EH.N: CfP: Journal of Management History Special Issue on Alfred Chandler

[Kim Foster]

Call for Papers

Journal of Management History Special Issue

HONORING THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ALFRED CHANDLER (1918-2007)

Guest Editors: Shawn Carraher and John Humphreys

Alfred Chandler has been described as "the world's preeminent 
business historian in the second half of the twentieth century" and 
"dean of business historians, the man who more or less invented the 
history of the big corporation." During World War II, he served as a 
naval officer. He later credited his experience in the Navy; close 
family relationships with the du Pont family, and the influence of 
leading scholars such as Talcott Parsons and Joseph Schumpeter with 
influencing his choice to study businesses. He subsequently earned a 
masters degree (1947) and Ph.D. (1952) at Harvard University. His 
Ph.D. thesis focused on the work of his great grandfather, leading 
business analyst and journalist Henry Varnum Poor. In addition, 
during his graduate studies Chandler was an active member of then 
relatively new Center for Research in Entrepreneurial Studies founded 
by economist Joseph Schumpeter and economic historian and Harvard 
Business School librarian Arthur Cole.

With his newly minted Ph.D. in hand Chandler joined the faculty at 
MIT. Among his early efforts were assisting Alfred Sloan with his 
20th century classic "My Years with General Motors" and publishing 
his work on Henry Varnum Poor. That was followed in 1962 by Strategy 
and Structure, a towering achievement that remains influential in 
strategic management, history, economics, sociology, and political 
science. Chandler's compelling thesis - that corporate structure 
follows strategy - documented the historical origins of the 
multidivisional firm.

Chandler moved to Johns Hopkins University in 1963, where he served 
as editor-in-chief of the papers of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 
as department chair, and as Director of Center for Study of Recent 
American History. In 1971, he accepted the prestigious Isidor Straus 
Professorship of Business History at Harvard Business School. At HBS 
Chandler published two more great works of synthesis. The Visible 
Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (1977), which 
won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize in History, as well as the prestigious 
Newcomen Award and the Bancroft Prize, chronicled the rise of modern 
management in the United States in large, vertically integrated 
firms. His work countered some basic assumptions such as the Adam 
Smith emphasis on the "invisible hand". Chandler argued that the 
coordinating of economic activities passed from the marketplace to 
the visible hand of managers. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of 
Industrial Capitalism (1990), winner of an American Association of 
Publishers Award and the University of Chicago's Melamed Price, 
applied Chandler's model comparatively to the US, UK, and Germany. 
After becoming Professor Emeritus at HBS in 1989, Chandler continued 
to publish. Included were major studies of innovation in the 
electronics, computer, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. At 
the time of his death he was writing a biography of his maternal 
grandfather, Major William G. Ramsay, Dupont's first chief engineer 
and a major contributor to the transformation of the firm into a 
global corporation.

The recipient of many awards and fellowships - including the Business 
History Conference's first Lifetime Achievement Award (2002), the 
John F. Kennedy Medal, as well as numerous honorary degrees - Al 
Chandler is remembered by family, friends, students, and colleagues 
as a warm, accessible, generous, and astonishingly focused man, who 
did more than anyone to establish the legitimacy and importance of 
academic business history. His landmark books and articles have 
influenced generations of scholars in multiple countries and 
disciplines.

Accordingly, it is fitting that the Journal of Management History 
seeks to publish a special issue devoted to the life and works of 
Chandler and his disparate contributions. Prospective contributors 
may wish to consider (but are not limited to) the following research 
questions:

* Strategy and Structure or Strategy versus Structure?

* the impact of Chandler on later Strategy theorists such as Porter;

* Chandler's impact on Management and Business History; and

* Chandler's impact on Organizational Theory

In summary, our goal in this special issue is to honor Chandler, 
better understand the value of his many contributions, and discover 
avenues of future research to further build upon the enormous 
foundation he left for all of us.

TIMELINE

Submissions are due no later than April 7th, 2008. Contributors 
should follow the manuscript requirements and author guidelines 
provided at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/jmh/notes.jsp 
and in the back of each issue of the Journal of Management History. 
For general questions about submission, contact JMH's Editor, David 
Lamond, at daplamond at bigpond.com. For inquiries about the special 
issue, please write to one of the guest editors: Shawn Carraher 
(scarraher at cameron.edu) or John Humphreys 
(john_humphreys at tamu-commerce.edu).

Sources:
HBS Professor Alfred Chandler Jr., pre-eminent business historian, 
dead at 88. Harvard University Gazette Online, May 17, 2007 
(http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/05.17/27-chandler.html) 
accessed June, 2007

Martin, Douglas. Alfred D. Chandler Jr., a Business Historian, Dies 
at 88. The New York Times, May 12, 2007 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/business/12chandler.html?ex=133662240 
0&en=e2ee90739ec38390&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) accessed July 
2007).

Miller, Stephen. Remembrances: Alfred D. Chandler. The Wall Street 
Journal, New York, N.Y.: May 12, 2007, p. A.8.

Obituary: Alfred Chandler. The Economist. London: May 19, 2007. Vol. 
383, Is. 8529, p. 95.

Sicilia, David B. Academy of Management News Volume 38, Issue 2 (June 2007).

Kim Foster
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