CFP BHC/EBHA Conference Milan

Fashions: Business Practices in Historical Perspective

11-13 June 2009, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

Joint Meeting of the Business History Conference and the European Business
History Association

THEMES

Fashion, as a concept, refers to much more than the way we dress. For this joint meeting of the Business History Conference (BHC) and the European Business History Association (EBHA), we define fashion in two ways. First, we see fashion as a set of ideas and activities associated with business firms and institutions that persisted over time. A fashion was a durable but
often time-bound business practice or conceptual horizon in production, management, marketing, strategy, taste, style, politics, trade, or finance.
Fashion as a concept describing business firms and institutions directs our attention to trends, habits, and rules that delineated what was done and what was not to be done. We particularly encourage participants to look at the role of firms, associations, government, consultants, media, and other agents in spreading "fashionable" business styles. As well, we seek
presenters who explore fashions in entrepreneurial action, corporate organization and governance, in economics and business studies, and even in the writing of business history. For example, we would welcome papers that trace the flow of business history scholarship into cognate fields such as political science and sociology. Equally valuable would be presentations
describing popular ideas about what took place in earlier periods of business. We approach fashion in each of these arenas not as a passing fancy, but instead as a fundamental influence, a horizon of the possible in business that was (and perhaps remains) embedded in concrete practices delineated by discrete turning points that made the previous practice or set
of ideas "un-fashionable."
In keeping with the conference's location in Milan-one of Europe's great industrial and design centers-we encourage papers on the business of fashion itself. In this second way of understanding fashion, we refer to the creation of consumer goods whose appeals rested on values such as utility, practicality, design, aesthetics, style, and cultural symbolism. Whether in
Renaissance Florence, nineteenth century Europe, or post World War II America, those commodities and their meanings were part of a complex interplay between the parties who created, purchased, and used them. Furthermore, while fashion-industry entrepreneurs and companies have recently emerged as icons of globalization, those actors were also deeply rooted in local contexts and enmeshed in constellations of relationships that included designers, manufacturers, distributors, advertisers,
retailers, and consumers. Among many factors, we seek to understand how the local related to the global. Consistent with BHC and EBHA policy and long-time practice, the program committee also will be pleased to entertain submissions not directly related to the conference themes.
Potential presenters may submit proposals either for individual papers or for entire panels. Individual paper or poster proposals should include a one-page abstract and a one-page curriculum vitae (CV). The abstract should summarize the argument of the presentation, the sources on which it is based, and its relationship to existing scholarship. Each panel proposal should include a cover letter stating the rationale for the session, the name of the panel's contact person, a one-page abstract and author's CV for each proposed paper (up to four), and a list of preferred chairs and commentators with contact information.
The deadline for receipt of proposals is 29 September 2008. Please send all proposals to Dr. Roger Horowitz, Secretary-Treasurer, Business History Conference, P.O Box 3630, Wilmington, DE 19807, USA. Phone: (302) 658-2400; fax: (302) 655-3188; email: rh@udel.edu. Presenters will be expected to submit paper abstracts for posting directly to the conference website. In addition, presenters are encouraged to post electronic versions of their
papers prior to the meeting, and to submit their papers for inclusion in the BHC's on-line proceedings publication, Business and Economic History On-Line.
BHC and EBHA colloquia for Graduate students
The BHC's Fifth Dissertation Colloquium will be held in conjunction with the 2009 annual meeting. This intensive workshop, sponsored by the BHC and funded by its Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Fund, will take place at the conference venue Tuesday, 9 June, and Wednesday, 10 June. Participants will work closely with a small, distinguished group of BHC-affiliated scholars, including at least two of its officers. The assembled scholars and students will review dissertation proposals, consider relevant literatures and research strategies, and discuss the business history profession. Limited to ten students, it is intended for doctoral candidates in the early stages of their dissertation projects. Those interested in participating should submit to Roger Horowitz, BHC Secretary-Treasurer (rh@udel.edu), a statement of interest, a preliminary or final dissertation prospectus, and a CV. Please make clear that you are interested in the Dissertation Colloquium. One
recommendation from the dissertation supervisor (or prospective supervisor) should also be faxed (302-655-3188) or emailed to Roger Horowitz by 15 December 2008. The review committee will notify all applicants of its decisions after 15 February. Each student participant will receive an honorarium to assist with travel expenses.
The EBHA's Fifth Biannual Summer School in Business History will be held in Italy in September 2009. Those interested in participating in this residential, one-week course should write to the school's organizer, Francesca Polese (francesca.polese@unibocconi.it). The official call for applications will be issued at the end of 2008, and the application deadline is 15 May 2009. Summer school organizers will pay all local costs (accommodation and food), but participants will be expected to pay their travel expenses.
BHC and EBHA Prizes
Proposals are invited for the BHC's Herman E. Krooss Prize, which is awarded for the best dissertation in business history in the English language. The Krooss Prize Committee welcomes submissions from recent Ph.D.s (2006-2008) in history, economics, business administration, history of science and technology, law, and related fields. To participate in this competition, please indicate so in a cover letter, and include a one-page CV and one-page dissertation abstract. Semi-finalists will be asked to submit copies of their dissertation. Finalists will present summaries of their dissertations
at the Milan meeting. The BHC also awards the K. Austin Kerr Prize for the best first paper by a Ph.D. candidate or recent Ph.D. (2006-08). If you wish to participate in this competition at the Milan meeting, please indicate so in your cover letter. Proposals accepted for the Krooss Prize panel are not eligible for the Kerr Prize. Members and non-members are
eligible for these prizes.
The EBHA Dissertation Competition takes place every second year. The next are scheduled for the EBHA's annual meeting in in Glasgow in 2010. EBHA will offer a prize for the Best Paper on European business history.

