and banking activities focused on navigation (often with government support). Credit for navigation is a landmark of the modern economy with both successes as well as bankruptcies. Also worthy of further study is the role that passenger ships have played in the social and economic development of many nations. From the large ships of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that plied the Atlantic Ocean transporting passengers between the Americas and Europe to the postwar ocean liners that offered a glamorous way to travel to new destinations, ships helped make the tourism industry grow.

And we can’t close our eyes to some of the unlawful activities connected with the world of navigation including the illegal transportation of human beings, prohibited goods, and money laundering. Even today there are occasional episodes of piracy, something that we thought limited to history books and old novels.

The second actor we consider is strictly related to the first one – ports, an unavoidable reference point for ships that make them their destination for the goods and passengers on board. It’s in the port that a ship can stock materials needed when at sea and eventually undergo repairs before embarking on a new journey. We see the port as an

1

entrepreneur (formed by stakeholders with both common and divergent goals) which should be analyzed in an historical perspective. First are the many aspects of the governance of the port: who’s in charge? Is it a function of the State or the military? Is it a managerially run port authority that, even if designated by State powers, has relative autonomy in its actions? Are there private operators who handle the terminals? How does the type of governance impact a port’s efficiency? Second, we have to single out the crowd of operators in a port: maritime agents, stevedores, people who maneuver the cranes, pilots, dock workers. Several of these activities are strictly regulated, at times resulting in strong conflicts between various actors in the port.

The relationship between a port and the areas around it, the presence of appropriate infrastructures, and the many activities making up the field of logistics – all are tremendously important for the port as a kind of entrepreneur. Given their role of stimulating the trade of goods, raw materials and energy sources, the port becomes a key actor of the development of productive areas. Ports can strengthen or even launch the industrial take-off of the territories they supply. Moreover, ports are historically linked to global cities, nodes in a complex network of trade, but also of political international alliances, which emerged progressively in the phases of globalization (from Singapore to Hong Kong and from San Francisco to Yokohama, for example).

Even today seas and their ports remain a theater in which important geo-political and geo-economic stances take place; their relevance for business history can’t be underestimated. From the building or restructuring of infrastructures that are pillars of the first wave of globalization (the Suez and Panama Canals, for example) to new opportunities brought about by the latest waves of globalization, the sea continues to be an essential, physical component of the complex web of trade relations which allow the existence of global value chains that take advantage of its unique means of connection and communication.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

  • Connections, links and networks in waves of globalization and de-globalization
  • Characteristics and dynamics of the shipping and logistics industries
  • The long run transformation of shipbuilding and related industries
  • The fishing industry
  • The history of insurance and banking activities related to navigation
  • Technological developments and their impact on ships and ports
  • The variety and features of illegal activities connected to sea transport
  • Features and management of companies connected with the world of navigation
  • Private and public entrepreneurship in sectors related to sea transportation
  • Workers and industrial relations in maritime industries
  • The governance of ports and their transformation over time
  • Relations of cooperation/competition among maritime companies and ports
  • The history and development of global value chains and networks

Last, but not least, ports, ships, and even the sea are highly sensitive to technological change and the resulting emergence of competitive and alternative infrastructures (from railways and motorways to airlines and large airport hubs).

2

  • The role played by firms and entrepreneurs in shaping the development of maritime exchanges of goods, services, and information, or in integrating economies and cultures
  • Seas, ports and climate change
  • Dynamics and impact of governmental policies and regulations on navigation
  • The political economy of connections and links
  • The impact of ports on their surrounding territory and vice versa
  • The geography and features of global cities and their transformation
  • The role of the sea in shaping the emergence and consolidation of different kinds of

capitalism

  • Migrations flows across the sea
  • Passenger travel and the growth of tourism
  • International investments in the maritime industries
  • The relationships among port cities seen as nodes of a global network where

dimensions and scope change over time

The organizers expect to receive proposals related to some of the suggestions outlined above. But consideration will also be given to papers covering other aspects of the broader conference title.

In the event of a business history topic without ties to the sea or the firm, consideration will be given, provided that the proposal demonstrates originality and that this forum could be a useful place for further reflection.

We also invite other formats, such as panels and roundtables, poster sessions for Ph.D. students, workshops aiming to start collaborative projects, and “toolkit sessions”. Proposals should be directed to the paper committee as well.

