ABSTRACT

Indeed, business history has made enormous strides in the last twenty-ve years, with vibrant professional associations operating across several Continents, all of which converged on Bergen for the inaugural World Business History Conference in August 2016. Similarly, the journals closely linked to business history continue to ourish, increasing both the number of issues published each year and their readership, especially in other disciplines. One of the most signicant benets arising from this process of evolution has been a signicant switch in emphasis away from the study of single rms into a much richer study of business systems and the context in which they evolved over much longer time periods. Journal editors have played an instrumental role in fashioning these changes, while the increasing move of business historians into business schools has prompted a reevaluation of methodologies and perspectives in order to link much more closely to the social sciences.