In 2024, the Association Center for Business History (CfN – previously the Association of Stockholm's Corporate Memories, FSF) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The program included several well-attended seminars, a delicious anniversary book, and special posts on social media. The celebration culminated in a solemn anniversary dinner on November 6, 2024, on the anniversary of the association's constitutive meeting.

During the 50 years since CfN/FSF (hereafter CfN) began its operations at the end of 1974, extensive research has been conducted in and based on the deposited archival materials from member companies and the so-called ownerless archives from bankrupt companies and other organizations managed by the sister association (new) Stockholm's Corporate Memories, founded for this purpose in 2005 in connection with the old FSF's name change to the Center for Business History. As part of the anniversary celebrations, an overview of all this research was desired, and I was privileged to undertake this research task – to research the research. The preliminary result of this study was presented orally at the second anniversary seminar in April 2024, and the final result is presented here.

The purpose of the study was therefore to produce an overview of the research conducted over 50 years (1974–2023) in and based on all archives and collections deposited at CfN. Several sub-questions fall under this main question: What research projects and research preparatory efforts have been carried out within the CfN research secretariat's activities? To what extent have researchers used the archives and collections as well as other resources within CfN's operations? What does archival research look like by industry, that is, which industries within business have been the subject of the most research requests and why? How and why have different academic disciplines and institutions shown interest in the archives at CfN? How and where were the research results reported?

The study does not start from any particular general theory but rather from three hypotheses formulated based on the nature of the source material – mostly corporate historical documents – which will be tested, namely:

1. That researchers in economic history and the history of technology are expected to account for the majority of the research at CfN.
2. That archives within economically significant industries such as the manufacturing industry and their interest organizations are probably the most sought after.
3. That it is primarily researchers at institutions geographically closest to CfN's premises who are likely to have shown interest in researching the archival material.

Materials and Methods

The overarching research question – which research has been conducted based on the corporate and organizational archives deposited at CfN – was clear, but how can one go about answering it? Methodological choices primarily depend on the research questions and the nature of the source material. Reviews of previous research are usually divided into three main categories: systematic reviews, semi-systematic reviews, and integrative/critical reviews. Systematic and semi-systematic reviews seek to identify empirical evidence by collecting and analyzing data that meet certain predetermined inclusion criteria to answer a specific research question or hypothesis. Integrative/critical reviews usually do not have structured data collection.(1)

This study uses a mixed methodology with both qualitative and quantitative elements depending on the purpose, scope, and time constraints of the review. The mapping of research and research-preparatory efforts within CfN – particularly the research secretariat's own activities and own publications – is based on a review and qualitative analysis of relevant parts of CfN's agency archives, primarily the association’s annual reports, documents related to research projects, and researcher requisition forms. For the overview of external archival research in archives and collections deposited at CfN, a semi-systematic approach was used followed by an analysis of the results.

Methodological challenges existed in both parts. Unfortunately, the source material showed significant data gaps due to inconsistent handling of researcher requisitions, among other things. During some years, these were stored centrally, while responsibility other years was placed on individual archivists. This resulted in insufficient documentation for the period 1993–2002. Only in 2003 was a standardized system with retrieval slips introduced, which have been preserved in the agency archives for all years up to today except for 2012 – a material that appears to have been discarded unintentionally. The quantitative analysis was complicated by poor source lists in many research contributions – which did not mention that used documents were held at CfN and thus made them non-searchable digitally. Moreover, the archival material arrived at CfN at different times, which gives the source material preserved the longest a head start in the number of researcher requisitions.

Despite these shortcomings, a semi-systematic collection was possible to carry out. A common source-critical problem with this type of data collection is the risk of bias in the selection. Therefore, it is important to disclose how the review and selection were conducted, that is, which inclusion and exclusion criteria were used. Transparency with this applies to all types of data collection, including integrative/critical approaches.(2) For this overview, digital searches were conducted in Google, Google Scholar, the Royal Library’s database LIBRIS, the Digital Scientific Archive DIVA, as well as the websites jstor.org, avhandlingar.se, uppsatser.se, www.lup.lub.lu.se, and hhs.se/sv/bibliotek/sse-publications. The following inclusion criteria were used:

The following inclusion criteria were used:

1. Publications that explicitly have listed CfN in the source and literature references and could be identified through digital searches.
2. Publications written by researchers who requested source material from archives deposited at CfN with subject relevance to the source material (even if CfN was not explicitly mentioned).
3. Publications that mainly or to a greater extent used source material from archives now deposited at CfN (even if at the time of the research the source material was still held by the respective archival organization).
4. Publications that used material from – or referred to – websites produced by CfN, the publication series Näringslivshistoria, CfN’s journals, or published books.
    

Excluded from the compilation are all publications that could have used source material at CfN based on their subject matter but do not meet the above inclusion criteria. An evaluation of the significance of the various research contributions for Swedish business history research has not been conducted. A central aim of this study was also to map the number of unique researchers who used the archives during the same year and what their research resulted in. The total number of researcher visits and number of volumes retrieved – commonly used statistics in archival institutions – have not been examined. A problem with the selection criteria is their insufficiency to fully map the breadth of the research, as they focus on the number of unique researchers but not how often each researcher visited the archive. On the other hand, the chosen criteria can provide a fairer picture of research interest in the various archive depositions. These shortcomings could be addressed in a larger study that takes more selection criteria into account but this falls outside the scope of this study. The article will first present research and research-preparatory efforts within CfN’s research secretariat activities, then research published within its own publications, and finally explain external research at CfN with a particular focus on how it was distributed by industry and within different categories (dissertations, student theses, other research).

Activities of the Research Secretariat

The association Centrum för Näringslivshistoria (Center for Business History) has, during its fifty years of existence, conducted many research projects and research-preparatory projects, either independently or in collaboration with other academic and/or cultural heritage institutions.

The first five years of operation were characterized by efforts to find suitable organizational forms and appropriate premises for the activities. Due to limited staff resources and with the issue of premises at the top of the agenda, research had to wait for better times. It was not until 1980–1981 that archival material began to be in greater demand by researchers, primarily the archives of Bolinders Mekaniska Verkstad, Norstedts & Söner, and Finnboda Shipyard. To promote research in the source material, a so-called scientific council was appointed in 1982 with the following composition: economic historians Rolf Adamson, Lars Bertmar, Erik Dahmén, and Rolf Vallerö; historians Uno Gustafson and Bo Öhngren; art scholars Thomas Hall and Inger Rydén; cultural geographer Staffan Helmfrid; and art historian Ingrid Sjöström. The council met a few times but eventually became dormant. It was revived in 1997 with economic historians Hans de Geer, Håkan Lindgren, Ulla Wikander, Karl Grazer, and Hans Sjögren (replaced in 2001 by economic historian Mats Larsson); historians Per Thullberg and Anna Christina Ulfsparre; industrial heritage researcher Marie Nisser; and historian/archivist Leif Gidlöf as members. The Scientific Council became a forerunner to today's research council.(3)

The English social historian Geoffrey Crossick—now affiliated with the University of London—gave a lecture in the association's premises in 1983 on various ways to stimulate researchers to utilize the association’s archival material, which contributed to increased interest in the source material. A new step was taken in 1987 with a research survey sent out by CfN to the country's universities and colleges to map the needs for business archives in research. About 200 academic researchers responded, helping to make the available archival material better known within academia. Study visits and seminars at CfN by students and researchers in archival science, economic history, and ethnology from the universities of Stockholm and Uppsala then became increasingly common.(4)

During the 1980s and 1990s, CfN arranged several seminars for researchers. The first was a business history seminar in 1985 at IVA with national archivist Anna Christina Ulfsparre, Stockholm University rector Staffan Helmfrid, and professors Leslie Hannah (London School of Economics), Rolf Adamson (Stockholm University), and Bengt Abrahamsson (Arbetslivscentrum, Stockholm). The seminar attracted 55 participants. The second was organized in 1990 in collaboration with Arbetslivscentrum under the theme ”Women and Working Life, Past and Present” with eight invited female researchers and 130 attendees. A conference on ”The History of Companies, a Future Resource” was held the same year in cooperation with Stockholm County Council, gathering 70 participants.(5)

During CfN's first 19 years, there was no dedicated person within the organization responsible for research matters. It was not until 1993 that Göran von Knorring (M.A. in ethnology) was formally appointed research manager. He proposed an operational plan including conferences, lectures, and annual visits to universities and colleges in Stockholm and Uppsala to encourage research in the collections. Special efforts were also directed to high school teachers at the same time, and collaboration with academia was established in the creation of thesis topics with a focus on business history. Research work on the Salén bankruptcy archive was carried out with funding from the Johnson Foundation. During von Knorring's tenure, the first collaboration projects also came about, especially the so-called Söder Projektet, lasting until 1998.

It was coordinated by Stockholm City Archives (SSA), with FSF contributing project management, materials, and articles. Other partners included the Labour Movement Archives and Library (ARAB), Stockholm City Museum (SSM), and the County Archives. This resulted in the CD

Research for Own Publishing

JOURNALS

Over the years, CfN has published its own journals, books, and other publications. The publishing began in 1980 with a simple 12-page journal titled Årsmeddelande, which contained the activity report and some short articles on business history topics.

