Professor Mats Larsson receives the Business History Prize 2024. He is awarded for his long academic career in economic history and business history, with extensive original research and for, as a research leader, having guided and created conditions for new generations of economic historians. The award from the Centre for Business History comes with a prize sum of 100,000 SEK.
The Business History Award is presented by the Centrum för Näringslivshistoria to those who have made lasting contributions to highlighting Swedish business history and demonstrating the Swedish companies' contributions to the collective societal development. Previous recipients include author Anders Johnson, Dalénmuseet and the Economic Museum, professor Håkan Lindgren and IKEA.
After the jury deliberated on this year's many nominations, it was decided to award this year's prize to Mats Larsson, professor emeritus at Uppsala University. The jury's motivation reads:
Mats Larsson receives the prize for his long academic career in economic history and business history. For decades, through research monographs, textbooks, articles, and biographies of industries, companies, and business leaders, he has shown students, researchers, and the general public how companies contribute to societal development. Particular weight should be given to his research, teaching, and writing within Swedish financial history. At his initiative, the Uppsala Centre for Business History was established in 2008 as an interdisciplinary hub for business history research in Sweden. As a research leader, Mats has supervised an impressive number of doctoral students. His extensive output demonstrates how a pedagogical academic can make historical events accessible to a broader audience.
Lennart Francke, jury chairman for the Business History Prize, commented on the choice: "Through his own research, Mats Larsson has for decades highlighted Swedish entrepreneurship in international comparisons. As a research leader, not least through the Uppsala Centre for Business History, he has created platforms for younger researchers. Few have done more for the field of business history research in the country than Mats Larsson."
Mats Larsson will receive the prize at a ceremony this fall and will also be asked to give the now traditional prize winner lecture.
