14th Annual Conference of the European Business History Association 2010

The Centre for Business History in Scotland and the University of Glasgow invite you to the 14th Annual Conference of the European Business History Association, which will be held in various committee rooms at the University of Glasgow, 26-28th August 2010 (http://www.gla.ac.uk/ebha2010). The theme for the conference will be "Business Beyond the Firm".

Please note the deadline for submission of Proposals is 31 January 2010.
Proposals must be submitted to ebha2010proposals@lbss.gla.ac.uk.

The 5th EBHA Doctoral Summer School will take place from August 31st to September 6th in Umbria, Italy.

ABOUT EBHA

The EBHA was established at the end of 1994 as the professional body for individuals interested in the development of business and management in Europe from the earliest time to the present day.
The Association aims to promote research, teaching and general awareness of all aspects of European business and management history.
It intends to create a network of information and to encourage collaboration through shared and comparative projects and scholarships as well as the exchange of graduate students.


The History of EBHA

The discussions to establish a European Business History Association followed in the wake of the successful foundation of the Association of Business Historians in Britain . Informal talks between Hans Pohl (Bonn), Geoff Jones (Reading), and Tony Slaven (Glasgow) resulted in an invited meeting of representatives from a number of European countries in October 1993. This meeting was hosted and chaired by Tony Slaven at the Centre for Business History in Glasgow. The participants were not representative in any objective sense, but were those known to the organisers. They were Rolv Peter Amdam (Norway), Michael Bibikov (Russia), Per Boje (Denmark), Hans Pohl (Germany), Keetie Sluyterman (Netherlands), Mary Rose, Geoff Jones and Tony Slaven (UK). Peter Matthias, Francois Crouzet and Michel Lescure were unable to attend. That meeting reviewed models for an EBHA, objectives, and necessary steps to shape and establish a new association. Subsequent meetings chaired by Tony Slaven followed rapidly in Bonn in February 1994 and in Rotterdam in June 1994. By this time the initial group had been joined by Francois Crouzet (France), Ulf Olsson (Sweden), and Evan Lange (Norway). The meeting in Rotterdam at Erasmus University in June 1994 established the first draft of objectives, the conditions of membership, the structure to be adopted for office bearers and members of council, and election procedures. The Erasmus meeting also decided that it was necessary to take the proposals to a wider forum to gain support for the creation of a European Business History Association; it was also decided to establish a steering committee to plan a first conference.

The Business History Conference held at Erasmus University in October 1994 was taken as the opportunity to present the proposals to a large representative group of business historians drawn from many European countries. Tony Slaven acted as spokesman for the steering group and presented proposals to a general meeting at the Erasmus conference. The conference gave its support to the proposals and to the existing planning group to act as a steering committee to bring the European Business History Association into being. The first newsletter was planned for October 1995 and an inaugural conference was planned for August/September 1996. The working group was established as an interim council of the proposed EBHA for a period of two years from October 1995. Further planning meetings of the interim council took place in the University of Reading in March 1995 and Matthias Kipping was adopted as the first editor of the EBHA Newsletter. At that meeting in Reading it was agreed to hold the inaugural conference in August 1996 to be hosted by Ulf Olsson in the University of Gothenburg. A subsequent meeting in London in July 1996 was held to discuss potential collaboration with Manfred Pohl representing the new established Centre for European Business History based in Frankfurt. At that time, however, it was agreed to develop the interests of the new groups independently.

The inaugural conference in Gothenburg in August 1996 attracted over 230 participants by which time the initial paid up membership of the new EBHA was 214 members. First nominations and elections for council added Franco Amatori , Albert Carreras, Wilfried Feldenkirchen, Ritta Hjerppe, and Matthias Kipping to the first formally elected council. Tony Slaven was adopted as first President of EBHA with Geoff Jones as the first Secretary/Treasurer. In 1995/6 the initial intention of the Council had been to hold a conference every two years, but in 1998 it was decided to hold an annual conference beginning with that held at Terni. Since then we have met annually and successively in Rotterdam, Bordeaux, Oslo, Helsinki, Lowell, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Geneva. In 2008 we will visit Bergen, and in 2009, our thirteenth conference will be held in Milan. From small beginnings in 1993 we have over 300 members in 2007 drawn from 24 different countries and EBHA has been a remarkably successful association greatly strengthening the status and significance of business history world wide.


EBHA PRESIDENTS

1994 & 1995 Tony Slaven, University of Glasgow, UK (interim)
1996 & 1997 Tony Slaven, University of Glasgow, UK
1998 & 1999 Geoff Jones, University of Reading, UK (now at Harvard Business School, USA)
2000 & 2001 Franco Amatori, Boconni University, Milan, Italy
2002 & 2003 Keetie Sluyterman, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
2004 & 2005 Mary Rose, Lancaster University, UK
2006 & 2007 Youssef Cassis, University of Geneva, Switzerland
2008 & 2009 Per Boje, Alborg University, Denmark