The journal was published annually with an increasing number of pages until 1987. Between 1988 and 1994 it was published under the name Företagsminnen, annual report. Publication was paused during the two-year period 1995–1996 due to CfN being in a sensitive situation, which led to the operating company Stockholms Företagsarkiv AB’s bankruptcy and subsequent restructuring of operations. The journal was restarted in 1997 with the name Företagsminnen and a more modern design. During the period 1997–2013, the journal was published in 2–5 issues per year until 2014 when it was renamed Företagshistoria. Since then, the journal has been published four times a year in increasingly standardized formats.(24)

The articles in Årsmeddelande/Företagsminnen/Företagshistoria have often been cited and used by researchers. Some of the articles are also written by authors with advanced academic training. The following charts (fig. 1 and 2) show the total number of authors and the proportion of those who had advanced academic training.

The statistics show a significantly larger proportion of authors with advanced academic education during the first 25 years, especially when the journal was called Årsmeddelande and Företagsminnen, annual report. After the turn of the millennium, the proportion gradually decreased, and from 2014, in connection with the name change to Företagshistoria, the proportion of authors with advanced academic education became noticeably lower. This was a consequence of a conscious change in writing style, focus, and target audience to reach a much larger public. The percentage change also depended on standardizing the number of pages per article and a sharp increase in the number of articles, authors, and pages in the journal. Företagshistoria became a popular history journal. But starting in 2020, more authors with advanced academic training began contributing to the journal, and during the pandemic year 2021, they accounted for one-third of all articles.

In an appendix to the first issue of Företagsminnen in 2005, an alphabetical index to all articles in the journal, including its predecessors, covering the period 1980–2005:1 was published. For the time thereafter, only internal lists are available. Some articles in the journals are also published digitally on the site bizstories.se (now foretagshistoria.se) and/or the website företagskällan.se, primarily aimed at school students in the later years of compulsory school and upper secondary school. In addition, a number of other knowledge sites have been produced within the framework of various preparatory research projects, such as handelnshistoria.se and branobel.se. Online seminars (so-called webinars) on various topics have also become common features in operations since the pandemic years.(25)

THE PUBLICATION SERIES BUSINESS HISTORY

Starting in 2009, a dedicated publication series called Business History was launched. The purpose was to collect and publish contributions to several business history seminars organized by CfN's research secretariat. The first two seminars took place in October 2008 and 2009 respectively, focusing on social responsibility (CSR) and women's entrepreneurship. A total of 11 issues were published in the series between 2009 and 2018, covering the following themes:

• No. 1/2009: On 125 years of social responsibility (CSR), following a seminar in October 2008.(26)
• No. 2/2009: On women's entrepreneurship, following a seminar in November 2008.(27)
• No. 3/2010: On patents and intellectual property, following a seminar in May 2009 organized jointly with Uppfinnarkollegiet.(28)
• No. 4–5/2010: On retail (two issues, covering stores and distance shopping respectively), following a seminar in September 2010 co-organized with TAM archive and ARAB within the project on Swedish trade history, funded by HUR.(29)
• No. 6/2012: On business letters as historical sources, following a research seminar in January 2012.(30)
• No. 7/2013: On the era of economic freedom, following a symposium in November 2012.(31)
• No. 8/2014: On Swedish business history in Russia, following an international symposium in November 2013 as part of CfN's research project on Swedish business history sources in the East, conducted in collaboration with academic institutions and researchers from Uppsala University, Södertörn University, Stockholm School of Economics, and international networks.(32)
• No. 9/2016: On the concept of profit, following a seminar in May 2015 organized by CfN at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce premises.(33)
• No. 10/2017: On various perspectives on free trade, following a seminar in December 2016 organized by CfN at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce premises.(34)
• No. 11/2018: On Swedish experiences from Russia during the revolutionary days, following a seminar at CfN in November 2017.(35)

Most contributions to these seminars were articles by researchers with doctoral training, which made the publication series popular and frequently used by students and other academic researchers, despite the series not aiming to be a scientific journal. Fig. 3 shows that the proportion of authors with doctoral training out of the total authors in the Business History publication series was large.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

