Businesses today face unprecedented pressure to transform their operations in response to environmental crises, particularly climate change, and government policy. From the European automobile industry’s mandated transition to zero-emission vehicles by 2035 to the emergence of entirely new manufacturing sectors like battery cell production in China, we are witnessing what may be the most significant industrial transformation since World War II. These changes are accompanied by substantial investments, for which the International Energy Agency estimates $2 trillion in clean energy investments globally in 2024, almost twice as much as in fossil energy.

Yet, as business historians have documented, the relationship between business and environmental sustainability is complex and often contradictory (Jones 2017). The same commercial enterprises that made modern life possible through new products and efficient production processes have also contributed significantly to making the world less sustainable (Bergquist 2019a). The institutional evolution and growth of firms since the first industrial revolution has been largely structured by their adoption of fossil fuels, creating technological and organizational lock-ins that now present significant barriers to change (Chandler 1980). Importantly, high-carbon industries have been active in reinforcing these lock-ins by spreading doubt about the rationales and feasibility of moving away from fossil energy (Oreskes and Conway 2010). Understanding these historical patterns is crucial for comprehending both the challenges and opportunities in current transitions.

While business history research exploring the role of business in creating and addressing environmental challenges has expanded in recent years (Berghoff and Rome eds. 2017; Bergquist 2019b), the field has yet to fully engage with the growing academic and public conversation about sustainability transitions, i.e. systemic changes needed to address environmental crises (Köhler et al. 2019). This special issue aims to bridge this gap by bringing business historical perspectives to bear on questions of how firms and industries navigate transformative environmental challenges. We seek contributions that can illuminate both the obstacles to transition - such as established business systems and resistance from incumbent firms - and potential pathways forward, including historical alternatives to fossil fuel-dependent technologies and successful cases of business adaptation to environmental pressures.

Themes and Topics

This special issue aims to assemble contributions that conceptually and empirically address sustainability transitions from a business history perspective. We invite submissions that explore how businesses have responded to, shaped, or resisted the transformatory pressure toward sustainability, as well as those historicizing the current transition.

We welcome submissions addressing (but not limited to) the following themes and questions:

- Incumbent industries and firms: How have incumbent firms historically been challenged by environmental transformatory pressures - in the form of regulation, public pressure on environmental pollution, or scientific research of climate change - and how have they handled these challenges? How have incumbent firms opposed or facilitated environmental transformations, for instance by opposing or supporting environmental regulations? Are there historical examples for all-encompassing sustainability transitions, or do we rather need to speak of more gradual and smaller sustainability transformations of incumbents?

- Tensions between just and rapid transitions: How have tensions between the outcomes of industrial transitions been handled in the past and how can such knowledge aid our understanding of current challenges? Have environmental adaptations created equitable or inequitable outcomes, and under what conditions?

- Emerging green industries and firms: Under what historic conditions have new “green” industries and firms emerged? How do they differ from other firms? How have they responded to and been shaped by governmental policy?

- Roads not taken: How have industries and firms tried to establish sustainable products or processes in the past, and what obstructed them from becoming successful? How have firms and industries used their power to thwart competition from more sustainable alternatives?

Methodological and theoretical innovation: How can business historians develop innovative analytical tools to study recent developments, considering that many firms and new industries driving the current sustainability transition have emerged during the last two decades? How can relatively recent developments be historicized, and what types of historical knowledge is useful for sustainability transition research and the public’s and policymakers’ understanding of current developments and for planning future transitions?

While the special issue will primarily focus on manufacturing firms and industries, we also welcome relevant contributions focusing on primary or tertiary sector businesses, particularly those with substantial environmental impact such as shipping and aviation.

We particularly encourage submissions that develop innovative methodological approaches, or offer comparative perspectives across regions and industries.

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts:
Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words and a brief biographical note by January 30, 2025. Abstracts should clearly state the research question, methodological approach, sources, and main argument.

Workshop:
Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to participate in an authors’ workshop in June or July 2025, where draft papers will be discussed.

Full Papers:
Complete manuscripts need to be submitted in September 2025. Papers should not exceed 10,000 words (including references) and follow the Business History journal style guidelines. Papers will then follow the peer review process of the journal, acceptance by the guest editors does not guarantee publication.

Timeline

- Abstract submission deadline: January 30, 2025
- Notification of acceptance: February 28, 2025
- Authors’ workshop: June/July 2025
- Full paper submission: September 2025
- Publication expected: Early 2026

Submission Instructions

Please submit your abstract and biographical note to SustainabilityTransitionsBH@gmail.com

The email subject line should read: “SI Business History - Sustainability Transitions”

References

- Berghoff, Hartmut and Adam Rome, eds. Green Capitalism? Business and the Environment in the Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.‘
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin. “Business and Sustainability.” In The Routledge Companion to the Makers of Global Business, edited by Terasa da Silva Lopes, Christina Lubinski & Heidi J.S. Tworek, 546-564. London: Routledge, 2019a.
- Bergquist, Ann-Kristin. “Renewing Business History in the Era of the Anthropocene,” Business History Review 93, no. 1 (2019b): 3-24.
- Chandler, Alfred D. “Industrial Revolutions and Institutional Arrangements.” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 33, no. 8 (1980): 33-50.
- Jones, Geoffrey. Profits and Sustainability: A History of Green Entrepreneurship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Köhler, Jonathan et al. “An Agenda for Sustainability Transitions Research: State of the Art and Future Directions.” Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 31, (2019): 1-32.
- Oreskes, Naomi and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2010.