. . . research of business issues in China is attracting increasing attention from academics, practitioners, and policy makers. In the past few years, we witnessed a surge of publications in high quality international academic journals on contemporary business issues of China. However, although today the private business sector plays an important role in the nation’s economic strength, the history and evolution of entrepreneurship and corporate finance in China remain largely under-examined. Given the unique historical and cultural background of China, we believe such research will contribute to the business history literature that is currently still largely focused on the experiences of Western countries. Such studies could yield interesting insights that could contribute to theories and our understanding of business issues or phenomena today.All submissions should be sent to Dr. Wenxuan Hou (chinardcentre@gmail.com) no later than May 20, 2013. Please see the full call for papers for suggested topics, submission guidelines, and additional details about the conference. Submitted papers will be eligible for publication in a special issue of Business History. Authors of shortlisted papers will be invited to present at the "special issue" conference in Pingyao. The conference is a venue for developing good journal papers, and acceptance to the conference does not guarantee acceptance into the special issue. Papers will be externally blind reviewed according to the standard policy of Business History.
About Pingyao: Pingyao was the original entrepreneurship and corporate finance capital of China during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. At one time, the financial industry based in this city comprised of over half of that in the entire country. Pingyao’s history dates back 2,700 years; the city is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the known world.