BUSINESS HISTORY NEWSThe Newsletter of the Association of Business Historians

Spring 2009

No.37

ISSN 9062-9440 This issue of the newsletter sees David Bricknell and Niall Mackenzie, the 2008 Colman prize finalists, contributing their presentations to the 2008 ABH conference, on (respectively) ‘Intuition: the case for historical research’ and ‘Chucking buns across the fence? Government-Sponsored Industry Development in the Scottish Highlands, 1945-82’.

Mike Anson, of the Bank of England and the Business Archives Council, offers some timely reflections on ‘Joined up Thinking: Business Historians and Business Archives’. There are also various items of news and announcements. In addition, Boydell & Brewer are offering ABH members a 25 % discount on selected titles, while Palgrave / Macmillan are announcing a new journal.

The 2009 ABH conference programme, abstracts, registration and other details are now available on-line, at http://www.liv.ac.uk/ulms/abh/ The programme and registration form are also included in this newsletter. The conference, on the theme of ‘Cities of Business, the Business of Cities’, will be held at the University of Liverpool Management School on 3 – 4 July 2009.

Last but certainly not least, the Association of Business Historians is delighted to announce the Tony Slaven Grant. The aim of the Grant, named in honour of Tony Slaven, Emeritus Professor of Business History at the University of Glasgow, is to further the future growth and development of the discipline of business history by supporting emerging scholars to attend and present their work at the Association’s annual conference: full details can be found at the end of this newsletter.

If you have any event or new publication you would like to see included in the next edition of the newsletter (due out in October 2009), please do e-mail details to the address below by the end of September. And do let me have any feedback and / or suggestions about future editions of the newsletter. Please note also that the ABH has a new web-address, hosted by the Centre for Evolution of Global Business and Institutions (CEGBI) at the University of York: http://www.abh-net.org/ If you have any news you would like to have uploaded on the ABH website to share with the membership, please e-mail the webmaster - Teresa da Silva Lopes (tl528@york.ac.uk).

Laura Ugolini, University of WolverhamptonHAGRI/HLSS, MC 233, Millennium City Building Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, UKE-mail: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

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CONTENTS

FEATURESColman Prize 2008 finalists

David Bricknell, Intuition: the case for historical research p. 3Niall G MacKenzie, ‘Chucking buns across the fence?’:Government-Sponsored Industry Development in theScottish Highlands, 1945-82 p. 8

Mike Anson, ‘Joined up Thinking: Business Historiansand Business Archives’ p. 15

OBITUARYJohn H. Dunning, Emeritus Professor of International Businessat the University of Reading p. 18

SPECIAL OFFERS AND PUBLICATIONSBoydell & Brewer p.19Palgrave / Macmillan p. 20

INFORMATION AND NEWSAccounting, Business & Financial History conference and cfp p. 21‘Beyond Chandler – Intellectual Impulses for Businessand Management History Tomorrow’ workshop p. 22Business Archives: Reflections and Speculations p. 23Business and Labour History Group, The University of SydneyCall for papers: Social Democratic Parties and Business:An Historical Analysis p. 25CHORD workshop: Retailing History: Texts and Images p. 26CHORD Conference cfp p. 272009 CHORD New Research Prize p. 28EBHA Doctoral Summer School, call for applications p. 29Economics Network of the European Social ScienceHistory Conference cfp p. 30‘Fashions: Business Practices in Historical Perspective’ conference p. 32Harvard Business School grants and fellowships in history p. 33The Japan Business History Society (JBHS) p. 35Kodak donates business archive to the British Library p. 36Management History Conference cfp p. 38‘Sheer dead loss’? The Business of Health, Safety & Risk symposium p. 39

2009 ABH CONFERENCE AND TONY SLAVEN GRANTProgramme p. 40Registration form p. 51Tony Slaven Grant p. 52

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FEATURES‘Colman prize finalists, 2008

David Bricknell, Visiting Fellow, University of ManchesterIntuition: the case for historical research

[David Bricknell was shortlisted for the 2008 Coleman prize for his PhD thesis reporting research into the exploitation of the Pilkington float glass process. At the core of his presentation at the 2008 ABH Conference was his emphasis on the impact of intuition in the strategic process. Set out below is a more detailed account of how historical analysis can be used to explore intuition, a concept which raised a few eyebrows at the Conference]

There is nothing particularly novel, at least for the historian, in examining the silences. In a different context Stephen J. Gould summarised the case perfectly as; “A cardinal rule of scholarly detection: Don’t only weigh what you have; ask why you don’t see what you ought to find. Negative evidence is important-especially when the record is sufficiently complete to indicate that an absence may be genuine” (1993 p.450). Gould was talking in the context of palaeontology, but for the sake of the current argument his synopsis applies; an archival record, like the fossil record, comprises all of our evidence and we must interpret it as best we can, including explaining the silences. A classic example for historians is the absence of references to women in the Victorian Hansard and the conclusions we can draw as to the Victorian attitude to women (Marwick, 2001).

A significant silence, which is now emerging from the shadows in organizational research, is human intuition and its role in strategic decision making. For many years rational analysis has been dominant in the study and prescription of strategic decision making. This is despite the fact that influential authors such as Barnard (1938/70) and Simon (1945/76) recognised that it was impossible for the analytical decision makers to have all the relevant knowledge and that therefore the decisions would be largely non-logical or, at best, boundedly rational. The non-logical process, or intuition, has had a chequered history. Whilst its role was recognised by the ancient Greeks (Osbeck, 1999) and intuition was always at the core of any philosophy of mind, there was a mystical quality to it which excluded it from the top table of rationality. “In our culture, the legacy of intuition is less than inspiring. Intuition is seen as something mysterious and unexplainable at best and as something inaccurate, hokey, or epiphenomenal at worst.” (Lieberman, 2000 p.109)

The recognition by psychologists that most of what we do is intuitive (e.g. Bargh and Chartrand, 1999) and the counter cultural finding (e.g. Miller and Ireland, 2005) that successful executives rely on ‘gut reaction’ (which was more macho than the whimsy of intuition) prompted the call in the organizational literature for more research into the precise role of intuition in the strategic process. Despite these calls there is relatively little empirical research into intuition, and this is mainly confined to the psychological literature (Dane and Pratt, 2007, Hodgkinson et al., 2008).

Whilst the psychologists can base their research on behavioural observations and interrogation in the controlled environment of the laboratory, research in the outside world of the organizational researcher is more problematic. Most of the research relies on the decision maker reporting on whether he uses intuition or analysis when making a decision. The dangers of relying on such evidence are well recognised (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977, Goldman, 2004). It is hardly reliable to ask the subject to report consciously on a unconscious process,

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especially as some aspects of intuitive knowledge are so deep seated that they are not capable of vocalisation or recall. It has been suggested that methods such as cognitive mapping or critical incidence research may produce more accurate reports (Hodgkinson et al., 2008, Clarke and Mackaness, 2001), but such techniques still require introspection by the subject of the research, and therefore involve some doubt about the accuracy of the response. Observational techniques are also inhibited by the difficulty of getting sufficient access to the course of the strategic process, which is not necessarily confined to the boardroom, and the complexity of the real world situations compared with the relatively straightforward tests and experiments utilised in the psychological research.

It is suggested that historical analysis may provide strong prima facie evidence of the use and content of intuitive thought in the strategic process; evidence which could then be reinforced with the use of participant observation and in depth interviews.

Many organizations preserve the record of their strategic process. Typically the minutes of the decision making boards or committees are carefully prepared and preserved, together with the folders of papers circulated in advance or tabled at the meetings as part of the briefing process for the directors. The minutes record the decisions and an outline of the debate. This outline may be very brief or quite extensive, depending on the style of the organization. The minutes are obviously a record of the conscious processes of the discussion. In addition it can be assumed that the papers circulated in advance or tabled at the meeting are in the conscious minds of the participants in the course of the discussion. The combination of the papers and the minutes represent the conscious analysis of the participants. It is possible that there some conscious elements which are not reflected in the paperwork, but for major decisions it is reasonable to expect that the papers are comprehensive and that the gaps in reporting are minimal.

Despite the emphasis on logical analysis in the strategic process the decisions researched did not necessarily follow logically from the recorded discussion and the papers. There were other, unrecorded, factors coming into play. The silences require explanation. If the organization is relatively large and successful, as it is likely to be if it has an archive worthy of research, then it is not sensible to explain the unvoiced factors as merely random flaws in the process. A decision making system strongly influenced by a random element is unlikely to survive for long. It is more reasonable to explain the silences as matters which the participants, whether the decision makers or the administrators recording the events, take for granted; the intuitive input to the process.

Given that intuition is based in experience (Epstein and Pacini, 1999), and the relevant experience is that gained in the business environment in general and the subject organization in particular, the researcher can return the archive to explore the business experience of the decision makers and uncover those factors which were both relevant to the decision and in the probable knowledge of the decision makers, even if they were not voiced. It is reasonable to assume that important decisions or outcomes in the past will not be forgotten by the directors and will form part of their intuitive expertise. If the directors have worked together over a period of years, even in more junior roles, it can be assumed that the experience forms part of their shared expertise and that they share the same assumptions. If a shared event in the past had been significant enough to be reported in the archive, it would have been a material part of the directors’ experience and can therefore be imputed into their intuitive expertise. The more frequently something is mentioned in the past the more probable it is that that matter has become ingrained.

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My own researches were in the archives of Pilkington plc over the period 1947-1987, and in particular the single strategy of the development and exploitation of the float glass process. This process revolutionised the production of flat glass for both architectural and automotive use and allowed Pilkington to grow from a family owned company into the biggest and most widely based glass manufacturer in the world. The company was a good subject for the research for a number of reasons. It had a well preserved and comprehensive archive with not only the minutes and papers for all the relevant meetings, but also a wide collection of correspondence and other papers to provide background material. The strategy for the exploitation of the technology was central to the company’s performance and therefore was prominent in all of the strategic discussions. The directors at all of the relevant times had been with the company for the whole, or a significant part, of their careers and therefore their business experience was reflected in the archives of the company. The research was supported by interviews with surviving managers involved in the strategic process and my own observations in over 20 years with the company.

Using historical analysis of the archive it is therefore possible to both identify gaps in the reasoning for strategic outcomes and to fill those gaps by uncovering the relevant factors which explain the difference between the recorded decision and the recorded discussion. The research into Pilkington, (Bricknell, 2009, forthcoming), revealed the very powerful influence of intuition.

