Perspectives articles for Business History

Introduction

Business history is heterogeneous and diverse in topics and methodologies. The cornerstone of most business historical research is in-depth description and analysis of firms, associations, industries and institutions, typically approached through the use of primary archival sources. Each and every study adds to the body of knowledge in business history, and also to related fields such as general history, business studies, economics and political sciences.

Because many books and articles in business history are rich in the use of primary sources and pay attention to diverse elements in the cases they examine, less emphasis is often placed on the similarities and differences with other research. While in related disciplines the contributions to existing works are spelled out elaborately, business history studies are typically less well-embedded in the literature. Consequently, business historians conduct research that can benefit from further dissemination both within and outside the specialism. In several related fields, so-called ‘review’ or ‘survey’ articles serve the purpose of providing a synthesis of a body of research. In the management literature, these studies are referred to as ‘reviews’¹ or ‘meta-analyses’². In economics, the Journal of Economic Surveys is dedicated to publishing articles surveying the literature with a specific perspective. The Oxford Handbook of Business History, published in 2008,³ demonstrates that both for business historians and scholars in related fields, studies with overviews of the literature can be very relevant to developing new perspectives.

The editors of Business History believe that there is a growing need for synthesis in this expanding field, which is increasingly interacting with other disciplines and research domains. We are pleased to announce that the journal will start publishing perspectives articles, which aim to provide a synthesis of a topic or an area based on insights from business historical publications. In this editorial, we will lay out the ground rules for these papers.

What constitutes a good perspectives article?

A good perspectives article is providing both an extensive overview of research on a topic through the business historical lens, as well as identifying new ideas and research questions that arise from the synthesis of the literature. We will only consider articles that make a clear contribution pointing towards future directions of research for business historians arising from their summary of the works covered; we look for more than simply an overview of the historiography. Similarly, we will only accept conceptual papers as perspectives articles when they are based on a thorough literature review of business historical research. The ideal perspectives article bridges past and future work on a topic, serving both as an overview of the state-of-the-art research and as guidance for future work: a fresh perspective on past, present and future research. Perspectives in Business History should help to develop ideas and best practices for the field, and thus not just contribute a review of the literature, but also provide a framework that serves to make sense of emerging or established research areas, and suggest future directions for research.

For perspectives articles the choice of topic is crucial. The topic should ideally be relatively new and upcoming, or the article might instead offer a substantial revision of the current issues and debates at stake in existing research. The topic should give business historians a comparative advantage thanks to research in this field, and allow reaching out to other fields such as, but by no means limited to, economic history, management, political science, and sociology.

Suggestions for topics for perspectives articles

The editors of Business History have several suggestions for articles, although these also serve as an indication of the broad range of potential topics:

-	Corporate social responsibility
-	Family business and philanthropy
-	Scandals and corruption
-	Management and business of health and aging
-	Creative industries
-	Intellectual capital and property
-	Standardization
-	The business history of a country/region outside the most-often studied ones (North America and Western Europe), such as China, Western Africa, Central Europe, etc.
-	Household finance
-	Entrepreneurship
-	Revisiting colonialism
-	Religion and business
-	Ethics and values in business
-	E-commerce and e-business
-	Aero-space industries

Procedure

A perspectives article requires a significant effort for an author or team of authors. We are aware that the publication opportunities for perspectives articles in business history are limited. Therefore, we have developed a specific procedure for the submission and review process under editorial oversight. First, authors interested in contributing a perspectives article are requested to submit a proposal for a perspectives article via the Scholar One Manuscript system, selecting the manuscript type ‘Perspectives article’. Authors can take an initiative themselves to submit or be invited by one of the editors. The proposal should be five to ten pages, containing at least the following elements:

-	Clear definition and demarcation of the topic of the article;
-	Justification for publishing a perspectives article on this topic, including relevance to business historians and other researchers;
-	Overview of published review or survey articles on or related to the topic;
-	Summary of the approach used to collect relevant studies for reviewing;
-	Sketch of a framework or conceptual model that will be used to organize the studies on the topic;
-	Brief synopsis of the new insights the perspectives article may offer; and
-	Preliminary list of articles and books to be included in the article.

Based on the proposal, or a revised proposal, the editor(s) will decide whether to invite an author or authors to prepare a first draft. This draft will be reviewed by one member of the editorial board and one expert reviewer on the topic. For the remainder, the trajectory will follow the regular procedures for submitted papers and include a pre-agreed time line. However, because the perspectives articles are based on a pre-agreed proposal, we will not reject perspectives article submissions (except in case of unwarranted deviations from the proposals and papers that do not meet the quality standards of Business History).

The Editorial Team of Business History: Abe de Jong (Corresponding Editor)
Stephanie Decker
Andrea Colli
Paloma Fernández Pérez
Neil Rollings
Ray Stokes

Notes

1. Short, “The Art of Writing a Review Article,” 1312

2. Eden, “From the Editors: Replication, Meta-Analysis, Scientific Progress, and AMJ’s Publication Policy,” 841

3. Oxford Handbook of Business History.