Grants for travel to the Milan meeting
In addition to travel grants to participate in the graduate student colloquium, the BHC also offers grants to graduate students who are presenting papers to offset some of the costs of attending the conference. Applicants for a BHC travel grant should so indicate in their cover letter. The EBHA offers travel grants for scholars residing in Eastern Europe who are presenting papers at the conference. Applicants seeking these grants should so indicate in their cover letter.
Poster session
We encourage presentations at our poster session. Poster sessions are especially appropriate and engaging for scholars at work on a new project, for graduate students developing a thesis, for scholars at every level whose work emphasizes audio/visual materials, and for persons who simply wish to talk with colleagues at greater length than provided in the usual format of a 90 minute session. Applicants for the poster session should so indicate in a cover letter.

Program committee
Francesca Polese (Chair), Bocconi University: Regina Lee Blaszczyk (Co-chair), University of Pennsylvania & Hagley Museum and Library; Franco Amatori, Bocconi University; Per Boje (EBHA President, 2008-2009), University of Southern Denmark; Albert Carreras, Universitat Pompeu Fabra; Jeff Fear, University of Redlands; Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor, University of California, Davis; Elisabetta Merlo, Bocconi University; Mark Rose (BHC President, 2008-2009), Florida Atlantic University.

Long Range Planning: The Crafts of Strategy - 41/3 June 08

This Special Issue by Richard Whittington and Ludovic Cailluet (Guest Editors) will include the following articles:

William Ocasio and John Joseph
Rise and Fall, or Transformation? The Evolution of Strategic Planning at the General Electric Company, 1940-2006

Joaquim Vilà and J. Ignacio Canales
Can Strategic Planning Make Strategy More Relevant and Build Commitment Over Time? The Case of RACC


Martin Giraudeau
The Drafts of Strategy: Opening Up Plans and Their Uses

Loizos Heracleous and Claus Jacobs
Crafting Strategy: The Role of Embodied Metaphors


Mattias Nordqvist and Leif Melin
Strategic Planning Champions: Social Craftspersons, Artful Interpreters and Known Strangers

Brian King
Strategizing at Leading Venture Capital Firms: Of Planning, Opportunism and Deliberate Emergence

This issue is currently in press. Scheduled date for publication is June 2008.

