The conference will be concerned with the dynamics of capitalism and business enterprises. You are welcome to submit proposals for papers or panels dealing with the three conference themes. Papers dealing with other issues are also welcome.

Conference themes

Ninety four years have passed since Joseph Schumpeter published his “Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung”, but its focus on innovation and entrepreneurship as well as on creative destruction and crises makes it as topical as ever. With the era of globalisation, the dynamics of capitalism have never been more intense and more all-encompassing, and this gives rise to a series of important questions that business history may be particularly suited to answer.

Can globalisation go too far? Are business scandals increasing in number and magnitude? What can national governments and international organisations do to create an institutional environment that stabilises capitalism without at the same time removing the dynamics?

Does globalisation promise a new and prosperous life for more and more people – in the developing countries as well as in the West? Or does the prevailing wave of convergence and outsourcing result in ever more socially divided consumer and service-oriented societies to an extent that will ultimately lead to social riots? Is it possible for governments to establish legislative and institutional frameworks that provide adequate answers to the increasingly transnational character of business?

By inviting papers as well as entire sessions that explore historical parallels and analyse the path that business corporations and societies have taken towards the present state of a global economy, we hope to achieve a better and historically founded understanding of the challenges that capitalist societies and business enterprises face in the 21st century.

We invite papers that deal with the corporate level, the national level, the international level, or the three combined. At the same time, we want to recognise the need for business history to open up to new theoretical approaches in other disciplines such as economics, sociology, anthropology, the humanities, and business studies in order to constitute a truly cross-disciplinary science.

The conference therefore has three themes: