Business people routinely move from firm to firm, but they also frequently move into - or sometimes create - organisations located outside the world of private profit-seeking business, ones linked to politics, government, education, health care, philanthropy, religion, promotion of trade, and other pursuits. Movement in the opposite direction is also possible, not least owing to the fact that many of these other organisations share many of the core characteristics of the private firm, including close connection to the broader economy; undertaking manufacturing; providing services; and/or investing, selling, and employing (sometimes large numbers of) personnel. In other words, these organisations often carry out the functions and tasks associated with any business, as do most state-owned enterprises, although their main purpose is usually not to make a profit but to achieve other aims (generally while at the same time breaking even financially). As its main theme, this conference will explore the interrelationships between business practice, the firm, and the business entrepreneur on the one hand and the actors, organisations, and institutions of the broader social and political environment on the other.

Specific questions to be addressed in particular national, regional, local, and/or comparative contexts might include the following:

• What constitutes entrepreneurship and/or efficiency outside the context of the private profit-seeking firm?

• To what extent and how does pursuit of primary aims other than profit (e.g. promotion of trade, provision of health care to the poor, more equitable distribution of goods regardless of income, and so on) affect the nature and practices of organisations beyond the firm?

• To what extent must business people moving into other organisations change their ways of doing things, and vice versa?

• How have business people and their behaviour, attitudes, and demeanours affected the structures, strategies, and practices of other organisations?

• How have the interrelationships between business and other organisations affected the structures, strategies, and practices of the firm?

• What is the relationship between entrepreneurship and philanthropy?

• How do business leaders use non-profit-making activities outside the firm to advance their own entrepreneurial activity through sponsorship, charitable donations, and other measures to create good will?

• What impacts have charitable organisations created by business people or companies had on scientific, technological, and economic development - indeed on the development of business and entrepreneurship - in particular countries/regions?

• What are the organisational and other effects when business people become politicians or vice versa?

• What are the limits of the interchangeability between business practice and that required in the environment beyond the firm?

• Are some national or regional governance structures, business networks, and/or systems of innovation more conducive than others to fostering movement and mutual learning between business and organisations beyond the firm than others, and, if so, why?

• In what ways has the extent and/or quality of such movement and learning changed through time?

Proposals for papers and/or sessions related to the theme of the conference are especially welcome, although paper and/or session proposals not directly related to it will also be considered. For paper proposals, please submit a title and abstract of up to one A4 page along with a one-page CV to ebha2010proposals@lbss.gla.ac.uk.  Session proposals should include a brief abstract of the session along with a one-page abstract and a one-page CV for each participant. Deadline for all proposals is 19 February 2010.  Further details:  http://www.gla.ac.uk/ebha2010