One of the most fundamental decisions, whether to licence the technology to third parties, was never discussed. From the outset it was assumed that licences would be granted. To whom they would be granted and on what terms was discussed in great detail, but the decision to licence was intuitive. The directors shared enough knowledge of the relevant factors to take the outcome for granted, with no dissenting voice recorded at any time, even in retrospect.

Acquisitions were a core part of the strategy and the two largest took place in 1979 and 1982. In both cases the explicit, economic analysis was against the acquisitions and yet the board approved them. There were factors, significant but difficult to quantify, which were ingrained in the directors’ minds and which overruled the analysis. Admittedly in both cases the analysis was finely balanced, but nevertheless intuition had a significant impact on two decisions which proved to be very successful and essential to the company’s success.

A third example was the debate as to whether the technology should be made available outside the established glass making circle. The logical, economic argument (which was in favour of enlarging the circle) was repeatedly presented over a period of twelve months, yet the board could not be persuaded. Their intuitive response was to stick with the status quo which was based on all of their experience. Logic could not overcome the unvoiced, inbuilt prejudice against an outsider. It was only overcome when an external threat made the economic argument overwhelming. In each of the cases cited intuition was highly influential, despite the company priding itself on the quality of its analysis.

The emphasis in the research is on shared intuition. The board was composed of articulate, intelligent, ambitious men of differing professional training (although the majority were engineers) and motivation. The corporate record rarely reflects these differences. The board was firmly consensual, differing opinions were only occasionally reflected in the record as part of the debate. By the time the individuals had reached the board there was little scope for personal ambition; the chairmanship was largely preordained through the research period. The

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ambitions of the individuals were almost synonymous with their ambitions for the company, and therefore the intuitive input was to drive the business forward as a group rather than as an individual.

It is therefore vital to recognise that the shared intuitions, the outcome of training and experiential expertise in a relatively narrow group, become nearly identical with the conventional definition of organizational culture, “a paradigm of tacit assumptions” (Wilkins and Dyer, 1988 p.524). The elements of culture are also wholly learned within the organization, unconsciously stored and utilised (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005, Schein, 2004) and guide behaviour at both the organizational level and industry level (Gordon, 1991). In each of the decisions examined the intuitive culture of the elite strategists was powerful, and in some cases determinative.

The apparent novelty of using historical analysis to explore intuition becomes less original if the concept of the mutual intuition of the strategic process shares attributes with organizational culture. The use of historical analysis to investigate organizational culture is well supported (Lipartito, 1995, Lipartito, 2008, Rowlinson and Procter, 1999, Clark and Rowlinson, 2004) even if it is not, as yet, mainstream amongst organizational researchers.

Historical analysis provides strong evidence of the use of intuition, but it is only prima facie; there are other possible, if less feasible, explanations for the gaps in the record. If access were available to the boardroom for detailed observation (to be clearer as to what was discussed and not have to rely on the minutes) combined with techniques such as critical incidence interviews (to explore what the participants had subconsciously assumed) the information would enhance the explanations derived from the record.

There are valuable lessons to be learned from exploring intuition and its contribution in the strategic process. Firstly, as much of the process is intuitive, based in the specific experience of the business and its context, it follows that training should exploit the exposure of junior managers to the deliberations and interactions of their seniors. The bag carrier and note taker is often a victim of cost cutting, and the training value of the trip is overlooked. Secondly, in senior appointments the concept of fresh blood often overwhelms the in-house candidate. Unless there is a very specific need for a cultural revolution, the intuitive harmony and business specific expertise of the insider is fundamental to the efficient and successful operation of the strategic process. An outsider has to learn too much to be on the same level as colleagues; explicit communication cannot replace the implicit, especially as so much of the latter is tacit and incapable of verbal communication.

Bibliography

BARGH, J. A. & CHARTRAND, T. L. (1999) The Unbearable Automaticity of Being. American Psychologist, 54, 462-479.BARNARD, C. (1938/70) The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press.BRICKNELL, D. J. (2009) Float Glass: 50 Years of the Invisible Invention, Lancaster, Crucible Books.CLARK, P. & ROWLINSON, M. (2004) The Treatment of History in Organisation Studies: Towards an 'Historic Turn'? Business History, 46, 331-352.

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CLARKE, I. & MACKANESS, W. (2001) Management 'Intuition': An Interpretative Account of Structure and Content of Decision Schemas Using Cognitive Mapping. Journal of Management Studies, 38, 147-172.DANE, E. & PRATT, M. G. (2007) Exploring Intuition and its Role in Managerial Decision Making. The Academy of Management Review, 32, 33-54.EPSTEIN, S. & PACINI, R. (1999) Some Basic Issues Regarding Dual-Process Theories from the Perspective of Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory. IN CHAIKEN, S. & TROPE, Y. (Eds.) Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology. New York, Guilford Press.GOLDMAN, A. (2004) Epistemology and the Evidential Status of Introspective Reports. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, 1-16.GORDON, G. G. (1991) Industry Determinants of Organizational Culture. Academy of Management Review, 16, 396-415.GOULD, S. J. (1993) Eight Little Piggies, London, Penguin.HODGKINSON, G. P., LANGAN-FOX, J. & SADLER-SMITH, E. (2008) Intuition: A Fundamental Bridging Construct in the Behavioural Sciences. British Journal of Psychology, 99, 1-27.HOFSTEDE, G. & HOFSTEDE, G. J. (2005) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, New York, McGraw-Hill.LIEBERMAN, M. D. (2000) Intuition: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 109-137.LIPARTITO, K. (1995) Culture and the Practice of Business History. Business and Economic History, 24, 1-41.LIPARTITO, K. (2008) Business Culture. IN JONES, G. & ZEITLIN, J. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Business History. Oxford, Oxford University Press.MARWICK, A. (2001) The New Nature Of History, Basingstoke, Palgrave.MILLER, C. C. & IRELAND, R. D. (2005) Intuition in Strategic Decision Making: Friend or Foe in the Fast-paced 21st Century? Academy of Management Executive, 19, 19-30.NISBETT, R. & WILSON, T. D. (1977) Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.OSBECK, L. M. (1999) Conceptual Problems in the Development of a Psychological Notion of "Intuition". Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 29, 229-250.ROWLINSON, M. & PROCTER, S. (1999) Organizational Culture and Business History. Organization Studies, 20, 369-396.SCHEIN, E. H. (2004) Organizational Culture and Leadership, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.SIMON, H. (1945/76) Administrative Behaviour, Oxford, Blackwell.WILKINS, A. L. & DYER, W. G. (1988) Towards Culturally Sensitive Theories of Culture Change. Academy of Management Review, 13, 522-533.

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Colman prize finalists, 2008

Niall G MacKenzie, University of Glasgow‘Chucking buns across the fence?’: Government-Sponsored Industry Development in the Scottish Highlands, 1945-82

E-mail: n.mackenzie@arts.gla.ac.uk

My thesis focuses on the economic development of the Highlands of Scotland in the post-Second World War period, 1945-82 and takes its title from a comment attributed to Sir Douglas Haddow who was effectively the administrative head of the Civil Service in Scotland as the Permanent Secretary to the Secretary of State for Scotland between 1965-73. Haddow saw the Highlands as a problem area that had to be kept quiet by ‘chucking buns across the fence’ if necessary.1 The thesis’ main argument is that the developments discussed were indeed buns, but largely indigestible buns for the Highland economy. During the period that the thesis covers, the UK Government spent billions of pounds in current prices on several large-scale industrial developments in the Highlands in an attempt at industrialising the area. The government helped establish a paper-pulp mill near Fort William operated by the Wiggins, Teape paper company, a nuclear Fast Reactor complex at Dounreay operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, a tourist development facility at Aviemore operated by Highland Tourist Development Company and an aluminium smelter at Invergordon, operated by the British Aluminium Company. The thesis treats the developments as discrete, but related case studies, buttressed at either side by an introduction and conclusion.

There are several common themes present in the thesis that tie the case studies together. The thesis explores the relationship between business and government in the paper, tourist, nuclear and aluminium industries in the planning and operating stages of the developments from the 1960s. The argument developed in the thesis is that the government’s motivations behind the four industrial projects were more complex than the stated justification of establishing industrial growth centres to attract further businesses to the areas in which they were located. It is posited that industrial development in the Highlands was primarily a consequence of governmental financial inducement towards business to satisfy national short-term political goals. The unsuitability of the developments for, and failure to adequately address the peripheral nature of, the region eventually led to the closure of all but one of the developments – the Aviemore tourist facility. This is the implementation failure aspect.

A further theme present in the thesis is that of the political economy of Highland development. The Scottish Office, as the administrative arm of the UK government responsible for Scotland, played an absolutely central role in the creation and establishment of these industrial developments. Where Chandler identifies managers as ‘the visible hand’ of capitalism, the same can also be said for the Scottish Office in its role managing economic development in the post-war economy in Scotland. The Scottish Office acted as the overseer of all economic development in Scotland, ensuring that it avoided criticism and enjoyed the support of the people of Scotland by ‘winning’ large industrial projects for the country.

1 Hetherington, Alistair, Highlands and Islands: A Generation of Progress, (AUP, Aberdeen, 1990), pg. 3.

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The final theme present in the thesis is that of the political economy of Highland development. Three of the four developments possessed an aspect of high-technological modernity, designed to show the government’s commitment to the area and bringing it into line with the rest of the country. The Highlands had missed out on the Industrial Revolution and was essentially a backwards, agrarian economy. The introduction of new technologies and methods to the area was designed to reverse this. The Fort William mill was the first integrated paper-pulp mill in the country and used the brand new Stora process for pulp production. The nuclear power facility at Dounreay used cutting edge Fast Reactor technology that made Britain a world leader for a period. The Invergordon smelter was to be powered by electricity generated by the new AGR nuclear reactor at Hunterston on the South West coast of Scotland. The other aspect of the political economy theme is that of neo-protectionism relative to the British balance of payments problem. The Fort William mill was intended to save Britain £8m per year on imports of paper, the Invergordon smelter was to save Britain £15m per year on aluminium imports which was particularly important in light of Britain’s impending entry into EFT. Aviemore was to encourage increased dollar-tourism in Scotland, which by the end of the 1950s accounted for £7.9m per year, over half of all tourist spending in the UK. Dounreay was to act as a ‘shop window’ to the world for fast reactor technology with the intention that it could be demonstrated on a commercial scale and subsequently sold, all the while protecting British energy supplies and contributing to the balance of payments.

