Call for Papers for a special issue of Business History
'Chandler Redux? Looking Back to Move Forward'
Editors: Asli M. Colpan, Matthias Kipping, Takafumi Kurosawa
Subject Fields: business history, history of capitalism, management and organization studies, case studies, research methods, theorization
Background: Alfred D. Chandler and the Chandlerian perspective intellectually dominated business history for close to half a century, starting with his epoch-making book on Strategy and Structure (1962). But calls to move beyond what came to be portrayed as a (too) narrow focus on big (manufacturing) business became louder and more frequent over the last decade. Based on citation statistics, a variety of other topics and approaches have started to gradually complement and eclipse his influence – which is overall a positive development. At the same time, it is important not to lose sight of the many empirical, methodological, and conceptual contributions Chandler and Chandlerism have made to the study of organizations, industries, and economies – contributions that continue to be recognized, debated, and developed today within various management disciplines.
Purpose: The proposed special issue invites both empirical research and reflections that draw on and develop the rich legacy of Chandler's work to help further innovative and impactful scholarship in business history as well as management and organization studies. Following are some of the possible, but not exclusive directions for these papers:
1. Ask big questions about changes at economic, societal, and industry levels in different geographies, where business and businesspeople have played a crucial part and answer them by drawing on the historical and comparative investigation of firms and industries.
2. Investigate the evolution of big business and of entire industries from the 19th to the 21st centuries, examining (i) stability as well as change in organizational forms, (ii) the increasing scale and power of business and business models, and (iii) sectors beyond manufacturing.
3. Engage in cross-disciplinary debates about the possible contributions of business historical research to generalization and theory-building, with a particular focus on the selection and use of case studies and the appropriate methodologies for analyzing them.
Submission process and schedule: All those interested in publishing a paper in the special issue should email a 500-word abstract to ChandlerRedux@econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp by 1st May 2024. Authors of selected abstracts will be asked to present at one of the following three workshops. In your submission, please indicate which of these you prefer to attend:
1. June 28-29, 2024: Kyoto University, Japan [before the AIB conference; organizers will cover accommodation in Kyoto for 3 nights & meals during the workshop].
2. July 11, 2024: Nova School of Business & Economics, Lisbon, Portugal [before the EBHA Conference]
3. Online [date to be determined]
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Alvaro CUERVO-CAZURRA
CEM Professor of Global Sustainability and Professor of International Business and Strategy
Northeastern University, D'Amore-McKim School of Business
360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
a.cuervocazurra@northeastern.eduwww.cuervo-cazurra.com.------------------------------