Appel à contribution Entreprises et Histoire

Appel à contribution
Numéro thématique de la revue Entreprises et Histoire
sur le thème
« Les lieux de la concurrence »
sous la direction de Sébastien Liarte avec la collaboration de Ludovic Cailluet
Les chercheurs et universitaires, historiens, gestionnaires, juristes, économistes et plus largement ceux appartenant à toutes les disciplines des sciences humaines et sociales sont invités à proposer des articles complets en français ou en anglais (40 000 signes maximum) sur ce thème.
Présentation du thème
La dynamique concurrentielle implique une rencontre plus ou moins régulière des organisations concurrentes sur des couples produits/marchés. Si le couple produit/marché est un lieu traditionnel de la concurrence, il n’est pas le seul. En effet, la concurrence entre organisations peut se dérouler sur d’autres lieux, plus ou moins reliés à une dimension spatiale. Les thèmes suivants, en tant que lieu de la concurrence, pourront donc être abordés :
- L’espace géographique (critères de choix, géomarketing, etc.)
- L’espace commercial (centres commerciaux, géomerchandising, etc.)
- L’international
- Les marchés de ressources (matières premières, financières, humaines, etc.)
- Les Field Configuring Events et autres lieux spécifiques (salons, foires, etc.)
- Les réseaux
- Les moyens de diffusion de l’information et de la connaissance (Internet, média traditionnels,
revues scientifiques, etc.)
- Les lieux du pouvoir (instances européennes, Organisation Mondiale du Commerce, etc.)
De plus, ces lieux peuvent évoluer et changer en fonction des époques, des secteurs d’activités et des caractéristiques des entreprises. Leur rôle et leur place dans l’activité économique peuvent également être plus ou moins importants selon leur niveau d’institutionnalisation. Les recherches s’intéressant à ces sujets entrent également dans le thème de cet appel à contribution.
La liste des thèmes n’est pas exhaustive. Toutes les soumissions en rapport avec le thème général sont bien évidemment considérées. Néanmoins, les contributions intégrant une dimension historique seront privilégiées.
Dates à retenir
- 6 juin 2008 : date limite de soumission des articles comportant deux résumés
(français/anglais) de 200 mots au maximum et l’article complet. La première page doit indiquer le nom de ou des auteur(s) ainsi que les adresses de correspondance postale et électronique. Les articles sont à soumettre par voie électronique à l’adresse suivante : sebastien.liarte@univ-tlse1.fr
- 15 septembre 2008 : notification aux auteurs de la décision du comité éditorial
- 15 octobre 2008 : date limite du renvoi de la version définitive des articles retenus
- Parution fin 2008
Contact
Sébastien Liarte
IAE Toulouse
2 rue du Doyen Gabriel Marty
31042 Toulouse Cedex
sebastien.liarte@univ-tlse1.fr

Michael Porter about the Five Forces

Michael Porter speaking about the Five Forces . More at http://hbsp.ed10.net/h/LROHO/BXPKG/YT/B6CUS

Black tissues (courtesy of MCL)

Why are tissues always white? No reason. In fact, they can be black, which is apparently this winter's trendy color. Daishowa First Corp's boxes of black tissues are available at Beaux-Art shops all over Japan.
Daishowa First Corp
500 yen
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/product/1328

Witness seminars

un excellent exemple d'utilisation des archives orales par un centre de l'Université de Londres.
http://www.icbh.ac.uk/icbh/witness/past.html
J'ai lu le dossier sur le Concorde l'inscription est gratuite et très rapide.