In addition to the journals, the series of writings, and the knowledge websites, CfN has published many books and other writings during its 50 years of existence. The first publication with Föreningen Stockholms Företagsminnen as co-publisher was released in 1973, before the association's formal constitution. It was a book about Stockholm's architecture by Fredric Bedoire, published by SSM in collaboration with SSA and FSF. It would be another 12 years before the next publication under CfN's management appeared. This was a documentation of the first business history seminar organized by the association in 1985. Up until the name change in 2005, ten more publications were issued, documenting early projects, seminars, or a company. Two of these were published within the series Hågkomster, established in 2001, which aimed to issue primary sources about the companies and their staff. The series was published in only two volumes. This series was a kind of precursor to the Näringslivhistoria series that started in 2009.(36)

From 2006, 44 publications were issued under the name Centrum för Näringslivshistoria, and from 2016 an additional 76 titles were released within Förlaget Näringslivshistoria. In addition, two publications come from the new sister association Stockholms Företagsminnens. The association was formed after the name change partly to be the main body for the "ownerless" archive deposits. Of the approximately 150 authors for all these books and publications, 45 had an academic research background, which is over 29 percent of the total number (fig. 4).

Most of these publications target a broader audience and are therefore of a popular historical nature, but there are also purely academic works—for example, the new editions of books by Jan Glete and Mats Larsson—and some others with a distinctly academic character, especially those written by authors with research training.

THESES

Much of the research conducted using the archives deposited at CfN has resulted in academic publications at various levels. A total of 76 doctoral dissertations have been identified, primarily within historical studies (economic history, general history, and technical history), which account for 62 percent of the total. However, other academic disciplines within the humanities such as literature, art history, ethnology, and theology, as well as various social science subjects like business administration, film studies, education, and cultural studies, are also represented (fig. 8). The largest subject was economic history, which is to be expected when analyzing research in archives and collections at an archival institution focused on business history.

It was expected that economic history would account for the largest number of doctoral dissertations based on archival materials at CfN. Likewise, it was also expected that other historical disciplines (general history, technical history) and those with a strong subject connection to archival material, such as business administration, would be strongly represented. A bit more surprising was that literature studies would account for nearly a tenth of all dissertations and that as many dissertations were written in art history as in technical history. This is related to the large number of archive deposits within the publishing and printing industry as well as art and design that are preserved at CfN. Another less expected result is that doctors and pharmacologists have also found their way to the archival material.

The first three identified doctoral dissertations based on archival material were published in 1986, two of them in technical history and the third in literature studies. The fourth was published in 1987 in art history, and the fifth, an ethnological study of office life examining photographs from several archives, was published in 1988. Many of the subsequent dissertations focused their research on individual association or company archives such as LM Ericsson’s, explored in seven doctoral dissertations. Twice as many dissertations (14) examined archival materials mainly within economic history — and partially also within general history — mostly based on the historical records of trade organizations, particularly the SAF archives within The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise's archive deposits.(38)

In addition to these 76 doctoral dissertations, four more have been identified (two in economic history and two in business administration) that do not build on research of the primary archival material but use or refer to publications based on source material.

Only ten licentiate theses using archival materials deposited at CfN have been identified, which is considerably fewer than the number of doctoral dissertations. Half (five) were written in economic history, three in technical history, one in technology, and one in theology.

Fig. 9 shows the distribution per university of all 85 theses (76 at the doctoral level and 10 at the licentiate level). For understandable reasons, the universities and colleges geographically closest to CfN — Stockholm University (SU), Stockholm School of Economics (HHS), Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), and Uppsala University (UU) — account for just over half of all dissertations. But other universities are well represented, especially those in Gothenburg (GU) and Lund (LU). Additionally, five foreign universities are on the list, namely the University of Helsinki (two dissertations) and Åbo Akademi in Finland, University of New South Wales and Western Sydney University in Australia, and CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas) in Mexico (one dissertation each).

External Archival Research

ARCHIVAL RESEARCH BY INDUSTRY

The research conducted by external researchers based on the deposited archival material is far more extensive than that carried out internally within the research secretariat. When the author Per Anders Fogelström gave his lecture on the street names of Stockholm at the association's first annual meeting on March 31, 1976, research visits had not yet begun in any significant way. Gradually, researchers started coming to the archive, and a decade after the association was formed, the number of researcher visits began to increase. Some of the external archival research at CfN was published within the framework of the association's own publications, but most often it has been presented in external publications.

In 1984, 560 volumes were retrieved. The following year, the number was 899, and in 1986 over 1,500 volumes. In FSF's advertising brochure of 1987, one could therefore write about the archive's significance for historical research: "In studies of the emergence of industrial society, the archive holds great and versatile research value." (37)

Statistics on retrieved volumes are a conventional method used by archival institutions to get an idea of the extent of research conducted in archival material. In CfN's case, however, it may be misleading to use this kind of statistics. Besides the fact that these statistics have not been consistently maintained over the years, many retrievals were not for research purposes but carried out as part of the depositing companies' own activities.