Requirements for proposals

The submission system consists of a template that specifically asks for

(1) Author information: affiliation, short CV, authored publications related to the paper proposal

(2) An abstract of no more than 800 words

(3) Additional information important to the program committee: clear statement of the research question (not more than 150 words), brief information on the theoretical/conceptual framework used, major research areas to which the paper relates

(4) Joint papers need a responsible applicant who will be at the conference if the proposal is accepted.

Please have this information ready to enter into the submission system via copy and paste.

Requirements for panel proposals and roundtables

The criteria for single paper proposals also apply to session and roundtables proposals. There is, however, a specific template for session proposals.

3

Sessions can be ninety minutes long (usually three papers) or two hours in order to accommodate more papers. A successful panel/roundtable leaves significant time for the audience to raise questions, to comment and to generally discuss the panel’s theme.

A session proposal should not be made up of participants exclusively from one country. The program committee retains the right to integrate papers into sessions as they see fit.

Please note that paper, session/panel proposals must be submitted via the congress website (use this link http://ebha.org/public/C9 to upload proposals). See the Conference Website (http://ebha18.univpm.it) for further details.

The deadline is Monday, January 15, 2018.

If you have any questions please contact Veronica Binda or Roberto Giulianelli at:

scientific.ebha18@univpm.it

 


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An Evolutionary Economics Perspective on the Liverpool Timber Cluster, 1810-1913

21 03 2017
canada dock
Next week, I will be presenting at the Business History Conference in Denver, Colorado. The research I’ll be presenting was funded by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Development Grant. The title of the project is Empire, Trees, and Climate in the North Atlantic: Towards Critical Dendro-Provenancing.
The co-authors of my paper are: Kirsten Greer (Canada Research Chair in Global Environmental Histories and Geographies, Nipissing University), Kirby Calvert (Department of Geography, University of Guelph).

Abstract

Abstract: This paper uses theoretical insights derived from Evolutionary Economic Geography (EEG) to relate the experience of Liverpool’s timber cluster to ongoing debates about the merits of various types of mercantilist tariff policies. In 1810, the British government introduced a tariff policy designed to create alternative to Britain’s traditional supplies of wood in the Baltic region. The policy consisted of discriminatory duties to incentivize timber importing firms to switch from their traditional suppliers in the Baltic to more Canadian sources of wood. As we show below, this policy, combined with the spatial and material nature of the timber trade, shaped the kinds of knowledge acquired by Liverpool firms during and after the ‘stimulus period’. This knowledge included greater geographical awareness, knowledge of how to manage vertically-integrated international timber enterprise, knowledge of non-European timber, and knowledge of how to cooperate together politically. After the stimulus policy was dismantled starting in 1842, these new sources of knowledge were leveraged by Liverpool timber merchants to preserve their competitive advantage.

 

On a practical level, this historical research speaks to contemporary concerns about how governments can use tariff policy and other interventions in the economy to encourage the development of competitive capabilities by clusters. Our paper suggests that tariffs and other interventions are more likely to promote competitive advantage by a cluster if there is a so-called “anchor” present. This work therefore speaks to EEG scholars who are increasingly interested in the role of “anchors” in the development of clusters. They theorize that the development of competitive capabilities within a cluster is likely to take place if the local institutions include an “anchor” that serve to share knowledge within the locality. In modern economies, such anchors range from universities to independent record stores (Hauge and Hracs, 2010; Hracs and Jansson, 2016). In the Liverpool timber cluster, the key anchor was the firm of Edward Chaloner, which generously shared its knowledge of tropical woods with other firms in the clusters, thereby helping to make Liverpool into a great centre for trade in mahogany and other New World tropical timbers.

 

The research presented in this paper was financed by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the following Insight Development programme project: Empire, Timber, Climate: Empire, Trees, and Climate in the North Atlantic: Towards Critical Dendro-Provenancing. The international trade dataset on which this paper draws will soon be downloaded as an Excel file from the Empire Timber project website.

 

SSHRC-CRSH_FIP


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Why No Specialists in Canadian History at the Global 1860s Conference?

17 10 2015

A conference titled “The Global 1860s” is currently (15 to 17 October) being held at Princeton.