The thesis is essentially an examination of the relationship between the Scottish Office and the rest of UK government through the prism of government-business relations and the administration of regional policy.

In respect of the four industrial developments in the Highlands, as well as other developments in Scotland, the Scottish Office approached businesses with financial inducements to locate operations in the area, often in spite of protestations from the purse holders in government in London. Regional grants and loans were made available along with logistical and planning support as well as Industrial Development Certificates to build large industrial factories in order to convince businesses that the Highlands was a place in which they wanted to locate in order to remedy the ills of the area. The Highland problem was one that concerned many in government, as well as several commentators, for quite some time, with calls for action dating back to the 1930s.

Quotes regarding the Highland Problem:

Frank Fraser Darling was an ecologist and author who was close to Tom Johnston, the former Secretary of State for Scotland under Labour in the 1940s:“Until the Highland problem is looked upon as social rather than as economic, it is to be feared that we can expect little improvement.”Frank Fraser Darling, Ecologist and Author, Wild Country, 1938

Willie Ross was the Secretary of State for Scotland under Labour in the Wilson administrations in the 1960s and 70s:“For two hundred years the Highlander has been the man on Scotland’s conscience.”Willie Ross, Secretary of State for Scotland, Introducing the Highland Development Bill, 1965

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Professor Sir Robert Grieve was the former Chief Planning Officer for Scotland and chairman of the HIDB. Grieve was referring to the problems facing the Scottish economy in getting Glasgow and the Highlands up to speed with the rest of the country after a period of economic decline:“Glasgow is one joker in the Scottish pack; the Highlands are the other.”Professor Sir Robert Grieve, former Chairman HIDB, 1978

The question then is of course, what was the Highland problem? Well, the Highlands was and still is a remote area and the key understanding the problem in the Highlands is the issue of remoteness – it missed out on the effects of industrialisation meaning there was a natural drift towards industrial areas for people in search of jobs, greater economic reward and increased social interaction. The area consequently suffered from long-term depopulation which you can see in the table here:

Table 1: Long run Highland population change compared to Scotland and UK, 1851-1961

Area1851 1921 1931 1951 1961 % Change

Highlands 423880 371372 323277 316471 304161 -28.2Scotland 2888742 4882500 4803000 5096400 5179300 +79.3UK 22259000 44072000 44074000 50290000 52807000 +137.2

Source: HIDB, Annual Report, 1970 to 1981, HIDB, Review of the HIDB Economic & Social Change in the Highlands, (HIDB, Inverness, 1987), pg. 4, www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp99/rp99-111.pdf www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/pop.html & http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D3400.xls

The table shows quite clearly shows that the Highlands suffered a loss of 28.1% of its population in the same period that Scotland experienced an increase of 79.3% and the UK an increase of 137.2%. There was evidently a problem in the Highlands, but the question remained of how to solve it? Any development in the Highlands was of course based on people remaining there. More importantly, it was not politically desirable to have large-scale population movement out of the Highlands given its emotional ties to the many Highlanders that had moved to the industrial Central Belt region between Glasgow and Edinburgh in search of work where the majority of the Scottish population, and Scottish based parliamentary seats, were located. The Highland problem thus presented itself as an opportunity to the Scottish Office to show its commitment to the area and maintain the support of the Scottish people.

Background: Policy Development

In 1961 the Scottish Council (Development & Industry)’s published the Toothill Report, written by John Toothill of Ferrant. Toothill’s Report encouraged the idea of the ‘region’ and called for more governmental intervention into the economy to rectify the economic problems facing Scotland. The report took the view that simply alleviating unemployment was not a sufficient criterion for the application of regional policy in Scotland and that regional characteristics such as “geographical location, communication facilities,

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development potential or established industrial base, offered the best prospects for generating economic growth”.2 The Scottish Office almost immediately adopted this as policy, moving government away from its previous focus on relieving unemployment as the major aim of regional policy. The idea of growth centres characterised regional economic policy in subsequent years in Scotland and directly informed the creation of the pulp mill at Fort William, the tourist facility at Aviemore, the location of the second fast reactor at Dounreay and the construction of the aluminium smelter at Invergordon.

Developments in chronological order: Fort William, Aviemore, Dounreay (2nd reactor), Invergordon.

The paper pulp mill at Fort William was described as ‘a test case for industries in the Highlands’.3 It was created as a result of the 1963 Fort William Pulp and Paper Mill Act that allowed for a loan of £10m to be made available to the Wiggins, Teape paper company for the establishment of a mill in Fort William. The belief was that if a mill could be established in the area then other companies, seeing the success of a multinational company setting up shop in the Highlands, would be inclined to follow suit. The project and the area was described as having ‘the significance of a laboratory, the experiment in progress being to determine the effects of a major new industry on the locality, on the country as a whole, and on the paper industry itself.’4

The Aviemore tourist complex was the most successful of the four developments discussed in the thesis, insofar as that it is still fully operational. Sir Hugh Fraser, then chairman of the House of Fraser and owner of Harrods, was approached by the Scottish Office to front its plans for a new winter sports and tourist facility in the Highlands, under the premise that it would be presented to the public as his idea and his venture and would be ‘the Scottish St Moritz’. Sir Hugh Fraser was arguably the most prominent businessman in Scotland at the time and a really high profile choice. The intention with the Aviemore project was to encourage dollar tourism in Scotland and to encourage businesses to locate in the Highlands by virtue of a high-profile and successful businessman being seen to be setting up operations in the region.

The Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay was to be a shop window for fast reactor technology for exporting abroad. On a regional level it was to act as a ‘growth centre’, attracting industries to the most northern part of Scotland, in part to service the increased population of the area and in part to get related businesses to consider the area as a viable location. In reality, a combination of reasons persuaded the government to locate the new reactor in Dounreay- the parliamentary seat would be winnable at the next election and the Labour government had campaigned on the platform of commitment to the development of Scotland and the Highlands, but had yet to locate any industry in the country. Dounreay then was the government’s first legitimacy test for its stated policy of development of the regions in Scotland.

2 Johnston et al, Structure and Growth of the Scottish Economy, (Collins, London & Glasgow, 1971), pg. 321.3 Scottish Council (Development & Industry), Development Committee Survey and Report of Fort William to Ballachulish, February 1950, NAS SEP4/2622.4 Ibid.

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The Invergordon smelter was constructed as a result of the announcement of the Wilson government that it was building two new aluminium smelters, to be powered by cheap electricity from the new AGR nuclear power stations, that were available for tender for construction and operation with accompanying government loans and grants. The British Aluminium Company tendered a bid to build and operate the smelter with projected import saving of £22.75m per year on the basis of a one-time government finance package of £30m. Government accepted British Aluminium’s bid for one of the smelters, subsequently located in Invergordon, on the basis that it provided the most benefit to the balance of payments problem and was the most attractive contract agreement offered. Entering this contract would later become the reason for British Aluminium’s eventual takeover by Alcan.

During the planning phase for each industrial development the government was dogged by its balance of payments problems.5 As a result, each representation made to the government on the part of Scottish agencies for development in the Highlands catered towards providing an immediate, or almost immediate, benefit to the UK balance of payments problem. As a result, that all four developments are linked by the desire to protect British domestic production from foreign competition whilst being presented as the bespoke solution to the issue of Highland development is no accident. Economically, the developments were constructed primarily to serve the immediate needs of the UK national economy rather than as the long-term answer to the long-standing problems in the Highlands, evidenced in part by the lack of development of an integrated infrastructural framework of transport and communication facilities in the wider Highland area. Instead, infrastructural development was focused on the immediate areas in which the developments were located and specifically on housing the influx of new workers and providing amenities. Whilst this was an undoubtedly important issue, for the developments to have any chance of succeeding as growth centres a more considered approach to Highland-wide infrastructure was needed. That the developments were located in the Highlands was a combination of good fortune, considerable political skill on the part of the Scottish Office and its constituent parts and the very attractive financial terms offered to companies to locate there. By the end of the 1960s, the Highlands were receiving 10% of all government expenditure in Scotland, in spite of having only 5% of the population.6

The issue of technology and its failure is a major explanatory factor in the closure of three of the four developments. The Fort William mill’s adoption of the Stora process was a major flaw from the beginning – it was adopted on the basis of producing a less obnoxious smell than the cheaper Kraft process used by Scandinavian producers, but caused operational problems from an early stage. It was overly expensive meaning the mill had to run at full operational capacity to remain profitable before being made obsolete by its lack of adaptability to change in the international paper market. The Invergordon smelter suffered from major technological difficulties based as it was on the promise of cheap nuclear-powered electricity from the AGR station that never materialised, resulting in running up massive deficits in its electricity accounts due to is having to use more relatively expensive coal generated electricity. Dounreay’s technological woes were also considerable with fast reactor technology never actually proving workable on a large scale without severe safety issues and environmental damage, not to mention costing enormous sums of money in the process. The technological problems from poor choices to outright failure thus clearly contributed considerably to the difficulties leading to the closure of three of the four developments.5 This applies only to the second reactor at Dounreay. 6 Newlands, David, “The Regional Economies of Scotland” in Devine, Tom M, Lee, Clive H & Peden, George C, (eds.), The Transformation of Scotland: The Economy Since 1700; pg. 170.

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Wiggins, Teape closed its pulping operations in Fort William in 1981 followed closely by Invergordon closing its doors at the end of the same year. The decision to abort the Dounreay fast reactor project resulted in the decommissioning of the Dounreay PFR in 1994, although a run-down of operations had already been in effect since the early 1980s. Of the three developments only Aviemore is still fully operational. The government’s social experiment, predicated on economic performance and directing industry, had failed to provide the long-term prosperity promised for the Highlands. The closure of these plants saw unemployment jump to as high as 19.7% in some areas.

Table 2: Percentage of Unemployed by area and year

1971 1982Thurso 6.6 13.4Invergordon and Dingwall 10.0 19.7Fort William 5.3 17.2Total Highland area 7.9 14.1

Source: HIDB Annual Report, 1983, Appendix 4.

It is quite clear that the closure (or run down) of these plants had a considerable effect on the areas in which they were situated. Far from acting as growth centres and bringing increased prosperity and businesses to the area, the failure of the developments and their closure further exacerbated the existing problems of unemployment.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom however. The developments at least succeeded in reversing the major issue of depopulation that had afflicted the area.

