Time and venue: University of Reading, March 19-20 (Conference) and 21-25 (Summer School), 2010

For a downloadable PDF document with further information, please go to: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/130333.html

The Henley Business School at the University of Reading and the Institute for Economic and Social History at the Georg August University of Göttingen will hold an academic conference and a summer school for graduate students and PhD candidates of economic history and business history at the University of Reading in March 2010. During the combined conference and summer school, scholars and students will explore the concept of entrepreneurship applied to historical examples in an international context. Topics include, for instance, the performance of multinationals in foreign markets, immigrant entrepreneurship, international family firms, and the institutional framework in which entrepreneurial decisions were made. The conference will take place from Friday to Saturday, the 19 and 20 of March 2010, and the summer school will follow from Monday to Thursday, the 21 to 25 of March 2010. The summer school can be acknowledged as a course worth 6 ECTS.
The conference and summer school are complementary events. Whereas the conference is aimed primarily at researchers, their contributions serve, at the same time, as input for the summer school sessions. For students and PhD candidates who wish to participate in the summer school, attendance of the conference therefore is mandatory. The summer school will use the input of the conference proceedings to highlight current research in business history and elaborate on methodological questions. Summer school attendants will have the opportunity to discuss the presentations of some conference contributors who will also teach summer school sessions.
Applications for the summer school should be directed to the contact below. In order to participate, applicants have to 1) write a short (!) letter stating their motivation, with their study programme attached, and 2) compose an essay of about 1500-2000 words related to the summer school topic (e.g., on international business strategies, on cultural barriers for market entry, on the ethical aspects of international enterprise, on a case study of transnational entrepreneurship, etc). Participants will be chosen on the basis of their essay’s relevance and quality. Participants are asked to hold a brief presentation of their papers during the seminar sessions. Further information is available from the contact below. Electronic documents (PDF format) are welcome! The deadline for applications is 31 January 2010.
The German Historical Institute (GHI) in Washington, DC, will fund up to four travel grants for summer school participants from the USA. Eligible US-based candidates are asked to indicate that they don't receive any support from their own university and that they want to apply for the GHI travel grant in their letter of application to the contact given below. There is no tuition fee, but we ask for a lump sum contribution of about 100 EUR to the costs for food, coffee, and materials provided. The organizers have reserved rooms at the University of Reading where participants can stay at reasonable rates.

Contact:
Dr. des. Mark Jakob M. A.
Georg August-Universität, Institut für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte
Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5
D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
Tel.: +49-(0)551-39-12434
Fax: +49-(0)551-39-12433
Email: mark.jakob[ad]wiwi.uni-goettingen.de

Conference Programme

Friday, 19 March 2010

12:00-13:00 lunch

13:00 - 14:00 Welcome address
Mary Rose (Lancaster): How has the Agenda Changed? Global Entrepreneurship in Business History since 2000

14:00-15:30 Session 1: Family Firms
Christina Lubinski (GHI, Washington, DC): Going Global.
Internationalization Strategies and Corporate Governance Changes in German Family Firms (ca. 1960-2005)
Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj (Reading): Asian Family Firms in Britain, Kenya and the USA since the 1970s

15:30-16:00 Tea break

16:00-17:30 Session 2: New Theoretical Approaches in Global Entrepreneurship
Alexander Engel (Göttingen): Futures and the Risk Management of Global Entrepreneurs
Andrew Godley (Reading): Entrepreneurship, Implicit Contracts, Information Asymmetries, and the Emergence of Marketing Capabilities: The Case of US Pharmaceuticals c. 1930 to 1970

Saturday, 20 March 2010

9:00-11:00 Session 3: Re-evaluating the significance of Intellectual Property (IP)
Carsten Burhop (Bonn): The Transfer of Patents in Imperial Germany
Michael C. Schneider (Frankfurt a. M.): Between two Worlds: Scientists, Patents, and Academia
Anna Spadavecchia and John Cantwell (Rutgers and Reading): Patents and Regional Entrepreneurship in Britain

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

11:30-13:00 Session 4: Historic Patterns of Inward Direct Investment and Its Impact on Indigenous Entrepreneurs
Andrea Colli (Bocconi, Milan): (confirmed, title to be announced)
Nuira Puig (Barcelona): (to be confirmed)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Session 5: Food and Tobacco
Howard Cox - Chair and comment
Mark Jakob (Göttingen): The German Tobacco Industry in the 19th Century
Kurt Pedersen and Jesper Strandskov (Aalborg University, Denmark): The Evolution of the Danish Slaughterhouse Industry

15:30-16:00 Tea Break

16:00-17:00 Overview and discussion
Marc Casson/Mary Rose: Summary and Comment

Summer School Session Overview

Monday, 21 March 2010
Entrepreneurship and the impact of globalization, 1840-2000 (Hesse/Jakob)
Theories of international business (Hesse/Jakob)
International institutions and multinational business (Hesse/Jakob)

Tuesday, 22 March 2010
International and indigenous entrepreneurship (Godley)
Immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship (Godley)
Student case studies: Regional aspects (NN)
Knowledge, Science, and Patents in International Business (Schneider)

Wednesday, 22 March 2010
Cultural barriers to market entry (Jakob)
Case studies: tobacco and chemicals (Jakob/Schneider)
Student case studies: Enterprises (Jakob)
FDI: Theory/Case Studies (NN)

Thursday, 23 March 2010
Global finance and international entrepreneurship (NN)
Peculiarities of Marketing, Organization, and Culture in international business? (NN)
The ethical aspects of global entrepreneurship (Hesse)
Final discussion: lessons learned and further study (All)