The long 1860s witnessed an extraordinary sequence of global developments. Massive conflicts rocked the Americas, Europe, South Asia, and parts of the Caribbean and the Pacific world, while even regions relatively untouched by warfare—such as North Africa, Russia and Japan—experienced momentous political transformations. Simultaneously, the decade saw major shifts in science, communications, art, economics, and the politics of gender. This conference brings together scholars from many different areas of expertise to discuss how far there was a “global 1860s”—and what this might mean.

The organizers for the conference are Linda Colley, Princeton and Matthew Karp, Princeton. The event is sponsored by Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Oxford University Centre for Global History, and the Princeton Program in American Studies.
I’ve pasted the program below. As someone who has long wondered why the 1860s saw a burst of accelerated change in political institutions across the world (my preferred explanation relates to the advent of new weapons), I wish that I could have been at this conference. I am saddened by the fact there are no papers on Canada in the 1860s on the program. I think their absence speaks volumes the current state of research into Canadian history.  It also says something about the relationship between Canadians and their past.
A New Kind of Warfare? | Session One
Vitor Izecksohn (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro): “The Labyrinths of Statehood: Military Recruitment during the War of the Triple Alliance in South America”
Matthew Karp (Princeton University): “Regions, Nations, Empires: The American Civil War in Global Perspective”
Stephen Platt (University of Massachusetts): “The Taiping Rebellion and the Wider World”
Chair: John Darwin (Oxford University)
Informal Networks | Session Two
James Belich (Oxford University): “Folk Globalization: ‘Crew Culture’ and the MidNineteenth
Century Gold Rushes”
Edyta Bojanowska (Rutgers University): “Circuits of Global Trade and Sociability in a mid- 19th Century Russian Travelogue”
Gordon Chang (Stanford University): “The Global 1860s: Chinese Workers and the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad”
Arthur Downing (Oxford University): “The Friendly Planet: Friendly Societies and the Global Transfer of Community”
Chair: John Ikenberry (Princeton University)
Empires and Monarchies
David Cannadine (Princeton University): “Monarchies and Empires in the 1860s”
Erika Pani (Colegio de México): “‘That Wonderful Institution’: Mexican Monarchism during the Revolutionary Sixties”
Ekaterina Pravilova (Princeton University): “Autocracy, Institutions, and the Problem of Trust: Russian Reforms of the 1860s”
Chair: Yaacob Dweck (Princeton University)
Time and Money
André Dombrowski (University of Pennsylvania): “Early Impressionism and Second Empire Financing”
Harold James (Princeton University): “The Making of Globalization’s Financial Infrastructure: Or, Monetary Debate in the Sixties, Nineteenth Century Style”
Vanessa Ogle (University of Pennsylvania): “Time and the Global Imagination after the Long 1860s”
Jay Sexton (Oxford University): “Steam Transport and the Global 1860s”
Chair: David Cannadine (Princeton University)
New and Old Nationalisms
Enrico Dal Lago (National University of Ireland, Galway): “Making and Unmaking Nations: The United States, Italy, and the Euro-American World in the 1860s”
Federico Marcon (Princeton University): “The Meiji Restoration: The Contradictory Nature of a Global Event”
Elecktra Kostopoulou (Rutgers University): “A Tale of More than Two Cities: Ottoman and Greek Constitutional Changes in the Long 1860s”
Chair: Jay Sexton (Oxford University)
Nodes: Sites of Overlap
John Darwin (Oxford University): “Port Cities as Agents of the New Global Order: An Ambiguous Role”
M’hamed Oualdi (Princeton University): “Are We Still Part of the Same World? North Africans between 1860s Empires”
Gyan Prakash (Princeton University): “The Emergence of Bombay as a Metropolis: Industry,
Empire and the City in the 1860s”
Chair: Linda Colley (Princeton University)
Global Minds, Global Orders | Session Seven
Jürgen Osterhammel (University of Konstanz): “Global Geographies and the Scope of “‘Civilization’”
Jonathan Sperber (University of Missouri): “Silver, Opium, Slavery, and Race War: Karl Marx Thinks Globally during the Long 1860s”
Chair: David Bell (Princeton University)
Not Quite Final Thoughts | Roundtable Discussion • Jeremy Adelman (Princeton University) • Sven Beckert (Harvard University) • Rana Mitter (Oxford University)

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Winners and Losers in Banking: Image, Identity, and Ideas in Finance in the North Atlantic World

1 04 2015

That’s the title of my panel at the 2015 Business History Conference. 