Table 3: Population by Highland areas related to developments by year

1921 1931 1951 1961 1971 1981 1989

Caithness 28285 25656 22710 27370 27915 27636 26560Ross & Cromarty

31753 28995 28713 28199 30480 46924 48310

Lochaber 11426 11090 13783 14236 15597 19491 19110Badenoch & Strathspey

10944 6794* 9497 9093 9099 9860 10880

HIDB Area 371372 323277 316471 304161 307532 342098 345489

* Badenoch figures only.Source: HIDB Annual Reports, 1975-90. (1989 last publication of population stats by HIDB)

There was an overall increase in population of Highland area between 1961 and 1989 of 13.6%. Between 1961-81 the Invergordon area’s population increased by 66%, the Fort William area increased by 37% and between 1951-81 the Dounreay area increased by 22%. In this sense then the four ventures were successful in that they helped attract people back to the area, but it was a qualified success in that the intention was also to provide them with jobs.

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Thus, when the developments found themselves closing or running down, the areas had larger populations, and subsequently, increased unemployment levels.

Conclusion

To conclude, whilst the thesis is focused on the Highlands, Scotland and the UK, there is a wider resonance from its conclusions. Neil Rollings has recently written on the importance of the political sphere to a better understanding of business history in reference to European Integration and British business and a similar lesson can be drawn from this thesis. The political sphere is important in understanding economic development and government-business relations, particularly in regional economic development of peripheral regions where a long-term approach is required. There exists a real disconnect between political and economic development time that impacts on the efficacy of establishing industrial developments aimed at satisfying political ends. Economic development needs to be part of a long-term comprehensive strategy that, whilst taking on board political considerations, looks beyond the short-term political mandate afforded by parliamentary election and includes development of the framework which allows industry to settle and flourish. Consequently, businesses must also be aware of the possibility for circumstances to change rapidly as a result of political developments and be insured as far as possible against these changes. The main example of this in the thesis is British Aluminium’s experience with the Invergordon smelter which eventually led to both its and the smelter’s demise.

Finally, in relation to the political sphere in Scotland during the period that the thesis covers, I will leave you with a quote by an established political journalist referring ot the election of the pro-market Conservatives in 1979, which I feel goes some way towards explaining the effect of the Scottish Office in taking such an active role in attempting to manage both the Highland and Scottish economies in the post-war period.

“Free-marketry, once the core of Scottish economic thinking, was now considered a shameful perversion, in roughly the same category as cricket or cross-dressing.”Andrew Marr, The Battle for Scotland.

Niall G MacKenzie is currently based in London working for the University of Glasgow under Professor Catherine Schenk on a monetary history project on LDCs (Nigeria, Ghana, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

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Mike Anson (Bank of England, and Business Archives Council)Joined up Thinking: Business Historians and Business Archives

Last year’s ABH conference in Birmingham included a session put together by the Business Archives Council (BAC) which was intended to promote some joined up thinking between business historians and business archivists. The panel included Richard Coopey (speaking as a user), Richard Wiltshire (Senior Archivist with responsibility for business records at the London Metropolitan Archives), and Katey Logan, the consultant responsible for developing the draft ‘National Strategy for Business Archives’. Katey’s work has been funded by a consortium of interested bodies representing the creators, custodians and users of business archives, and which includes the ABH and the Economic History Society. The Birmingham session was well-attended and generated a lively and wide-ranging debate. Topics raised covered some familiar fields (for example, the quality, or not, of archive catalogues), and more contentious areas such as whether there was actually such a thing as ‘the business archives sector’, and the merits or otherwise of the American ‘History Store’ model. Another discussion examined the possible ways in which funding applications by academics might be dovetailed with the development and use of specific business archives. The session closed with a general consensus that co-operation between business historians and business archivist would be beneficial and that more work needed to be done. Since then the matter has been pursued primarily through further development of the draft strategy document.

The draft ‘National Strategy for Business Archives’ has been put together after extensive discussions with interested parties, including historians. The draft was completed in early 2009 and, as many members of the ABH will be aware, this was followed by a consultation exercise. The period for comments has now closed but the document can still be viewed through the BAC website.[see http://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk/activitiesobjectives/lobbying/]Currently the final strategy is in the process of being agreed by the principal stakeholders, and work is also progressing on a ‘best practice’ website for business archives together with a ‘Business guide to managing archives’. The guide and the website will be given a high profile launch at an event hosted by the All Parliamentary Group on Archives at the House of Lords in July this year.

Since business archives provide core material for much of the research undertaken by members of the ABH it is not surprising that business historians have been one of the important constituents identified during the formulation of the strategy document. One of the specific action points in the draft strategy (paragraph 8.3.6) calls for the development of partnerships with universities and academic organisations so as to understand and support the research interests of academics and to exploit their knowledge. The ABH is included in the list of implementing bodies on this point and members clearly have a key role to play in shaping and ensuring a satisfactory outcome. The strategy also recognises the importance that universities have played in both collecting business records and archives, and in using them to further their teaching and research agendas. One possibility raised in the strategy is the creation of new national centres for business archives, something that some universities may well wish to further explore.

Away from the work on the strategy, members of the BAC have been thinking about ways in which academic research and business archives might be more closely integrated. One initiative, mainly organised through students at the London School of Economics, has been

16

the workshop called ‘Meet the Archivists’. This has given postgraduate students the opportunity to meet and talk to business archivists, and hear presentations by Peter Scott and Valerie Johnson on conducting research in business archives and using business records. When it comes to joined up thinking, the BAC is also concerned about the question of funding. Indeed the BAC already promotes this in a small way through the awarding of its annual bursary. However, of greater importance is to explore whether funding bodies will recognise the inclusion of archive specific funding within research applications which would benefit both the researcher and the archive. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is not always coordination in this field and in one case a researcher apparently claimed that they would examine ‘x’ and discover ‘y’ in an archive, without having even consulted the archivist of the organisation in question!

Recently, there have been some encouraging examples which demonstrate how the joined up approach can work in terms of generating research and unlocking the potential of business archives. At the ABH session last year Alan Booth mentioned an AHRC award which had been made to the University of Exeter and the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum in Cornwall, which holds an important business collections of the Eastern Telegraph Company, and Cable and Wireless. [see http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/html/resprojects.html] This project will fund PhD studentships and also an exhibition. Similarly Colin Divall at the Institute of Railway and Transport Studies at York has been awarded a grant for three years on ‘The commercial cultures of Britain’s railways 1872-1977’. The project will use the Great Western Railway photographic collection held at the National Railway Museum, and again offers funded research positions and will result in a major exhibition at the Museum in 2012. Another excellent example is provided by the British Steel Archive Project, a venture that definitely impressed delegates at the BAC Conference last November. Headed by Joan Heggie at the University of Teesside, this ambitious project will open up one of the largest and most important business archives in the country for research. [see http://www.britishsteelcollection.org.uk/] No less important than these large-scale collaborations are the smaller and informal groups that also bring together historians and archivist. One example here is the North West Regional Business History Network run from Liverpool University, where there is of course a strong grouping of business historians and also the Centre for Archive Studies (LUCAS). Mention of Liverpool, gives a convenient opportunity to say that at the ABH conference there this summer there will be a session on archives which will give an update on the progress that has been made with the national strategy, and hopefully give further consideration to joined up thinking.

Many of these projects, and indeed the strategy itself, were developed before the current economic crisis had really started to have an impact. It is clear that the present situation has placed the archives of many companies, both large and small, under threat. Here business historians can help in identifying archives in this position and perhaps assist by acting as academic advisers to assess the worth of material. Certainly, academics have been, or are currently, active in seeking to save and secure a permanent home for some very important collections. And it is undoubtedly a serious situation when even the archives of companies such Woolworths, or W.H. Smiths become the subject of concern. Perhaps we might go further, as has John Quail, and argue that there should be legal protection for archives, in the way that there is for important works of art or buildings. Whatever the immediate problems, it is surely evident that it is in the interests of both business historians and business archivists to engage in more joined up thinking. With this achieved, we might go some way towards ensuring that a sufficient breadth of archives will exist in the future for historians to be able to

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assess why many businesses found themselves in so much trouble in the early part of the twenty-first century.

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OBITUARY

John H. Dunning

Emeritus Professor of International Business at the University of Reading,

died on 29 January 2009

John H. Dunning, was famous for his ‘eclectic paradigm’, first published in 1977, which explained the behaviour of multinational enterprises and the pattern of international direct investment. He made his name in 1958 with a pioneering study of American Investment in British Manufacturing Industry, in which he showed that the productivity and performance of US-owned subsidiaries in the UK was higher than that of UK firms in the same industry, but lower than that of their parent companies in the US. Dunning correctly interpreted this as an indication that the US firms possessed an intangible advantage compared to their UK competitors, and that this advantage was sufficiently strong to outweigh any additional costs of doing business abroad. Dunning’s findings were used by the radical Canadian economist Stephen Hymer to support his pioneering interpretation of multinationals as monopolists exploiting their firm-specific advantages overseas. Dunning himself generalised Hymer’s ideas into the concept of an ‘ownership advantage’, which together with ‘location advantage’ and ‘internalisation advantage’, explained the behaviour of multinationals within his eclectic paradigm.

Dunning’s work was widely used by business historians. In 1983 he published an important paper on ‘Changes in the level and structure of international production: The last one-hundred years’, in which he collated a mass of statistics on foreign investment flows to and from various countries in both the developed and the developing world. This work was used by Tony Corley, Geoffrey Jones and many other business historians, and provided a considerable impetus to the business history research on multinational firms. Dunning’s work was also influential in the debate initiated by Mira Wilkins on ‘free standing firms’.

During his Presidency of the Academy of International Business, Dunning initiated a number of changes which have been of lasting benefit to the profession. He always took a strong interest in the work of young researchers, and was generous with his time. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature, and detailed knowledge of the strategies of many large multinationals – knowledge that he freely shared will all those who sought his advice. At his eightieth birthday party he described the profession, and especially the younger members of it, as ‘his family’, and they certainly repaid his generosity with respect and admiration – and indeed affection.

John Dunning received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions, including several honorary degrees – most recently from Reading University itself – and an OBE. He was an expert advisor to the United Nations for much of his career, and was regularly consulted by national governments. John Dunning, died on 29 January 2009, from liver cancer, aged 81, leaving a major intellectual legacy, supported by an important collection of books and papers, which can be accessed through the John Dunning Centre for International Business at Reading University.

