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The Business History Conference is coming to London!

Theme for 2026 conference is CO-CREATION

Stephanie Decker FAcSS FBAM

May 26

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BHC 2026 Call for Papers

March 26-28, 2026

Imperial College London

Business is a source of creativity, but how exactly does creation occur? And just as important - who does it?

This year’s theme posits that nearly everything businesses create is in fact co-created. In management literature, co-creation refers to the way companies and their customers interact to create innovative or improved products and services. One prominent example is the software industry, which pre-releases new products in the expectation that insights provided by customers will inspire changes in design. Software is co-created; but to some extent, all products and services are the result of interactions between producers and consumers.

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This call for papers aims to expand the concept of co-creation by exploring how it has occurred among firms and entrepreneurs, and between firms and their stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, investors, lenders, advisors, regulators, and local communities. Unlike the concepts of collaboration, co-creation does not assume that parties necessarily consent to work together or that relationships are equal or harmonious. Indeed, co-creation can occur as the result of antagonistic relationships and rivalries. For example, friction among firms, regulators, funders, and end-users have often forced the co-creation of new regulatory and legal frameworks for business. Co-creation can also happen unintentionally, and where we may not expect it, including in situations where power was unequally distributed among members of a network, partnership, joint venture, or supply chain.

The concept of co-creation can be used as an analytical lens to discover previously hidden dynamics, such as the role of actors in the periphery of a firm or market. It may uncover how the actions of non-elites, such as employees on the shop floor and behind retail counters, influenced the evolution of a product, service, or process. By using co-creation as a lens, we hope to identify previously hidden actors and their relationships, and in doing so provide more accurate accounts of how ‘the market’ brings about innovation and change.

Proposals and Submissions

The deadline for receipt of all paper and session proposals is October 17, 2025.

The BHC Program Committee invites sessions and papers that consider Co-Creation from a variety of different perspectives. While we encourage submissions to take up the conference theme, proposals addressing other topics in business history will receive equal consideration by the program committee in accordance with BHC policy.

Graduate students and emerging scholars in the field are particularly encouraged to attend. Graduate students and recent PhDs whose proposals are accepted may apply for funds to partially defray their travel costs. Information will be sent out once the program has been set.

The committee will prioritize fully formed panel proposals (composed of 3-4 papers, a discussant, and a chair). We also encourage creative formats that foster lively interactions among presenters and with the audience, such as roundtables and workshops. For recommendations on how to form sessions with other scholars, please see the panel proposal forums on the BHC website.

Individual paper submissions will be combined into new panels defined by themes chosen at the committee’s discretion.

Each presentation proposal should include a one-page (300 words) abstract and one-page curriculum vitae (CV) for each participant. Panel/roundtable proposals should also include a cover letter containing a title, a one-paragraph description of the session, the name and affiliation of a recruited chair (and discussant, if applicable), and the contact information for the session organizer.

To submit a proposal, go to https://thebhc.org/proposal-instructions.

In order to ensure balance, and in line with past practice, participants are limited to presenting only once in the program (e.g., presenting a paper or participating in a roundtable). Participants may, however, also serve as the chair or discussant in another session.

The deadline for submitting is October 17, 2025. Notice of acceptance will be given by December 15, 2025. Information on registration and fees for participation and the provisional program will be announced by the end of January 2026. Everyone appearing on the program must register for the meeting.