This study has used a different approach to map external research in the preserved source material at CfN. Instead of statistics on retrieved volumes, the focus has been on the number of different researchers per year (regardless of how many volumes they requested) and on the archival deposits that have been the subject of their research. This was based on lists of researcher requisitions and preserved physical retrieval slips for the periods 1977–1992 and 2003–2023. Unfortunately, there is a significant gap in source material for the intervening period from February 1993 to December 2002, which could only be partially covered with other material in the archive for the years 1995–1997. The reason for this unfortunate gap is believed to be unintentional weeding of material, but also organizational changes during those years likely played a role. For example, researcher service became more decentralized, and overall responsibility for various company archives was shared between archivists, which probably led to deficiencies in overview and handling of researcher requisitions.

The review of preserved source material shows that over the years thousands of researcher requisitions were made by 3,872 different researchers, unevenly distributed through the years (fig. 5). Note, however, that the data gap between 1993 and 2002 covers nearly one-fifth of the period.

Despite this, one can presume a development in line with the preceding five years during these years, based, among other things, on articles in internal and external publications. The total actual number of unique researchers per year for the entire period is estimated to be somewhere between 4,400 and 4,700.

Between 1983 and 1992 and during 2003–2011, the number of different researchers per year ranged between 50 and 100. The largest increase occurred in 2014, with nearly 200 researchers in the archive. Five years later, the record number of 230 was achieved. The sharp decline that followed was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only in 2022 did the numbers return to levels around those before the pandemic.

The question also arises as to which archives these various researchers were interested in. Fig. 6 shows a compilation of archival research by industry in archives deposited at CfN based on researcher requisitions. The industries are chosen based on the area of activity (for example breweries), and often industry and trade with the same goods are grouped (for example automotive industry and car trade). Industry-specific interest associations (such as employer associations) have also been bundled with the respective area of activity.

Interest associations that are not specific to a particular industry – for example, Svenskt Näringsliv – have been reported separately under the heading General Industry Organizations. The following list shows the various industries that have been the subject of research at CfN with respective industry codes according to the current SNI (Swedish Standard Industrial Classification). Note that some SNI industry codes may be changed in the updated version to be implemented at the end of 2025:

• General Industry Organizations (S94.1)
• Banking and Finance (K64, K66)
• Automotive Industry and Trade (C29, G45)
• Breweries (C11.05)
• Construction Industry and Trade (F41, F42, F43)
• Miscellaneous Trade (G46.720, G46.433, G47.610)
• Electronics and Household Appliances (C26, C27, G46.43)
• Energy/Electricity (D35.1, C19.2, C20, C27)
• Real Estate (L68)
• Film and Media (J59)
• Aerospace Industry (C30.3, H51)
• Funds and Foundations (K64.309)
• Paint Industry and Paint Trade (C20.3, G47.523)
• Publishing (J58)
• Insurance (K65, K66)
• Mining Industry (B05-B09)
• Crafts (C13.9, C16, C23.410, C25.9, C32.9)
• Hotel and Restaurant (I55, I56)
• Non-Profit Organizations (S94.99)
• Iron and Steel (C24)
• Chemical Industry/Pharmaceuticals (C21, G46.4)
• Coal Trade (G46.710)
• Food Industry (C10; G46.31-G46.33; G46.36-G46.39)
• Art and Design (S94.990)
• Body Care/Baths (S96.040)
• Lighting (lamps and candles) (C32.990)
• Furniture Industry (C31)
• Entertainment (R93)
• Consulting Services (law, economics) (M69)
• Shipping Companies (H50)
• Advertising Industry (M73)
• Travel, Tourism (N79)
• Forestry Industry (A02)
• Gaming (R92)
• Spirits and Tobacco (G46.350, G46.340)
• Technology and Data (M72.11, G46.660)
• Textile Industry (C13, C14, G46.410)
• Transport Industry (H49.1-H49.4)
• Education and Research (P82, M72)
• Gardening (A01.1, G46.220)
• Department Store Trade (G47.111)
• Shipyard Industry (C30.1, C33.150)
• Engineering Industry (C25, C28)
• Healthcare (Q86, Q87)

Requisitions of material from a specific archive made by the same researcher during a specific year are counted in figs. 6 and 7 as one (1) single requisition, regardless of the number of archive visits that year and/or the number of volumes requested by the same researcher. If the same researcher requisitioned the same material in another year, that counts as an additional (1) requisition. The figures therefore show the number of different researchers who have requested material from a company/organization within each industry.