Mark CassonUniversity of Reading

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20

New journal from Palgrave/Macmillan

Journal Title                            Business Economics                

Editor:                                      Robert T Crow

Society Executive Director:     Susan Doolittle

Bibliographic Info:                   Print ISSN 0007-666X, Online ISSN: 1554-432X Vol 44, 2009, 4 issues per volume

Age:                                         New to Palgrave Macmillan in 2009, Volume 44

Societies associated:               National Association for Business Economics www.nabe.com <http://www.nabe.com/> 

Institutional subs price:            Europe and ROW £134/£148, US $228

More information at www.palgrave-journals.com/be

If you would like a free copy please e-mail Sophia Blackwell at S.Blackwell@palgrave.com, mentioning the ABH newsletter.

21

INFORMATION AND NEWS

21st Annual Conference onACCOUNTING, BUSINESS & FINANCIAL HISTORY

at Cardiff University, 14-15 September 2009ANNOUNCEMENT OF CONFERENCE AND CALL FOR

PAPERSGuest Speaker - Prof. Greg Waymire (Emory University, USA)

Theoretical, empirical and review papers are welcomed in all areas of accounting, business and financial history.

The conference provides delegates with the opportunity of presenting and discussing, in an informal setting, papers ranging from early working drafts to fully developed manuscripts. The format of the conference allows approximately 40 minutes for presentation and discussion in order to help achieve worthwhile feedback from those attending. In the past, many papers presented at Cardiff have subsequently appeared in print in Accounting, Business and Financial History, or in another of the full range of international, refereed academic accounting, business and economic history journals.

The 2009 conference, organised by Malcolm Anderson, will be held in the Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA, UK. It will commence at lunchtime on Monday, 14 September 2009 and conclude in the late afternoon of Tuesday, 15 September 2009.

The conference fee is £125 (this includes all conference materials and the following meals: Monday - lunch, afternoon tea, wine reception and the conference dinner; Tuesday: morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea). All delegates will need to make their own accommodation arrangements (a list of nearby hotel options can be found on the conference website).

Those wishing to offer papers to be considered for presentation at the conference should send an abstract (not exceeding 1 page) by 1 June 2009 to:

Julie Mein, Cardiff Business School, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU. Tel +44 (0)29 2087 5731 Fax +44 (0)29 2087 5129 Email. MeinJA@Cardiff.ac.uk

Following the refereeing process, applicants will be advised of the conference organisers’ decision by 30 June 2009.

The ongoing financial support of the ICAEW’s charitable trusts is gratefully acknowledged. The Centre for Business Performance manages all grant applications.

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School of Business and Management Queen Mary University of London

Beyond Chandler – Intellectual Impulses for Business and Management

History Tomorrow

June 26th 2009

5 Dean Rees House, Charterhouse Square, London (Barbican)

9 – 9.30am Coffee and Welcome

9.30 – 10.50am ‘Martin Heidegger’ (Michael Heller, QMUL)

‘Karl Polanyi’ (Stefan Schwarzkopf, QMUL)

10.50 – 11.10am Tea Break

11.10 – 12.30pm ‘Norbert Elias’ (Peter Clark, QMUL)

‘Hans Blumenberg’ (Bogdan Costea, Lancaster)

12.30 – 1.30pm Lunch Break

1.30 – 2.50pm ‘Antonio Gramsci’ (Giuliano Maielli, QMUL)

‘Edward Said & Frederick Cooper’ (Stephanie Decker, Liverpool)

2.50 – 3.10pm Tea Break

3.10 – 3.50pm ‘Hayden White’ (Mads Mordhorst, CBS)

4 – 5pm Round-up Panel Session: “Do Business and Management History need

‘Great Thinkers’?” (Mick Rowlinson, QMUL; Bill Cooke, Lancaster;

third member tbc)

5pm – 6pm Get-together in “The Sutton Arms” (Carthusian Street)

6pm Dinner for Conference Speakers

For further information and registration form please contact Dr. Stefan Schwarzkopf, School of

Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London: s.schwarzkopf@qmul.ac.uk; tel. 020

7882 2703.

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Business Archives: Reflections and Speculations

This special extra issue of the Business Archives Council’s journal Business Archives has been produced to mark the occasion of the awarding of the 30th Wadsworth Prize for business history. It contains pieces written by six of the prize winners, together with a brief note of the origins of the prize and listing of all the winners.

Contents:

Creative use of archives and the widening scope of recent research into the history of marketing and trading in Britain

Roy Church

Business archives and the life cycle of the business historian

Leslie Hannah

Business archives and overcoming survivor bias

Geoffrey Jones

‘Want’ not Watt: analysing invention from the peripheries of nineteenth-century British economics

Christine MacCleod

Missing pieces, or the difficulty of business history

Robin Pearson

Discovering ‘discovery’: the pleasures and perils of litigation archives

Geoffrey Tweedale

The special issue will be available free for member of the BAC. It may also be purchased at a cost of £10.00 by filling in the order form overleaf.

24

Business Archives: Reflections and Speculations

Name………………………………………………………………….

Address……………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………..

Postcode……………………………………………………………...

Please send me …………..copy/ies of Business Archives: Reflections and Speculations at a cost of £10.00 pounds each (including P&P). Cheques payable to The Business Archives Council.

Please send the completed form to:

Karen Sampson

Lloyds TSB Group Archives

5th Floor, Princess House

1 Suffolk Lane

LONDON

EC4R 0AX

http://www.businessarchivescouncil.org.uk

25

Business and Labour History GroupThe University of Sydney

CALL FOR PAPERS

Social Democratic Parties and Business: An Historical Analysis

SymposiumMonday 28 September 2009

Symposium Organisers/Editors: Geoff Gallop and Greg Patmore

In recent years Labor/Labour or Social Democratic Governments and business have been close allies in restructuring capitalist economies and increasing the influence of the market on economic life.This thematic section proposes to bring in researchers who are undertaking long-term studies of the relationship between social democratic governments and business from Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Examples of topics include:

1.      Privatisation and de-regulation as public policy2.      Neo-liberalism and social democratic ideology3.      Fundraising, lobbying politicians and business4.      Social democracy, unions and the labour market5.      The politics of private-public partnerships and contracting out6.      Commissions of Inquiry into government and business - what do they tell us?

Intending contributors should electronically submit an abstract (300 words) to the editors by Friday 17 April 2009 for consideration. Intending contributors then participate in a symposium to be held at the University of Sydney, Australia, on Monday 28 September 2009. Full papers (5,000 - 8,000 words) for the symposium will be due on Monday 14 September. After the symposium participants will have time to consider comments before the submission of the final paper for refereeing for the special thematic section of Labour History on Monday 23 October 2009. The thematic will appear in the May 2010 issue of Labour History.

A limited amount of financial assistance will be available for overseas participants in the symposium.

The symposium is organised by the Business and Labour History Group, Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney and we acknowledge the financial support of the Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney. All enquiries regarding the symposium and the special thematic section of Labour History should beaddressed to the thematic editors at g.gallop@econ.usyd.edu.au and g.patmore@econ.usyd.edu.au

26

CHORD workshop

Retailing History: Texts and Images

29 April 2009

University of Wolverhampton

The Centre for the History of Retailing and Distribution invites participants to a workshop devoted to a discussion of the texts and images associated with retailing and distribution, from the early modern to the contemporary period.

More information, including programme and abstracts, can be found on the workshop web-page, at: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/texts.html

Fee: £ 14. 

 For further information, please contact Dr Laura Ugolini, HAGRI / HLSS, Room MC233, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, UK. E-mail:  L.Ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

CHORD web-page: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/chord.html

27

Call for PapersCHORD Conference

'RETAILING AND DISTRIBUTION HISTORY': A CONFERENCE TO MARK 10 YEARS OF CHORD

 9 and 10 September 2009

University of Wolverhampton, UK

The Centre for the History of Retailing and Distribution wishes to mark the first ten years of its history by inviting conference proposals on any aspect of retailing and / or distribution history. Papers from any disciplinary perspective and covering any geographical area / chronological period are welcome.

Proposals are invited either for individual papers or for sessions (generally of three papers). Please send (if possible via e-mail) a one page abstract and if proposing a session, a cover letter with title and one-paragraph session description, to the address below by 9 April 2009.

Conference web-pages: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/2009conf.htmlCHORD web-pages: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/chord.html

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Laura Ugolini, HAGRI/HLSS, University of Wolverhampton. E-mail: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

Postal address:HAGRI/HLSSMC 233Millennium City BuildingUniversity of WolverhamptonWolverhamptonWV1 1LY  UKE-mail: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

28

CHORD New Research prize 2009 In order to mark ten years of CHORD (the Centre for the History of Retailing and Distribution), the second CHORD New Research prize of £200 will be awarded to the best article on the history of retailing or distribution published (or accepted for publication) since 2007 by a postgraduate student or a ‘new’ researcher (defined as a scholar who in September 2009 will be within 5 years of obtaining their research degree).  Articles on any aspect of retailing or distribution history, historical period or geographical area will be accepted for consideration. Please note, however, that international trade is not included in the definition of ‘distribution’, and that the article must have a strong historical component. The best article will be judged on the basis of originality, contribution to knowledge and overall scholarly quality. To submit an entry, please submit seven hard copies (or off-prints) of the article (which can be printed double-sided), publication details, short CV and (if the article has not yet been published) letter of acceptance to the address below. The dead-line for submissions is 1 June 2009.The short-list will be announced in August 2009.Short-listed entrants will be invited to give short presentations to the CHORD conference on 9-10 September 2009. The winner will be announced during the conference. If you are unsure whether you or your submission are eligible, or if you have any other queries, please contact Laura Ugolini at the address below. More information about the 2009 CHORD conference can be found at:http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/2009conf.html More information about CHORD can be found at:http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6086/chord.html Dr. Laura UgoliniReader in HistoryCentre for the History of Retailing and Distribution (CHORD) Postal address:HAGRI/HLSS MC 233 Millennium City Building University of Wolverhampton Wolverhampton WV1 1LYE-mail: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

29

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

5th EBHA DOCTORAL SUMMER SCHOOLWRITING, PRESENTING, PUBLISHING: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST USE OF YOUR OWN

RESEARCH.

