Current
The British Advertising Industry, 1880 – 1951
This project focuses on the emergence of a consumer-, media-, and service-oriented advertising industry in Britain from the decades of the ‘long depression’ in the late nineteenth century, which saw the arrival on the market of full-service agencies, to the end of first postwar Labour government in 1951, which in turn marked the beginning of a process of consolidation and concentration in the advertising industry structures in Britain. The project tests the hypothesis that the ‘marketing revolution’ of the first part of the twentieth century could only have taken place because of the advertising industry’s ability to acquire social and cultural capital. The quest for professional legitimacy influenced the structures of agency competition for clients and consumers: what had been a conglomeration of advertising space salesmen around became an efficient and competitive service industry some forty years later. The project also questions the idea that the major dynamic impulse behind innovations and modernisation in the industry stemmed from transfer processes emanating in the United States (‘Americanisation’). The project is carried out by Associate Professor Stefan Schwarzkopf.
The Emergence of Market and Consumer Research in Europe, 1918-1957
The market and consumer research industry today forms one of the most exiting and innovative parts of the marketing sector, which contributes several billions of Euros per year to the European economy. Market and consumer research is today recognised to be a major driver in product and service innovation and as such, its historical, cultural and political origins within the European industrial constellation deserve attention. This project traces the origins of market and consumer research in Europe from the end of the First World War and follows its consolidation during the postwar years up until the Treaties of Rome (1957). A key question that motivates this project is to identify the individual circumstances and motivations that led European businesses to adopt a market and consumer research orientation. The project is carried out by Associate Professor Stefan Schwarzkopf.
The Confederation of Danish Industry and the Shaping of the Welfare State
The project explores the social significance of the Confederation of Danish Industries in the first decades after 1945, when industry had become the largest sector. The key question will be, what influence the Confederation had on the main political project of the post-war period: the consolidation and expansion of the Danish welfare state. It will be specifically analysed how the Confederation dealt with the key policy initiatives in the early post-war period and what impact the Confederation had on the expansion of the welfare state.
PhD project: Morten Lind Larsen
Danish fashion industry from 1945 to 2008
The Danish fashion trade has undergone several characteristic developments since the breakthrough in the post-war period, when clothing companies converted into fashion companies. Today, the fashion trade works in a globalised and versatile fashion market characterised by outsourced production and centralised branding. The aim of the PhD project "Design as a Competitive Parameter in the Development of the Danish Fashion Industry from 1945 to 2008" is to explore the role of design and designers as an integrated part of the fashion industries' economic success between 1945 and 2008. How did fashion companies integrate design in order to attract the attention of the consumers and how did the fashion trade develop in correlation with changes in consumer culture and society during this period?
The project is financed by Centre for Business History
, The Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research
, Designskolen Kolding
og The Danish Centre for Design Research
The genesis of a »new economy« - capital, knowledge, technology, and labour in the early industrialisation
The aim of this project is a regional analysis of the evolution of industrial capitalism in Germany from 1790 to 1850.
The chosen region is the West of the Rhineland. This region can be regarded as the ‘gateway’ of industrialisation in Germany; it very soon developed a complex industrial structure (cloth industry, machine construction, coal mining, iron industry, zinc industry, wagon construction, paper industry, glass industry). The region was interconnected with the advanced Belgian industry and with Belgian and French capital markets, and it is thus an appropriate case for the analysis of economic learning processes.
Based on regional and state archives the research aims at a ‘micro -foundation’ of economic development to analyse economic agency, including learning processes, knowledge distribution, and similar questions addressed by modern Business History.
The project is being carried out by associate professor Alfred Reckendrees
Nation Branding: Danish Companies and Denmarks Foreign Policy
Large Danish companies operating in the global market must increasingly deal with how Denmark is perceived around the world. In a world where companies are linked to the nation they come from, it creates additional incentives for the company to define the nation's image. So, the state is not the only player contributing to the branding of Denmark. Since the State in an international context (in its foreign policy) speaks directly on behalf of Denmark, the state has a major influence on Denmark's brand. As was seen during the Mohammed cartoon crisis, this may create problems for Danish companies wishing to portray Denmark and the company in a different light than the state.
The project wants to examine how different companies relate to Denmark's brand. Do they actively try to influence the brand and does it affect Danish foreign policy? Or do companies rather try to adapt to the Danish brand?
