Espen Ekberg

Routledge

Universitetsforlaget

Business History

Scandinavian Economic History Review 66(1) s. 9-17 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2018.1434559

The current state of Nordic business history is by certain estimates better than ever. Nordic business historians publish extensively in leading international journals and have a strong presence at international business history conferences. Still, in this discussion article we raise a yellow flag of warning for the future of Nordic business history. We argue that the subject field is challenged along three important dimensions: (i) lack of relevant teaching, (ii) continued reliance on commissioned history and (iii) limited recruitment. The article discusses these challenges and seeks to place them in a historical perspective. For each challenge, we develop a set of concrete proposals to address the problems identified. A common theme in our proposed solutions is to intensify Nordic collaboration, particularly through the establishment of common, externally funded Nordic research projects. To create meeting grounds for the development of such projects, The Scandinavian Society for Economic and Social History – the formal collaborative body for Nordic economic historians and the owner of Scandinavian Economic History Review – should be reinvigorated.

Scandinavian Economic History Review 66(2) s. 170-185 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2018.1454340

By discussing the creation and subsequent failure of Coop Norden, set up by the Scandinavian consumer co-operatives in 2002 as a common wholesale and food retail enterprise, this article provides insights into the nature of the Scandinavian food retail sector and co-operative enterprises in an era of globalisation. The article combines recent research on the globalisation of retailing with the academic literature on the economic position and development of consumer co-operative enterprises. The article concludes that the failure of Coop Norden can be seen as the natural consequence of two inherent problems: 1. A flawed vision among co-operative managers on how globalisation would impact retailing and 2. A misalignment between Danish, Norwegian and Swedish co-operative agendas. The article is based on comprehensive studies of the internal co-operative archives in Denmark and Norway.

Universitetsforlaget

International Journal of Maritime History 29(2) s. 459-460

A Global History of Consumer Co-operation since 1850 s. 698-726

Universitetsforlaget

Entreprenørskap i næringsliv og politikk. Festskrift til Even Lange s. 57-79

Universitetsforlaget

Entreprenørskap i næringsliv og politikk. Festskrift til Even Lange

Forum navale

Business History 57(5-6) s. 950--952

Journal of Global History 10(1) s. 171-193 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022814000333

Pax Forlag

Næringsliv og historie s. 7-33

Næringsliv og historie s. 37-60

Business History 56(1) s. 101-115 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2013.818418

Recent reviewers of the current state and future direction of business history have complained that, despite the growth of business history as a distinct academic discipline in recent decades, the field has tended to become side-lined in a number of debates which traditionally have been of major concern to business and economic historians. The paper discusses this issue by focusing on one of the major fields of research among economic historians and social scientists in recent years, namely the history of economic globalisation, and specifically the spectacular growth in international trade characterising the process. The history of economic globalisation and the causes of international trade growth has been a flourishing field of research in recent years, but business historians have not managed to make their mark on the major debates. We argue that one way of altering this situation would be to reinvigorate the old established link between business history and maritime history. We present two case studies showing how maritime firms played essential roles in putting in place vital organisational, technological and institutional preconditions for international trade growth. On this basis we argue that business historians of maritime firms are uniquely placed to understand the inner workings of the economic globalisation process and provide explanatory content to the macro oriented analysis dominating the existing literature.

Scandinavian Economic History Review Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03585522.2013.819031

Britain and Norway: special relationships s. 73-98

Business History 54(6) s. 1004-1021 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2012.706894

This article analyses the divergent development of Western European consumer co-operatives in the period from 1950 to 2008. It asks how some consumer co-ops throughout the post-war years manage to defend and even strengthen their market share and increase their membership while others saw both market shares and membership decline or evaporate. To analyse this question the paper offers a comparative analysis of three selected consumer co-ops; one case where consumer co-ops developed positively (Norway), one case showing consumer co-operative collapse (Germany) and one case where there has been quite substantial decline but no collapse (United Kingdom). The overall argument propounded is that the success or decline of these co-ops was intimately linked to how they confronted three parallel transformations in the post-war food retail market: the ‘supermarket revolution’, the ‘chain store revolution’ and the ‘consumer revolution’. The divergent ability to confront these challenges was related both to external and internal factors.