The charts show that research in publishing and printing archives accounted for over 600 researcher requisitions, corresponding to approximately 16 percent of all research during the entire period. This is quite a surprising result, as one might expect heavy industry and wholesale trade to account for the majority of the research in a business archive. But it is probably a consequence of the fact that practically all preserved archives in the Swedish publishing and printing industry are deposited at CfN, which thereby is one of Europe's largest archival institutions in that industry. Many researchers – often, but not necessarily, literary scholars – are attracted by the archives of Bonniers, Norstedts, Esselte, and Natur & Kultur with their underlying historical publishing or printing archives.

The archives of Bonnier Publishing account for just over one-third of all research at the publishing archives at CfN and make the Bonnier archive deposit – which also includes personal archives and media archives such as DN – the most extensively explored of all those at CfN, just ahead of the Bolinders Mechanical Workshop archive. In second place in number of researcher requisitions was the engineering industry with just over 400 requisitions, about 10 percent of the total number, which was to be expected.

An honorable place among these companies is held by the previously mentioned Bolinders Mechanical Workshop archive, which in the late 1970s became the first of all deposited archives at CfN to attract researchers' attention. The historical archives for AGA, Atlas Copco, and Alfa Laval/Separator have also been popular with researchers. Third and fourth place in number of requisitions, 6 percent of the total number, are shared between industry organizations – especially Svenskt Näringsliv – and department stores (NK, Åhléns, and KF, which in this study are included in that category). Following these are the insurance company archives (Stockholms Stads Brandförsäkringskontor, Skandia, Länsförsäkringar among others) and the food industry (mainly archives within ICA, ARLA, and Mondelez/Marabou).

According to statistics, banking and finance account for only about 3 percent of the requisitions. This low number is because granted research permits for these archives have generally been fewer compared to other company archives, but bank and finance researchers have often visited the archive multiple times, and their research has resulted in several publications. Shipyard industry archives were often visited by researchers during the early years of CfN's operations, but interest declined after the turn of the millennium. However, research interest in shipping company archives has been more evenly distributed over the years. Also frequently used have been archives containing information about many companies, particularly the Company Register, which contains information originally gathered by SEB's statistics department.

Research requisitions demonstrate a wide range of research interest in archives and collections across different industries. That heavy industry and their interest organizations would be highly explored was expected. Construction and real estate together account for about 5 percent of all requisitions. The food industry, department stores, and other trade also have their fair share of research requisitions. But the results showed that research on art and design has also benefited from source material in a business archive, especially the archives and documents linked to the Association of Swedish Form.

STUDENT THESES

Over the years, a significant number of student theses at various levels have also been written based on archives and/or studies at CfN. Here, only theses at the master's and bachelor's level are included. Unfortunately, there may be a large dropout in the statistics as many theses – especially during the period 1974–2000 – have not been digitally registered. In total, however, 172 theses have been identified (82 master's theses and 90 bachelor's theses). The category of master's theses also includes degree projects and master's theses. A review of these theses reveals relevant differences depending on whether one chose to research the primary archival material or used secondary material from CfN's publications and other literature based on primary material. The division is shown in the figures below.

Fig. 10 shows the number of master's theses per discipline. The first column refers to all material (primary and secondary sources), the second column only primary source material. Compared to dissertations at doctoral and licentiate levels, the number of works in economic history and general history is considerably lower at the master's level. Here, other disciplines have emerged instead, especially in the new subject ABM (archive science, library and information science, and museology), which did not exist in the last millennium and is not represented at the dissertation level. It tops the statistics for the number of master's theses (27). Studying source material at CfN and how it was managed within the largest business archival institution naturally became attractive for the archive students of the new millennium. The majority of the theses, however, were based only on secondary materials such as CfN's publications and/or interviews with active archivists.

The results also show a significant number of theses in business administration and technology/architecture. In these disciplines as well, the majority were written without using primary archival material. A very well-used source for student theses in various subjects was the first issue of the publication series Näringslivshistoria, which dealt with corporate social responsibility (CSR). It was used in six master's theses and 13 bachelor's theses. In contrast, all theses in pedagogy and most of those in cultural geography/conservation, art history, economic history, and general history were based on primary sources.