The 5th edition of the EBHA (European Business History Association) Summer School will take place in Italy from Monday, August 31st to Sunday, September 6th, 2009.The school aims at providing doctoral students with an overview of relevant research results and of innovative tools and methodologies in the field of Business History. It is organised jointly by the European Business History Association (EBHA), the Istituto per la Cultura e la Storia d’Impresa Franco Momigliano (ICSIM) of Terni and the Italian Association for Business History (ASSI).Students will spend the week in an Italian villa in the beautiful hills of Umbria (location: Villalago di Piediluco- Terni – approximately one hour from Rome by train) debating and discussing their research with leading international scholars . The title of the school will be Writing, Presenting, Publishing: How to make the best use of your own research. The school will focus on theoretical, methodological and practical issues which are of relevance for advanced research in business history. In this edition, special attention will be put on the issue of making the best use of a research project, in terms of writing and argumentation, presentation at conferences, publication in academic journals. In the mornings, invited scholars will give lectures and seminars on specific topics. In the afternoons, students have a chance to present their own research project and or preliminary findings. On Sunday, an excursion to visit the region will be organized.The organisers will cover all local costs (accommodation and food), but participants are expected to pay their own travel to and from Terni. Participation will be limited to 15-20 PhD students. Those interested in attending the summer school should send the following documents by e-mail to the academic organiser Dr. Francesca Polese (francesca.polese@unibocconi.it) :

1.) a half-page CV;2.) a summary of their dissertation project, not exceeding three

pages;3.) (if possible) an example of their work in progress, e.g. a draft

chapter or a working paper (in any language). The deadline for applications is May 1 st , 2009 . A maximum of 20 participants will be selected from these applications and will be notified before the end of May 2009.

30

CFP: Economics Network of the European Social Science History Conference

On behalf of the Economics Network of the European Social Science History Conference we invite you to begin thinking about participation in the Eighth conference to be held at the Bijloke Site in Ghent, Belgium, 13-16 April 2010.

The Economics Network anticipates sponsoring no more than 10 sessions of four papers each at these meetings given the limitations imposed by the size of the overall conference.  We will welcome proposals for both single papers as well as entire sessions, but note that we reserve the right to move papers around so as to maximize the quality of those selected as well as the coherence of the final program.Indeed, we request that all proposals indicate the research methods that will be employed in the work so that we can link papers together into interesting sessions by methodology as well as content.

Proposals should be submitted via the conference website before thedeadline of 1 May 2009: http://www.iisg.nl/esshc/callforpapers2010.php

Any questions you may have in advance of submitting a proposal shouldbe directed to all three of the network co-chairs:

Anne McCants, MIT, History, amccants@mit.edu

Jochen Streb, University of Hohenheim, Economics, j-streb@uni-hohenheim.de

Jeroen Touwen, Leiden University, History, l.j.touwen@let.leidenuniv.nl

At our Network meeting in Lisbon in February of 2008 we generated a list of topics of interest to the members present.  We will include that list below to give you some idea of where we might begin in our thinking about sessions for the next meeting.

Inequality and human capital acquisition

Sources of innovation in the economy -- perhaps joint with thetechnology network

Height/mortality and human welfare

Insights from the Early Modern period which critique the neo-classical paradigm

Networks of trust -- how they form, how they function

Critiques of the 'new' institutional economics

Pre-modern capital markets

Industriousness and economic growth

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Institutions as engine of economic growth or precursor to stagnation

Internationalization and national identity of 20th c. private enterprise

and perhaps now of timely interest, historical insights into financial crises.

This list is hardly exhaustive, but meant only to stimulate ideas.  We look forward to hearing from you all and seeing you in Ghent in the spring of 2010.

Jari Eloranta, Ph.DMeetings Coordinator, Economic History AssociationAssistant Professor of Comparative Economic and Business History,Appalachian State University, Department of History, 325 University Drive,Old Library Building, Boone, NC 28608, USAPhone: +1-828-262 6006, email: elorantaj@appstate.eduhttp://www.appstate.edu/~elorantaj/

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"Fashions: Business Practices in Historical Perspective", Bocconi University, Milan, June 11-13, 2009, BHC-EBHA joint annual meeting

Registration for the joint meeting of the Business History Conference and the European Economic History Association is now open!

The conference features more than 80 sessions and over 400 scholars directly involved as paper presenters or discussants. The richness of the program coupled with the location in Milan’s Bocconi University will make the congress a memorable event for business and economic historians.

It is now possible to register online via the conference website:http://www.thebhc.org/annmeet/EBHA-BHC-2009.html

Early (discounted) registration fees are valid until April 5th. More information on the conference program, on lodging and on the city of Milan can be found on the conference site.

For further information please contact the conference organizers at fashions2009@unibocconi.it

*************Francesca Polese, PhDAssistant ProfessorISE-DAIMAPUniversita' BocconiVia G. Roentgen, 120136 MilanoItalyRoom A1-03 (3rd floor)tel: +39.02.58365526francesca.polese@unibocconi.it

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HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS IN HISTORY.

The Thomas K. McCraw Fellowship in U.S. Business History . The award honors the

work and contributions of Thomas K. McCraw, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business

History, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. This fellowship will enable established

scholars from around the world whose primary interest is the business and economic history

of the United States to spend time in residence at Harvard Business School. The main

activities of the Thomas K. McCraw Fellow will be to conduct research in the archives of

Baker Library or in other Boston-area libraries, present his or her work at a seminar, and

interact with HBS faculty. The Thomas K. McCraw Fellow will receive a stipend of $7,000 to

cover travel and living expenses. Fellows are expected to be in residence for a minimum of

two months. Recipients of the fellowship will receive work space, an e-mail account, a phone,

a computer, an ID card, and access to the University’s libraries and to the HBS Intranet for

the duration of the appointment.

Applicants should send a cover letter, a CV, and a two- to three-page research

proposal to:

Walter A. Friedman

Rock Center 104

Harvard Business School

Boston, MA 02163, U.S.A.

This material can also be sent via e-mail to wfriedman@hbs.edu. Applications for the

fellowship should arrive no later than December 15, 2009. The applicant should also arrange

for two letters of reference, sent directly by the recommender, to arrive at the above address

by December 15, 2009.

The Alfred D. Chandler Jr. International Visiting Scholar in Business History

Program. The Alfred D. Chandler Jr. International Visiting Scholar in Business History

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Program invites established scholars in business history based outside the United States to

spend a period of time in residence at Harvard Business School. The primary activities of the

Chandler International Visiting Scholar will be to interact with faculty and researchers,

present work at research seminars, and conduct business history research. The program will

encourage research concerned to relate historical reality to underlying economic theories of

business development. Recipients will be given a $7,000 stipend (payable at the end of their

visit), office space, an e-mail account, phone, computer, ID card, and access to the

University’s libraries and the HBS Intranet. The program requires a two-month minimum

length of stay. Scholars may stay up to a maximum of six months. Applicants should indicate

when, during the calendar year 2010, they would like to be in residence at the School. It is

expected that the recipient will be actively engaged in the intellectual life of the business

history group.

Applicants should send (by post or by e-mail) a cover letter, CV, and a description of

the research to be undertaken to the address below. Two letters of reference should be sent

separately. All materials must arrive no later than September 30, 2009.

Geoffrey Jones

Baker Library 175

Harvard Business School

Soldiers Field

Boston, MA 02163, U.S.A.

E-mail: gjones@hbs.edu

Grants will be announced by the end of October 2009.

Harvard University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. Women and

minorities are encouraged to apply.

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Introduction of the Japan Business History Society (JBHS)Eugene K. Choi

Since the establishment in 1964, JBHS has been leading the Japanese scholarship in a wide array of economic, industrial, and business history. Alongside the annual conference for the registered Japanese and international members (approx. 900 in 2008), the six regional branches hold regular workshops as well as research meetings respectively. JBHS is certainly one of the most active academic associations in Japan.

Fuji Conference since 1974 has been the essential annual international convocation, but JBHS members have also attended overseas conferences in business history, surely including the annual conferences of ABH almost every year. JBHS has endeavoured to increase Asian-Pacific academic connexions as well. A good instance is the annual Japanese-Korean international conference on business history since 2006, initiated by the former chairman, Professor Takeshi Yuzawa; in February 2009, the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand (EHSANZ) and Gakushuin University in Tokyo (the organisers, Professor Takeshi Yuzawa and Professor Shinobu Majima) jointly held the Asia-Pacific Economic and Business History Conference.(http://www.uow.edu.au/commerce/econ/ehsanz/Tokyo%20Conference%202009/TokyoConferencePage2009.htm) The keynote lecture was given by Professor Osamu Saito of Hitotsubashi University, and the conference ended in success.

The society’s flagship publication is Kei-Ei-Shi-Gaku (in Japanese, published quarterly), and Japanese Research in Business History (formerly, Japanese Yearbook on Business History until 2003) provides English reading scholars with the leading-edge knowledge in research trends. Japanese academics also presented remarkable themes in British academic journals such as Business History, and will pay constant attention to ABH. From January 2009, Professor Takeshi Abe of Osaka University is in charge of leading JBHS, and the society will continuously seek to collaborate more with ABH henceforth.

The members of ABH are warmly welcome to visit JBHS’ English website http://www.bhs-japan.org/bhsj-e/index_e.html for further details on the society, its activities, and the publications.

Eugene K. Choi (ABH member since 2002)

Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo

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Kodak donates business archive to the British LibraryMichael Pritchard In a generous move Kodak has donated its British company archives to the British Library and its research department's library to De Montfort University in Leicester. The donations safeguard the material in perpetuity as the company continues its worldwide reorganisation. The material comes from the company's British corporate headquarters and the company's European Research Centre which was established at Harrow in 1928 and recently moved to Cambridge.

At a formal ceremony on 2 March at the British Library Kodak's Jan Wildman and the British Library's Ronald Milne, Director, Scholarship & Collections, signed the formal agreement to donate. The archive which dates from the company’s arrival in the United Kingdom in 1885 includes formal business documents, contracts, production records and marketing material contained in nearly thirty metal filing cabinets. The BL will undertake a project to catalogue the material before it is made available to researchers. The donation will complement the British Library's expanding photographic collections which have recently been joined by the William Henry Fox Talbot and Fay Godwin collections. The British Library will be holding a major exhibition of its photographic collections, including some of the Kodak material, from October 2009.