Andrew Smith, University of Liverpool
A Microhistorical Approach to Cosmopolitanism and Transnational Class Solidarity: The Thought of a London Merchant Banker during the First World War

Lucy A. Newton, Henley Business School, Reading, and Victoria S. Barnes, University of Reading
Remembering the Winners in British Banking: Images of Business History and Corporate Identity

Laurence B. Mussio, McMaster University
Winners, Losers, and Bankers in the Making of Canada’s Central Bank, 1932-1938

Jane Knodell, University of Vermont
Winners and Losers in Finance: The Second Bank and the “Shadow Banking System”


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ABS Journal Quality Guide

15 12 2014

The Association of Business Schools publishes a journal quality guide that is used to evaluate the research output of academics in management schools in the UK and other NW European countries. Journals are ranked out of four, with 4* being the best ranking. Obviously academics are rewarded for publishing lots of articles in high-ranked journals. The current guide (4.0) is here. A new guide, version 5, is being prepared and is anxiously awaited.

We have received this progress report explaining the process and methodology for the preparation of the new rankings.

The following sentences were of interest:

The key point to reiterate is that the list is a hybrid one, and ultimately reflects the opinion of experts, and does not follow any rigid formula dictated by the metrics, but is partially informed by the information they contain.
 
A suitable analogy would be a motor car review published in the motoring press, which presents a rating based on subjective opinion, in some manner informed by objective performance data.

Jeremy Clarkson, Motoring Journalist


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“Green Capitalism? At the Crossroads of Environmental and Business History.”

17 09 2014

AS: I’m posting the programme of the forthcoming Hagley conference on business/environmental history here.

Hagely Museum and Library Soda House, Oct. 30-31, 2014

SCHEDULE

Friday, 30 October

8:30-9:00 Coffee

9:00-9:30 Welcoming remarks

Erik Rau, Hagley Museum and Library

Hartmut Berghoff, German Historical Institute-D.C.

9:30-12:00 Session 1: Firms as Conservationists?

William D. Bryan, Emory University: Corporate Conservation and Conflict: Determining the Ideal Forms of Development for the American South

Julie Cohn, University of Houston: Utilities as Conservationists: The Conundrum of Electrification during the Progressive Era in North America

David B. Cohen, Brandeis University: Capitalism and the Wilderness Idea: The Case of the Great Northern Paper Company

Frank Uekötter, University of Birmingham: How Green was Chemurgy? A Movement in Search of Corporations

Comment: Ann Greene, University of Pennsylvania

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:00-3:00 Session 2: Consumers’ Demands

Ai Hisano, University of Delaware: Making Natural: Coloring Florida Oranges, 1930s-1950s

Brian C. Black, Penn State Altoona: Energy Hinge: Green Consumerism and the Energy Scene since 1973

Rachel Gross, University of Wisconsin, Madison: Greening Outdoor Recreation in the Age of Plastics

Comment: Adam Rome, University of Delaware

3:30-5:30 Session 3: Globalization

B. R. Cohen and Matthew Plishka, Lafayette College: Cottonseed, Oil, and the Environmental Entanglements of a Global Gilded Age Industry

Emily K. Brock, Max Planck Institute: Naming Commodities: Colonial Power, American Business and the Rebranding of a Tropical Forest Tree in the Philippines

Simone Müller-Pohl,University of Freiburg: Why American Cities go Wasting Abroad: Local Political Economy and International Trade in Hazardous Waste

Comment: Yda Schreuder, University of Delaware

5:30-6:30: Reception

6:30-8:30: Dinner

Friday 31 October

8:30-9:00 Coffee

9:00-11:30 Session 4: Firms Going Green

David Kinkela, State University of New York Fredonia: Hi-Cone Plastic Six-Pack Rings, Ocean Pollution, and the Challenge of a Global Environmental Problem

Bart Elmore, University of Alabama: Towards a History of Sustainable Business?: What the Coca-Cola Company Can Tell us about the Ecological Causes of Corporate Restructuring

Leif Fredrickson, University of Virginia: The Rise and Fall of an Ecostar: Environmental Technology Innovation and Marketing as Policy Obstruction

Ann-Kristin Bergquist. Umeå University: Dilemmas of Going Green: Company Strategies in the Swedish Mining Company Boliden 1960-2000

Comment: John McNeil, Georgetown University

12:30-2:00 Session 5: Governance

Roman Köster, Bundeswehr University Munich: Private Companies and the Recycling of Household Waste in West Germany, 1965-1990

Hugh Gorman, Michigan Technology University: The Role of Businesses in Constructing Systems of Environmental Governance

Comment: Brian Balogh, University of Virginia

2:00-3:00 Conference summary

Christine Meisner Rosen, Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley

Advance registration is free but required. Contact Carol Lockman, clockman@Hagley.org, for program and registration information.


