The journal Business History has issued a call for papers for a special volume on "Historical Research on Institutional Change." Guest editors will be Stephanie Decker, Lars Engwall, Michael Rowlinson, and Behlül Üsdiken. The editors write,
Institutional change is by its very definition a process that unfolds over long time periods with fundamentally unpredictable outcomes that can only be properly evaluated with hindsight. Because institutional change is a fundamental feature in historical research, many historians do not necessarily define or reflect on this as a research phenomenon in its own right. On the other hand many research debates in organization studies have remained curiously a-historical when developing the antecedents, outcomes and mediating factors for processes of institutionalization, institutional maintenance, and deinstitutionalization. . . . Nevertheless, between these two extremes there are many processes of institutional change in organizations that develop over time periods that are too long to research with the standard methods of qualitative social science such as interviews or participant observations. Here some historical approaches based on archival research may create more interesting research designs. . . . Historical theory also has different insights to offer organization studies. . . . It is in these areas that management and organizational history could contribute by investigating phenomena from a more long-term perspective.For more details on possible topics and the submission process, please see the call for papers on the Business History website. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2016.