This is not the first time that Kodak Ltd has made a major donation. In 1985 it closed the Kodak Museum at Harrow which had opened in 1927 and donated the entire collection to the Science Museum. It now forms a key part of the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Kodak's British research department was formally established in 1928 and the library includes runs of nineteenth century journals and books which were used by company staff until the 1980s and go to De Montfort University in Leicester which has established itself as the leading UK centre for photographic history and research. The university has produced a number of ground-breaking online historical databases and a MA course in Photographic History and Practice starts in October 2009. It also has several PhD students researching photographic history. The library donation is a major resource and will be housed in a secure special collections areas of the university library. A small part of the library has been retained by the British Library to fill gaps in its collection of photographic journals.

Kodak first arrived in Britain in 1885 when founder George Eastman opened a London office in London's Soho Square to sell his and other American manufacturer's products. The London office was a base for Eastman's expansion into Europe and in 1888 it moved to Oxford Street with formal retail premises. The first British company, the Eastman Photographic Materials Company, was formed in 1889 to handle all Eastman's business outside of North America and in 1890 Eastman bought the Harrow site where the first Kodak factory outside of Rochester, NY, was established. The site remains in operation producing photographic papers. Kodak Limited was established 1898 and the company established a network of shops throughout the UK and added photo-finishing to its operations. Camera making commenced in Britain in mid-1927. The Kodak Ltd dominated the British photographic manufacturing and retail scene for the next fifty years. In the early 1980s recession forced the Eastman Kodak Company, the American parent company, to review worldwide operations and the company underwent a period of contraction which accelerated from in the early 2000s as digital photography began to impact on the company's traditional areas of film and paper production. In Britain a number of sites were closed. The Hemel Hempstead headquarters which had moved from London and

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opened in 1971 were relocated and the Harrow factory downsized. The research department is due to close shortly. Restructuring had started to show financial benefits by late 2008 when the worldwide credit crunch hit the company but Kodak remains poised to ensure it's future survival by focusing on materials and cameras for digital photography.

The donation has taken several years to complete and a number of the key players to secure the collections were present at the formal signing ceremony including Kodak's Dr Sam Weller, former head of research, Chris Roberts, Kodak Archive Curator, Derek Birch formerly of Kodak Research Laboratories; the British Library's John Falconer head of photographic collections, and Professor Roger Taylor. Representatives from De Montfort University included Dr Kelley Wilder, head of the new MA course, Professor Stephen Brown and Dr Gerard Moran, Dean of Art and Design.

Michael PritchardMichael Pritchard is a PhD student at De Montfort University examining the growth of the British photographic industry between 1839 and 1914. He also runs a photo-history blog at http://britishphotohistory.ning.com/ where news of the Kodak donation was first reported.  

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Management History Conference cfpThe University of YorkManagement History Research Group

CONFERENCEandCALL FOR PAPERS

hosted by The York Management School22-23 July 2009, Heslington Hall, University of York

Further information can be obtained fromProfessor Steve Toms at management-hod@york.ac.ukManagement History Research Group

ThemesWe welcome papers in any area of management and business history, in particular themes that encourage diversity and development of the discipline: management thought and theory, mainstream and radical, professionalisation of managers and management, financial management, managerial elites, rise and fall of ancient and modern, management in the public services, entrepreneurial history, women and management, financial intermediaries, corporate social responsibility and employee welfare, boards, governance and audit.

Fees and RegistrationThe conference fee will be £90 per person and £55 for PhD students. This includes one night’s accommodation and scheduled meals and refreshments, and dinner at Heslington Hall on the evening of 22 July. An extra night’s accommodation is available at a cost of £40. A welcome and registration desk will be open from 9:30am on Wednesday 22 July and the workshop will commence at 11am. The event will conclude on the afternoon of 23 July. Please see the booking form on the attached page. Abstracts, proposals for panels and other expressions of interest are welcome at this stage. The deadline date for abstract submissions is Thursday 30 April 2009.

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‘Sheer dead loss’?The Business of Health, Safety & Risk

a Centre for International Business History one-day symposium27 May 2009

This symposium will explore the political economy of health and safety as it relates to business history. It will examine notions of corporate social responsibility and the ways in which businesses and large organisations responded to the challenges of health and safety, in the workplace and beyond.

Registration for the symposium is free, though in order to make sure that we can accommodate all delegates, we would be grateful if you could let us know in advance if you are planning to attend – please contact Mike Esbester before 20 May 2009: (m.o.esbester@reading.ac.uk).

Venue: Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, Reading, RG1 5EX. Details from:www.reading.ac.uk/merl/merl-findus.asp

Programme:

09.30 Registration and coffee

10.00 Mike Esbester (Reading), Introduction10.10 Jo Melling (Exeter), ‘Beyond a shadow of a doubt: radiology, x-

rays and the assessment of silicosis risks in the UK, 1900-1950’11.00 Geoff Tweedale (Manchester Met), ‘When Science Meets Business:

Epidemiology, Asbestos, and the Assessment of Risk’

11.50 Coffee

12.10 Arthur McIvor (Strathclyde) & Ronnie Johnston (GlasgowCaledonian), ‘Negligent or enlightened management? Businessattitudes towards occupational health and safety in Scotland,c1930-1975’

1.00 Lunch

2.00 David Walters (Cardiff), ‘Workers’ voice and the “business” ofhealth and safety: some historical and current perspectives’

2.50 Mike Esbester (Reading), ‘“Sheer dead loss”? Safety education,from business origins to everyday phenomenon’

3.40-4.10 General discussion and close

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This symposium has benefited from the generous financial support of the Economic History Society’s Initiatives and Conferences Fund.

Annual Conference of the Association of Business

Historians 2009

‘Cities of Business, the Business of Cities’

University of Liverpool Management School

3 – 4 July 2009

Conference website now available at:

http://www.liv.ac.uk/ulms/abh/

Programme

Friday, 3 July 2009

9 am Onwards: Registration (ULMS Atrium)

11 am – 12.30: Welcome and Key Note Address (Seminar Room 5)

Chair: Andrew Popp (Liverpool)

Key Note Speaker: Professor John Walton (Lancaster), ‘New Directions in Business History:

Themes, Approaches and Opportunities’

12.30 – 1.30: Lunch (ULMS Cafeteria)

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1.30 – 3.00 Session 1

Session 1a: The National Business Archives Strategy (Seminar Room 5)

Chair: TBD

Speakers: Valerie Johnson (National Archives), Mike Anson (Bank of England) and John

Quail (York)

Session 1b: Institutions, Markets and Politics

Chair: TBD

Aashish Velkar (LSE), ‘Managing Product Quality: Exploring the Role of Institutions and

Commodity Grading in the Nineteenth-century’

Chih-Yun Chang (Independent Scholar), ‘When Money is Not Simply Money: The Politics of

Manufacturing Chinese Coins and Paper Currency, 1875–1912’

Niall MacKenzie (Glasgow), ‘Grand Gestures: The Political Economy of Government

Business Relations in Post-war Scotland, 1945–1992’

Session 1c: Industry Structures and Development

Chair: TBD

Soojeong Kang (LSE), ‘Managing Technology to Achieve Industrialization: The Korean

Nylon Producers in the 1950s and 1960s’

F. Javier Fernandez-Roca (Pable de Olavide), ‘Spanish Cotton Textile Companies in the first

Third of the Twentieth-century’

Ralph Banken and Ray Stokes (Glasgow), ‘Ending Monopoly: The Entry of Air Products into

British and Continental Markets for Industrial Gases, 1949–1990’

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Session 1d: Municipal Enterprise

Chair: TBD

Kevin Hey (Salford), ‘Municipal Transport: A Study in Business and Local Identity’

Alberte Martinez and Jesús Mirás Araujo (La Coruna), ‘The City as a Business: The Gas

Business in a Spanish Region, Galacia, 1850–1936’

Peter Shapely (University of Wales, Bangor), ‘The Entrepreneurial City: Local Government

and Historical Strategies to the Inner City’

3.00 – 3.30: Coffee (ULMS Cafeteria)

3.30 – 5.00 Session 2

Session 2a: Liverpool and its Merchant Networks

Chair: TBD

Sheryllynne Haggerty (Nottingham), ‘Merchant Networks in Liverpool, 1750 – 1810:

Efficiency, Power and Control’

Katie McDade (Nottingham), ‘Slave Merchant Networks in Bristol and Liverpool’

Tony Webster and Nick White (Liverpool John Moores), ‘Liverpool’s Asian Business

Networks, 1880s – 1970s’

Session 2b: Beatles, Boots and Boats: City Clusters and the Business of Entertainment

Chair: Peter Lyth (Nottingham)

Richard Coopey (LSE), ‘La, La, La, La, La, La, Liverpool: Enterprise, Culture and the City in

the British Pop Industry During the 1960s’

Dilwyn Porter (de Montfort), ‘Football Businesses in Soccer City: London, c. 1890–1910’

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Mike Anson (Bank of England), ‘On the Waterfront: Canals and Urban Regeneration’

Session 2c: Cities in Competition: The Geographic Dimensions of American

Industrialization, Capital Flight and Boosterism

Chair: Sven Beckert (Harvard)

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer (UC Santa Barbara), ‘Archetypal and Atypical: Phoenix’s Place

within the Sunbelt South and West’

Tami J Friedman (Brock), ‘Capital Migration and Local Control: Industrial Development in

Greenville, Mississippi and Yonkers, New York’

Michael Best (UMass, Lowell), ‘Business Evolution and Technology Policy in Post-war

America: A Tale of Two Cities’

Session 2d: The Evolution of Modern Pharmaceuticals Marketing

Chair: Roy Church (UEA)

Paul Duguid (UC Berkeley) and Teresa da Silva Lopes (York), ‘Trademarks in Medicines:

Property Rights and Branding in the US, France, and UK’

Judy Slinn (Oxford Brookes), ‘From Trademarks to Patents: The Corsetry of the Blockbuster

Model’

Andrew Godley (Reading), ‘Investing in Physicians: The Emergence of the Professional

Representative in the US and Pharmaceuticals’ Industry Structure’

5.00 – 6.00 Coleman Prize Session (Seminar Room 5)

Chair: Valerie Johnson (National Archives)

7.00: Reception and Conference Dinner (OSQA Restaurant, Oldham St, Liverpool)

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Saturday, 4 July 2009

9.00 – 10.30: Session 3

Session 3a: Geographies of Making, Distributing and Selling

Chair: TBD

Francesca Carnevali (Birmingham) and Lucy Newton (Reading), ‘Made in England: The

Manufacturing and Marketing of English Household Goods, 1851–1914’

Andrew Popp (Liverpool), ‘Travels and Observations: A Nineteenth-century Commercial

Salesman Encounters the North’