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“‘The One-Company Approach’: Transnationalism in an Israeli-Palestinian Subsidiary of an MNC.”

5 08 2014

Many readers have been following the tragic events currently taking place in various countries in the Middle East. In this context, it is worthwhile thinking about what role business can play in promoting peace.

Galit Ailon (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel) and Gideon Kunda (Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel). 2009. “‘The One-Company Approach’: Transnationalism in an Israeli-Palestinian Subsidiary of an MNC.” Organization Studies, 30(7): 693-712.

Abstract: This paper presents an ethnographic study of the Israeli—Palestinian subsidiary of a multinational hi-tech corporation. Critiquing the tendency of globalization theorists to conceptualize multinational corporations (MNCs) solely in terms of their impact on their external environment, this paper looks inward and examines the ideological and practical constituents of the transnational regime of consciousness as expressed through what management titles `the one-company approach’. We argue that this regime lays foundations for a transnational `imagined community’ which does not rival the national one, but internalizes it, creating an arena of discretionary power for managers: deciding when to activate and when to suppress nationality in the global organizational universe. This study analyzes the relationship between transnationalism and nationalism inside the organization, and its implications for understanding MNCs’ role in globalization.

 

*This paper won the EGOS (European Group for Organization Studies) Roland Calori Prize for the best paper published in Organization Studies between 2009-2010.


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James C. Scott, F.A. Hayek, and Organization Studies

18 07 2014

Hayek

 

Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson have been posting a series of blog posts on the ideas of James C. Scott, the author of  Seeing Like a State and The Art of Not Being Governed. I believe that Scott is one of the most important social thinkers around today.  Scott’s paradigm blends the best of conservative and left-wing insights. Scott transcend the left-right political spectrum we use to categorize thinkers.  As Brad De Long has shown, Scott’s ideas incorporate a variety of insights from F.A. Hayek and Austrian economics.

 

Scott

 

 

 

Back in 2007, De Long wrote this about Scott’s Seeing Like a State:

 Heaven knows that I am no Austrian–I am a liberal Keynesian and a social democrat–but within economics even liberal Keynesian social democrats acknowledge that the Austrians won victory in their intellectual debate with the central planners long ago.

 

This book marks the final stage because it shows the spread of what every economist would see as “Austrian ideas” into political science, sociology, and anthropology as well.

 

No one can finish reading Scott without believing–as Austrians have argued for three-quarters of a century–that centrally-planned social-engineering is not an appropriate mechanism for building a better society.

De Long mentions that Hayekian ideas have gone mainstream in political science, sociology, and anthropology.  I’m convinced that the ideas of Scott and Hayek also offer a lot to management academics in the field of organizations studies. (I’m actually working, on and off, on a paper on that subject. I suppose I’ll present it at EGOS next year). Anyway, there are signs of growing interest in Scott’s paradigm on the part of people who study large companies. Consider this article:

James Ferguson, “Seeing like an oil company: space, security, and global capital in neoliberal Africa.” American anthropologist 107, no. 3 (2005): 377-382.

As the title suggests, the author draws on Scott’s ideas to understand not a state but another type of organization that replaces market with hierarchy, namely, a big vertically-integrated oil company.

Last year, Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein published a paper called “Hayek and Organizational Studies.” I have tremendous respect for both Foss and Klein and I liked this paper, which discussed the impact of Hayek’s ideas on people in Organization Studies. They listed Hayek’s direct and indirect influence on the field. For instance, they show that the knowledge management concept and knowledge-based view of the firm are based on Hayekian ideas. There was, in view, a serious omission from their paper in that they don’t mention Scott, who has been a conduit for the transmission of clearly Hayekian ideas to a range of scholars of organization, particularly those who are associated with the Critical Management Studies tradition.  I’ve often thought that the intellectual traditions of Austrian economics and CMS are very similar in a number of ways. I think that Scott is a bridge between these two camps.