The percentage distribution per discipline differs if counting all master's theses or only those that actually explored primary source material. The dominance of studies in ABM – one third of the total number – is evident, as well as the large share held by business administration and technology/architecture. The situation is different when considering only the master's theses that used primary source material from the archives. In certain subjects, such as ethnology and law, only works based on primary source material have been identified. Also note the large percentage decrease in ABM and corresponding increase in most other disciplines, especially within the humanities and social sciences like economic history, history, art history, cultural geography, and pedagogy. Unlike dissertations, no master's theses have been identified in literature studies, which was unexpected (fig. 11).

The percentage difference is marked when comparing the total number of theses with those that explored primary material. In the two subjects with the most theses, ABM and business administration, the percentage distribution decreased from 33 percent to 19 percent, and from 16 percent to 15 percent respectively. But in the humanities, the deviation goes the other way. General history accounted for 7 percent of the total number of theses but 12 percent of those based on primary source material. In economic history, the share increased from 6 percent to 12 percent, and in art history from 5 percent to 9 percent. Similarly, in cultural geography/conservation, the pattern is the same, with only 6 percent of the total number of theses but 12 percent of those based on primary source material. Surprisingly, ethnology differs from other humanities subjects, with a low proportion of the total number of theses and no thesis based on primary source material at all.

The number of bachelor's theses is slightly higher (90) than those at the master's level (82). The division of bachelor's theses by discipline is interesting as it differs somewhat from the pattern for master's theses. Contrary to expectations, business administration took first place in the list of bachelor's theses while the historical subjects placed third and fourth. Most business administration theses did not use primary source material but were based on CfN's publications and databases, mainly the first issue of the publication series about CSR and the trade historical websites (mercurius.nu and handelnshistoria.se).

The historical theses are evenly distributed between the subjects history and economic history, with a slight lead for history regarding the use of primary source material. The subject ABM is not represented at all at the bachelor's level, which was expected since ABM usually only offers education at the master's level, but the subjects archive science and museology – which have bachelor's level education – were also not represented. However, there were three theses within media and communication science, which is also one of ABM's components (fig. 12).

A couple of theses were also written in pedagogy and a dozen within the category other social sciences, which includes subjects such as political science, tourism, and leadership. Ethnology is, however, conspicuously absent also in the list of bachelor's theses, which is remarkable considering CfN's close contacts during the 1980s and 1990s with representatives of the ethnology subject at Stockholm University, which in 1987 also organized a seminar about archival material at CfN. The explanation likely lies in that no copies of possible student theses in ethnology related to the archival material were submitted to CfN nor found in later released databases such as uppsatser.se. There is likely a large dark number in other subjects as well.

Percentage-wise, the result shows a pattern not unlike master's theses. The history subject, which accounted for only 12 percent of the total number of bachelor's theses, became the largest (26 percent) when only counting theses based on primary sources. Next largest was economic history with 23 percent. Also, most bachelor's theses in pedagogy and other social science subjects were based on primary archival material (fig. 13).

A compilation of all student theses at master's and bachelor's levels by type of source material shows that almost one-third (29 percent) of them were based on research in primary archival material from the archives and the rest (71 percent) used or referred to other material at CfN.

Fig. 14 shows the distribution per institution of all student theses. The picture looks different compared to the distribution of dissertations (cf. fig. 11), where only eleven Swedish and five foreign institutions were represented. Regarding student theses (cf. fig. 16), the distribution is between 24 Swedish and 7 foreign institutions. The latter were Jyväskylä and Helsinki in Finland, Reykjavik in Iceland, Bergen in Norway, and Ural State University A. M. Gorky in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The largest user of source material and compilations at CfN for student theses was Uppsala University (UU) with just over one-fifth of the total number and with a large gap to the next largest actors Stockholm University (SU) and Södertörn University (SH). Geographically, however, the largest number of theses were written at any of the capital's institutions, namely SU, SH, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Konstfack (KF), and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH) with a total of 26 percent of the total number. Lund University (LU) accounts for 9 percent of the theses, University of Gothenburg (GU) 8 percent, Umeå University 5 percent, and the remaining institutions under 5 percent each. The great absentee is Stockholm School of Economics (HHS), which is not represented at all. One reason could be a larger dark number compared to other institutions due to lack of accessibility. Student theses at Stockholm School of Economics are not included in the searched databases uppsatser.se and Digital Scientific Archive (the Diva portal). Searches on the HHS library website have not been able to identify student theses based on CfN's material. Most of the theses seem to be based on official statistics, various analyses and/or interviews with business representatives.