The World's Key Industry - History and Economics of International Shipping s. 88-105 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137003751_6

The Cooperative Business Movement. 1950 to the present s. 222-242 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139237208.012

Global shipping in small nations: Nordic experiences after 1960 s. 156-201 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230363526_6

New directions in Norwegian maritime history s. 253-279 Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt21kk3cs.16

Consumerism and the Co-operative Movement in Modern British History. Taking Stock s. 51-66

International Journal of Maritime History XXI(2) s. 221-239

Historisk tidsskrift s. 516-521

Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning (TfS) 48(1) s. 151-155

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 572-608

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 415-447

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 469-487

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 488-519

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 379-411

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 448-468

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 545-571

Organisert kjøpekraft. Forbrukersamvirkets historie i Norge s. 52-544

Affluence and Activism. Organised Consumers in the Post-War Era s. 83-102

Gyldendal Akademisk

s. 3-3

Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) 2016

Rethinking History at Business Schools. Seminar series at Copenhagen Business School

Det svenska ekonomisk historiska mötet

Mainstreaming Co-operation: An Alternative for the 21st Century?

Towards a global history of the consumer movement

6th International Conference of Maritime History

Shipping Revolutions after the Second World War

International Colloquium in Business History

Nordic Responses to Economic Integration: The Shipping Sector, 1955-2005

Nye perspektiver på norsk skipsfartshistorie

Mercator. Maritime Economics and Policy s. 266-269

Britain and Norway: Contacts, Networks and Influences

Shipping, Transport and Trade in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Seminar on Nordic shipping history: Nordic Responses to Economic Integration - the Shipping Sector, 1955-2005

Seminar on Nordic shipping history: Nordic Responses to Economic Integration - the Shipping Sector, 1955-2005

12th Annual congress of the European Business History Association

5th IMEHA International Congress of Maritime History

St. Hallvard s. 28-41

Tenth annual conference of the European Business History Association

XIV International Economic History Congress

”Taking stock: The Co-operative Movement in British history.” People’s History Museum

Unipub forlag

Institutt for samfunnsforskning

Det eksisterer lite forskning som systematisk beskriver og analyserer drivkreftene bak større tapsprosjekter i næringslivet. Denne rapporten tar for seg Forbrukersamvirkets forsøk på å etablere en landsdekkende forbrukereid møbelkjede. Satsingen foregikk fra 1993 til 2001 og var et ledd i organisasjonens langsiktige strategi om å utvide virksomheten til ulike faghandelsbransjer. Satsingen ble drevet av Norges Kooperative Landsforening (NKL), gjennom Det norske Møbelsenter. Satsingen var imidlertid ikke vellykket og samlet sett tapte NKL omlag 400 millioner kroner på engasjementet i møbelbransjen. Rapporten beskriver hendelsesforløpet i detalj. Videre gir rapporten en analyse av årsakene til at satsingen ikke lyktes. Konklusjonen er at satsingen bar preg av flere uheldige disposisjoner som samlet sett resulterte i en betydelig omsetningssvikt i butikkene. For det første vektlegges den raske veksten i prosjektets tidlige fase. Denne medførte betydelige økonomiske og organisatoriske problemer. Videre innebar samarbeidet med det private selskapet Idé Skeidar flere svært uheldige konsekvenser. Blant annet sviktet engrossystemet, den styringsmessige kontrollen ble svekket og organisasjonen mistet motivasjon og salgsfokus. Til slutt vektlegges de stadige reorganiseringene. Disse resulterte i tap av rutiner, redusert arbeidsmiljøkvalitet og ytterligere tap av salgsfokus. Det formelle ansvaret for satsingen påligger styret og representantskapet i NKL. Samtidig drøftes forhold som kan tilsi at administrasjonen i NKL har hatt en betydelig faktisk innflytelse over sentrale beslutninger. Det er imidlertid få forhold som taler for at den kooperative driftsformen i seg selv var en årsak til utfallet. De mer overordnede årsakene må knyttes til andre faktorer. For det første gikk NKL her inn i en ny bransje uten tilstrekkelig kompetanse og forståelse for denne. For det andre forsøkte NKL på feil grunnlag å revolusjonere driftsformene i denne bransjen. For det tredje var NKL svært utålmodig i forhold til resultatene. Endelig skapte styringsstrukturene problemer med å oppnå en hensiktsmessig styring og ledelse av kjeden.