 

Update: I’m including this cool video in which Scott talks about his research.


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Workshop on Canadian Business and Environmental History

10 12 2013

The Rotman School of Management in Toronto will be hosting a workshop on Canadian business and environmental history on 22-23 May 2014.  I’ve organized this workshop with Jessica van Horssen of Toronto’s York University. Funding has been generously provided by NiCHE (the Canadian Network in History and Environment) and the Wilson Institute for Canadian History, and  L.R. Wilson/R.J. Currie Chair in Canadian Business History.  The main deliverable from this workshop will be an edited collection published by a university press.

Back in 1999, Christine Rosen and Christopher Sellers called for the integration of business history and environmental history. They observed that most business historians have followed Alfred Chandler in ignoring the natural world “beyond factory and office. They devoted equally little attention to the effects of resource extraction and use on plants, animals, land, air, or water, much less entire ecosystems and climate.” They also noted that “our colleagues in environmental history have shown almost as much reluctance to tackle business’s environmental relations as business historians have.”[1]

Can Canadian historians contribute to the project outlined by Rosen and Sellers in their manifesto?  In recent years, historians in the standard comparison countries have made substantial progress in integrating business and environmental history. This trend has been championed by William Cronon, the current president of the AHA, who has supervised both business and environmental history PhD dissertations.[2] Another example would be Richard White’s recent book Railroaded,[3]which has been praised by both environmental and business historians: this book mixes business and environmental history and does so quite well. Members of the Business History Conference have also published in the top environmental history journals.[5] In the last decade, articles on environmental-historical themes have appeared in the three highest “ranking” business-historical journals. As a result of all of this research, we have developed our understanding of the histories of the Netherlands, Japan, Britain, and the United States.[4]  But what about Canada, a nation that has, in per capita terms, a very large community of environmental historians? How have they integrated business into their research?

In recent years, several works on business and the environment in Canadian history have appeared. For instance, a new monograph on the history of the Bow River blends environmental and business history. An article comparing Swedish and Canadian responses to smelter pollution since 1960 appeared in Business History in 2008.[6] However, it is still true to say that historians of Canada have yet to fully undertake research that bridges business and environmental history.

Our workshop and the resulting edited collection will be a contribution to the integration of these two sub-fields of history. We believe that this edited collection will be read and cited by scholars in Canada and around the world. Canada has a large and active community of environmental historians, which means that Canadians have the opportunity to make an important contribution to the international literature on the relationship between business and the environment.

Some top scholars have agreed to present their research at this workshop. Their papers cover a wide range of topics in Canadian business/environmental history, ranging from the history of environmental accounting in the HBC to the overseas operations of Canadian mining companies.

I will present the following paper at this workshop: “Canadian Capitalism, Nature, and Confederation: a Hayekian View of Environmental Regulation in Nineteenth-Century Canada.”

At this point, I would just like to thank everyone who is helping to make this workshop possible, especially my co-organizer Jessica!

[1] Christine Meisner Rosen and Christopher C. Sellers, “The Nature of the Firm: Towards an Ecocultural History of Business,” The Business History Review 73 no. 4 (1999): 577.

[2] “William Cronon’s Students” http://www.williamcronon.net/students.htm#phdstuds.

[3] Richard White,  Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Nodern America (New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2011).

[4] James Darby, “The Environmental Crisis in Japan and the Origins of Japanese Manufacturing in Europe,”  Business History 39 no. 2 (1997): 94-114; Keetie Sluyterman, “Royal Dutch Shell: Company Strategies for Dealing with Environmental Issues,”  Business History Review 84 no. 2 (2010): 203-226; Pierre Desrochers, “How Did the Invisible Hand Handle Industrial Waste? By-Product Development Before the Modern Environmental Era,”  Enterprise and Society 8 no. 2 (2007): 348-374.

[5] Christine Meisner Rosen, “The Business-Environment Connection,” Environmental History 10 no. 1 (2005): 77-79.

[6] Christopher Armstrong, Matthew Evenden, and Henry Vivian Nelles, The River Returns: An Environmental History of the Bow (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Press, 2009); Magnus Lindmark and Ann Kristin Bergquist, “Expansion for Pollution Reduction? Environmental Adaptation of a Swedish and a Canadian Metal Smelter, 1960–2005,” Business History 50 no. 4 (2008): 530-546.


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