OTHER RESEARCH

The research on the deposited archival material at CfN is naturally far more extensive than just theses and student essays. The large number of researchers who over the years have engaged with the archival material has of course resulted in a very large number of publications. This applies to both academic and other research. After 50 years in the industry as Sweden’s largest business archive, there is hardly any researcher in Swedish business history who has not at some point taken an interest in the archival material. In particular, most of Sweden’s most senior researchers in the field of economic history have used the archives. Well-known foreign experts in the subject, such as Harvard professor Geoffrey Jones, have also benefited from the archives at CfN. Closer to home, the Finnish economic historian and professor at the University of Helsinki, Jorma Ahvenainen, early on in the association’s history examined the archival material for his major work on the history of Finland’s sawmill industry.(39)

Some of this research has been published in CfN’s own publications, but the majority has naturally been published in other books and scientific journals in Sweden and abroad. Conducting a complete, systematic survey of all this research is beyond the scope of this research overview. As already mentioned in the methodology section, such a task is almost impossible to carry out in practice due to gaps in source material on research requisitions, deficiencies in references to CfN as an archive institution in source lists, and lack of time for a full review of all publications by researchers who at some point visited and requisitioned material from CfN’s deposited archives.

Within the framework of this study, therefore, only an initial survey has been conducted of other research connected to the archives and processing at CfN in external publications – beyond theses and student essays that have already been reported. The result is shown in fig. 15 below.

The survey has resulted in 392 titles by researchers with doctoral training and a few other qualified researchers. Among these publications are both scientific and popular science articles, books, and reports. A significant number of these have been published in foreign publications. In this study, this list has been divided into six categories as follows: Swedish books and reports, foreign counterparts, contributions to scientific conferences, articles in Swedish scientific journals, articles in foreign journals, and other short publications such as student essays from courses below bachelor's level.

The results show that over a quarter (28 percent) of research contributions were published in foreign books and journals, reflecting the strong international presence of Swedish research. The majority of these are articles in high-impact international scientific journals, while only 6 percent are books. In domestic publications, however, books are in the majority (39 percent) whereas articles account for 22 percent of the total number of publications.

The publication list is, as mentioned, far from comprehensive but can provide an indication of the research impact based on source material and processing at CfN.

Summary and Conclusions

The study provides an overview of the research conducted based on archival material at the Centre for Business History (CfN), (formerly Stockholm Business Memories, FSF), between 1974 and 2023. The purpose of the study was to map the research efforts and projects carried out within the framework of CfN's own operations, how the archives have been used by external researchers, how the research has been distributed across industries and topics, and where and how the research results have been presented (journal articles, books, etc.). The report has used a mixed methodology, combining quantitative data (number of dissertations, researchers, student essays, other research) with qualitative analysis.

Some of the research conducted on deposited archives and collections has taken place within the framework of the organisation's own activities to tell the history of Swedish industry and/or within the research secretariat's own research and research preparatory efforts. Sometimes external researchers have voluntarily chosen to publish in CfN's journals or in books published by CfN or Förlaget Näringslivshistoria. Many research results have, of course, also been presented in external publications, in Sweden and abroad. The study shows, however, that the archive material at CfN has over time become an important resource for Swedish business history research.

The following main conclusions emerge from the study: The publishing and printing industry has unexpectedly, and contrary to the study's other hypothesis, been the most explored – ahead of heavy industry – with about 16 percent of all requests. This is explained by CfN's unique collections within that industry, especially archives such as Bonniers and Norstedts.

By topic, research is dominated by economic history and the history of technology. This confirms the first hypothesis of the study. The historical subjects together account for the largest share of doctoral dissertations (62 percent). In total, over 4,000 researchers, 76 doctoral dissertations, and 172 student essays have been identified connected to CfN's material.

Geographical proximity to CfN has influenced the use of source material. The majority of researchers come from universities in Stockholm, Uppsala, and Gothenburg. The study's third hypothesis thus proved to hold.

CfN's own publications, research-preparatory databases, and collaboration projects have played an important role in both academic and popular historical dissemination. The series Näringslivshistoria and the databases on the history of commerce have been particularly appreciated among researchers and students.

The research secretariat's role has grown over time as a bridge builder between academia, other cultural heritage institutions, and industry. This is confirmed by the collaboration projects within, among others, the fashion industry, digital models, transport history, and conflicts of goals in the green transition that CfN has participated in during the last ten years.

Despite methodological challenges – such as data gaps – the report provides a unique insight into how archives can shape research fields over time and how the development of an archival institution reflects larger trends in knowledge production. CfN has become an invaluable research resource, not only for historians but for several disciplines primarily within the humanities and social sciences. Collaboration projects with academia and industry strengthen CfN's role as a bridge between research and practice. At the same time, the need for better routines for registration and archive statistics has become evident, especially to reduce underreporting and data gaps in future overviews.

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