Jon Stobart (Northampton), ‘Geographies of Selling: The Grocery Trades in Georgian

Provincial Towns’

Session 3b: The Challenges of Urbanization

Chair: TBD

Stephen Sambrook and Roman Koester (Glasgow), ‘Engineering a Solution to Urban

Consumption: Dustbin Design and the Political Economy of Waste Management in Britain

and West Germany, 1945–1975’

Paul Leaver (Local Authority Archivist), ‘An Offensive Business: The Hide, Skin and Fat

Industry in the Urban Environment in the Nineteenth and Twentieth-centuries’

Peter Scott and James Walker (Reading), ‘The Market for Working-Class Household Power

in Late-1930s Britain’

45

Session 3c: Creative Cities

Chair: TBD

Stefan Schwarzkopf (QMUL), ‘Advertising Agencies and the Making of London as a

Creative City, 1890–1990’

Rosa Reicher (Trinity College, Dublin), ‘Urban Business and Cultural Industries in the

Context of Holocaust Commemoration in Britain’

Caroline Donnellan (LSE), ‘Establishing Tate Modern: Vision and Patronage’

Session 3d: The Business of Empire

Chair: Tony Webster (LJMU)

Julio Moreno (UC San Francisco), ‘Revisiting US Imperialism and Globalization After the

Cultural Turn: Government, Business and Coca-Cola in Latin America’

Mark Casson and Ken Dark (Reading) and Mohamed Azzim Gulamhussen (ISCTE, Lisbon),

‘Business History and Imperialism’

David de Vries (Tel Aviv), ‘Urban Business in War: The Diamond Industry’

10.30 – 11.00: Coffee (ULMS Cafeteria)

11.00 – 12.30: Session 4

Session 4a: Commerce, Culture and Trading Networks in Nineteenth-century Liverpool

Chair: Nick White (LJMU)

Randolph Cock (IHR) and John Davies, ‘The Liverpool Merchant Community: A

Reconstruction’

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Adrian Jarvis (Liverpool), ‘Perceptions of the Nineteenth-century Liverpool Merchant’

Robert Lee (Liverpool), ‘Suburbanization and the Fragmentation of Business Culture’

Session 4b: Weetman Pearson

Chair: Rory Miller (Liverpool)

Paul Garner (Leeds), ‘Weetman Pearson in Historiographical Perspective: British Informal

Empire, Gentlemanly Capitalism and State and Nation Building in Latin America and

Mexico’

Lisa Bud Frierman, Andrew Godley (Reading) and Judith Wale (Reading), ‘Weetman

Pearson in Mexico and the Emergence of a British Oil Major, 1901–1919’

Judith Wale (Reading), ‘Weetman Pearson Companies as British Investors in Oil Production:

The Performance of the Whitehall Petroleum Company, c. 1919–1936’

Session 4c: Local Elites and Regional Development

Chair: TBD

Eleonora Rohland (Essen), ‘Fire, Networks, and Lobby Groups: Swiss Re and the

Conflagration of Sundsvall, 1888’

John Wilson (Liverpool), Mitch Larson and Karen Ward (UCLAN), ‘Savings Banks and

Regional Economic Development: The Case of the Yorkshire Bank, 1859–1952’

Toshihiko Iwama (Birmingham), ‘Businessmen, Politics and Public Institutions in Northern

English Towns: Economic, Political and Social Relations in Halifax, c. 1830–1850’

Session 4d: Patronage and Philanthropy in Paris and London

Chair: TBD

47

Céline Leglaive-Perani (RHUL), ‘The Topography of Charities in late Nineteenth-century

Paris’

Margrit Schulte Beerbühl (Dusseldorf), ‘German Immigrant Merchants and Philanthropists in

Eighteenth-century London’

Klaus Weber (Rothschild Archives), ‘Patterns of Financing Large Scale Philanthropies:

London and Paris Compared’

Session 4e: Corporate Governance: Actors, Firms and Relationships

Chair: TBD

Owen Covick (Flinders), ‘R.W. Perks: From “Son of the Manse” to “Man of the City”’

Janette Rutterford (OU), ‘Corporate Governance: The Relationship between Management and

Small Shareholders in the UK and US, 1870–1975’

T.A.B. Corley (Reading), ‘A Lancashire Firm Makes Good: Governance and Accountability

in Beecham, 1928–2000’

12.30 – 1.30: Lunch (ULMS Cafeteria)

1.30 – 3.00: Session 5

Session 5a: Liverpool and the Atlantic

Chair: TBD

Simon Hill (Liverpool John Moores), ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism, Liverpool Merchants and the

American Revolution, c.1763–1783’

Mina Ishizu (Manchester), ‘Commercial Finance During the Industrial Revolution: A Study

of Local, National, and International Credit, 1800–1837’

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John Killick (Leeds), ‘The State and Animal Spirits: The Cope Line and the Passenger Acts,

1820–1870’

Session 5b: Making/Representing Place

Chair: Andrew Popp (Liverpool)

Susanna Fellman (Helsinki), ‘Company Managers Creating Modernity in Finish Industrial

Cities and Company Towns, 1920s–1960s’

Gary Warnaby (Liverpool), ‘A Town Over Time: Place Representation in Official Guides’

Micheal Heller (QMUL), ‘Ilford and the Marketing of a Suburb: A Multi-stakeholder and

Sustainable Approach’

Session 5c: Financial Services, Employment, Automation and North-west England

Chair: TBD

Ian Martin (OU), ‘The Computer and the Clerk: Martins Bank, Liverpool and London’

Mark Billings (Nottingham) and Alan Booth (Exeter), ‘National Giro: Taking Jobs to

Merseyside in the Late 1960s’

Bernardo Batiz-Lazo (Leicester), ‘From Cash Dispensers to ATMs: Pioneering On-line

Financial Services at the TSB’

Session 5d: British Business Overseas

Chair: TBD

Rory Miller (Liverpool), ‘Staffing and Management in British Firms in Argentina and Chile:

The Period of Transition, 1930–1970’

Kevin Tennent (LSE), ‘Management and the Free-Standing Company: The New Zealand and

Australia Land Company, c. 1866–1900’

49

Stephanie Decker (Liverpool), ‘Kaisers, Nkrumah and the Cold War: Building an Integrated

Aluminium Industry in Newly Independent Ghana, 1959–1966’

3.30 – 4.00: Coffee (ULMS Cafeteria)

4.00 – 5.30: Session 6

Session 6a: International Business

Chair: TBD

Peter Miskell (Reading), ‘Exploring the Global Dominance of US Multinationals in Feature

Film Distribution: The Role of Foreign Distribution Subsidiaries’

Mary Quek (Hertfordshire), ‘Hilton Hotel International’s International Expansion in the

1940s’

Malcolm Pearse (Macquarie), ‘A History of Management in Australia’

Session 6b: The Arms Industry

Chair: TBD

Philip Ollerenshaw (UWE), ‘Rearmament and Wartime Business in an Industrial City:

Belfast, 1935–1945’

Stefanie van de Kerkhof (Bochum), ‘Local and National Security in the Cold War:

Transnational Images of European Weapon Porducers’

Session 6c: The City

Chair: TBD

50

David Boughey (UWE), ‘Running the Railway Empire: The City, Westminster and Nexus of

Contracts’

Ranald Michie (Durham) and S.M. Mollan (York St Johns), ‘Networks and Clusters: The City

of London as a Global Financial Centre Since 1870’

Neil Barton (IHR), ‘Linking the Financial Centres in the 1840s’

Session 6d: Industrial Welfare

Chair: TBD

Matthias Beck, Steve Toms and Robert Greenhalgh (York), ‘Welfare Capitalism and

Privatization in 1930s Germany: An Extended Response to Germa Bel’

David Higgins (York), ‘and Geoffrey Tweedale (Manchester Metropolitan), ‘The Hazards of

Working in the Lancashire Cotton Spinning Industry: The Case of Mule Spinner’s Cancer’

Janet Greenless (Glasgow Caledonian), ‘The City, Technological Change and Health

Inequalities in the Progressive Era New England Textile Industry’

Conference Ends

51

Annual Conference of the Association of Business Historians, 2009

University of Liverpool Management School

3 – 4 July, 2009

Registration Form

Full Conference Registration (both days plus conference dinner) ............ (£90)Single Day Registration (plus dinner) ............ (£60)(Please indicate which day you will be attending ...............)Single Day Registration ............ (£30)(Please indicate which day you will be attending ...............)Additional Dinner Quest ............ (£30)

Total (£) ..............

Please indicate any special dietary requirements ........................................

Payment is by invoice or credit card only. PLEASE NOTE, WE ARE UNABLE TO ACCEPT CHEQUES.To pay by either credit card or invoice, please contact Melanie Thomas on melt@liv.ac.uk or +44 (0) 151 7953511

An informal pre-conference dinner will be held at the Tea House Cafe (Chinese food) on Bold Street, Liverpool, on the evening of Thursday 2 July, 2009. All are welcome to join us from 7 pm onwards, but please be aware this meal is not included in the registration fee and that diners are responsible for their own costs.

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The Association of Business Historians’ Tony Slaven Grant

The Association of Business Historians is pleased to announce the inauguration of the Tony Slaven Grant. The aim of the Grant, named in honour of Tony Slaven, Emeritus Professor of Business History at the University of Glasgow, is to further the future growth and development of the discipline of business history by supporting emerging scholars to attend and present their work at the Association’s annual conference. Each year a maximum of four awards will be made, each worth £150. The awards are designed to help emerging scholars meet the travel, accommodation, and registration costs of attending the conference. The awards will be competitive and will be decided by the local organizing committee of that year’s annual conference. A call will be issued annually at the time of the announcement of the call for papers for the conference. The decision will be taken on the basis of an extended abstract (maximum length of 2 A4 sides of single-spaced typed text). When submitting their work for consideration for inclusion in the conference programme candidates should indicate that they also wish to be considered for the Tony Slaven Grant.

The recipients of the Tony Slaven Grant 2009 will be announced shortly

Criteria for eligibility Candidates must be registered in a programme of postgraduate study at the time of the

annual conference for which they wish to be considered The award is open to candidates registered at both UK and international institutions Candidates who have not previously presented at an ABH conference will be given priority in

the awarding of grants.

Criteria for award Originality of contribution to the growth and development of the discipline in terms of

thematic or theoretical advancement Originality in the identification and use of empirical sources Originality and clarity of arguments and frameworks as presented in the extended

abstract

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