PhD project Troels Riis Larsen
The History of the Working Environment and the Danish Working Environment Authority 1872 to 2007.
The information is in Danish only.
The European Financial Crisis of 1931 and the Response of the Central Banks
The Austrian Kreditanstalt collapsed in May 1931, bringing a series of bank- and currency crises in its wake. Events culminated when the Bank of England abandoned the gold standard in September that same year. The project examines the behaviour and views of a number of central banks as well as of the Bank for International Settlements concerning this serious financial crisis, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression.
The project is carried out by Professor Per H. Hansen .
The project is carried out by Professor Per H. Hansen .
Banks, Industry and Politics in Interwar Scandinavia
The objective of the project was to carry out a comparative analysis of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish banking in the interwar years. The numerous difficulties experienced by Scandinavian banks are analysed from a cultural and micro-historical perspective. The intention is to highlight and understand the ways, in which the banking crises changed both public views on financial systems and the self-understanding of the banking world. The project is carried out by Professor Per H. Hansen
.
Divergent Paths: Savings Banks and the Structure of National Banking Systems
This project examines how the liberalisation of financial regulations has affected savings banks in a number of countries since the 1960s. Economic theory assumes that deregulation will lead to national and international convergence in financial systems, and yet the consequences of liberalisation have varied widely from country to country. The project compares developments in a number of countries in Western Europe and North America, and it indicates that factors such as the strategies, branding and cultural contexts of different savings banks have been highly significant in determining their position. The project is carried out by Professor Per H. Hansen
in cooperation with Dr. Dan Wadhwani
of the Harvard Business School.
Managing the World: Shaping Main-Frame Computers and Western Society, 1939-c.1975
This research project will analyse the history of the main-frame computer industry in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany and France through analyses of interrelated technology and business developments/aspects. How did users and governments contribute to the shaping of business and technology in this industry in the four countries? How did computers contribute in shaping business and society? This will be answered in a comparative study of this industry in the four countries from the 1940s to the 1970s.
The project is carried out by associate professor Lars Heide .
The project is carried out by associate professor Lars Heide .
A Cultural History of Danish SME's - the Challenge of Internationalisation
Approximately 57% of the total turnover in Danish business comes from businesses with fewer than 100 employees. These companies employ about 56% of the workforce. For many Danes a small business is the framework for a significant part of everyday life. This cultural community is part of their life and world, and as such an important institution in Danish culture. Yet, interest in SME's has so far been negligible in business history. This is true regardless of whether the prospect is economic or cultural.
The purpose of the project is to conduct a cultural history analysis of life in Danish SME's, focusing on the last 25-30 years of internationalisation.
The purpose of the project is to conduct a cultural history analysis of life in Danish SME's, focusing on the last 25-30 years of internationalisation.
PhD project: Ellen Mølgaard
National Identity, Branding, History and the Company
The programme focuses on how underlying and explicit stories of brands and companies are related to individual (consumer) and collective (national) constructions of identity. Our thesis is that companies play an important yet uncharted role in the construction of identity in today's society. We also believe that this tendency is growing stronger in the post-modern og globalised societies.
The aim of the research programme is to analyse how companies, nations and consumers together and independently produce, use and express identity with reference to national history and identity and how these stories or identity constructions are changing through time and space.
The faculty of the research programme is a cross-disciplinary team of researchers from three different research fields at CBS. Thus, the research team combines resources from Nationalism Studies, Branding Studies and Business History – a unique combination of research fields.
Participants: Mads Mordhorst
og Per H. Hansen
FOA – Trade and Labour, the Danish Model and the collective bargaining process 2008
This information is in Danish only.
Creating Nordic Capitalism
Having completed the publication " Creating Nordic Capitalism
: The business History of a Competitive Periphery", the project continues with the development of common Nordic courses and course materials in cooperation with the University of Helsinki, Stockholm School of Economics and the Norwegian School of Management.
The Transformation of the Danish Shipping Industry, 1985-2005
This project seeks to explain why the Danish shipping industry has been so successful due to the opportunities of world trade by sea since the early 1990s so as to obtain European leadership in that area and to perceive world leadership to be within its grasp in the near future.
Last updated by Jens-Christian Sørensen 15/04/2010
In the Press
Staff member contributions to public discussions, appearances in Danish media etc.
In Danish.
- Per H. Hansen (Blog)
- Martin J. Iversen (Blog)
- Kurt Jacobsen (Radio)