CFP : The Conquest of the Air: Birth of a New Imaginary Vision? 1900-1920

(from H-Net)
The Conquest of the Air: Birth of a New Imaginary Vision? 1900-1920 Université du Maine (Le Mans, France)
November 27-28, 2008
International Conference organized to commemorate the centennial of Wilbur Wright’s flights in Le Mans (1908).

Open to all scholars interested in historical and cultural issues related to the birth of aviation and its pioneers in the period 1900-1920.
Concerned fields: History, Cultural Studies, Art History, Literary Studies, Philosophy.

Description of the project:
At the beginning of the 20th century, the birth of aviation deeply transformed human societies. Beyond its groundbreaking effects in technology, history and politics, to what extent did the mastery of flight transform perceptions of reality, space and human relationships for both political and military elites, but also for the common people? To what degree did the conquest of the air establish a new way of thinking about society, and even the role and place of human beings in the world? The conference intends to promote new approaches on these new visions and perceptions during the period 1900-1920. The modern imaginary is a source of investigation, permitting us to better define the difficult and often-debased notion of “modernity” while attempting to give an anthropological definition of a historical phenomenon inscribed in a specific context.

Four scholarly themes will be approached in four half-day thematic sessions:

Theme 1: Are the 1908 flights an event?
How did aviation shift from sport and the hobby of amateurs to a major technical phenomenon with political, historical and even philosophical implications?
How did aircraft manufacturers from Le Mans, Pau, Rome and Berlin manage to gather their technical knowledge?
We will look also at how the information was diffused, the way in which elites and the general public were informed about this event and the possibilities it opened.

Theme 2: Another way to perceive reality
Of course, flying is not new in 1908-1910. However, with the development of the plane another dimension appears. Besides the height acquired with the hot air balloon, there is also the factor of speed and the possibility of seeing the world upside down (with the advent of acrobatics during the war of 1914-1918).
Avant-garde painters and writers, photographers and the filmmakers immediately adopted this new vision given through air travel or aerial photography.
Thus, it can be fascinating to study this new vision, “seen from the top”. How did European and American artists take part in the changing perception of reality? We can also wonder at the spread of this perception of the earth seen from the sky. What were the different stages of this diffusion in the media? How fast was it done, in relation to social levels and access to information and culture? What imaginary vision did it trigger in the population?
Theme 3: New impressions of the sky
At the beginning of the 20th century, aviation raises the issue of the relationship between modernity and religion, such as the religious rituals set up during the first aerial meetings and the religious discourse about how men and nations had captured the sky. Furthermore, did philosophical reflection or scientific discourse change in response to the conquest of the air? In a more directly relevant manner, in that period the sky became the site of a new threat: new fears concerning the sky arose with the emergence of a new military risk, especially with the use of aircraft by the armies between 1910 and 1918. How do governments and political and military leaders perceived? How does it fit the political or strategic thinking?

Theme 4: The pilot, a heroic figure of modernity?
Finally, another way of approaching the conquest of the air is to look at the key figures involved. The study of the figure of the pilot and his interactions with emerging public opinion may enhance this approach to modernity. From the forerunners to the of World War I, it is an imaginary inhabited by heroes who have mastered technology. Did the development of different air shows play a role in the setting up of this imaginary hero? Is there a link between the pioneers' representations and the aces of WWI?

Please submit a temporary title of your paper, a 20-line abstract and a short curriculum vitae to Francoise.Lucbert@univ-lemans.fr and Stephane.Tison@univ-lemans.fr, before Febuary 15, 2008. The presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. A priority will be given to scholars able to give their paper in French. Papers will published later on if they do not exceed 30 000 characters (notes and spaces included).

Dr. Françoise Lucbert
Université du Maine, Faculté des Lettres
Avenue Olivier Messiaen
72085 LE MANS cedex 9
Phone: 33 2 43 83 31 66
Fax: 33 2 43 83 36 50
Email: francoise.lucbert@univ-lemans.fr