Head of the Academic Platform: PhDr. Barbora Štolleová, Ph.D.
The research platform draws from the international dialogue on business history that has been dynamically evolving in Central and Eastern Europe in recent years. The platform aims to understand how businesses and entrepreneurship developed in this region during the 19th and 20th centuries, emphasizing differences compared to Western Europe, the Euro-Atlantic region, and Asia. Businesses and companies of all types and sizes, including large multinational enterprises, as well as small businesses (family businesses, cooperatives, and sole proprietorships) are examined. The platform also studies entrepreneurial activities primarily carried out within noncommercial structures, such as the state.
Methodologically, the platform draws on business history’s interdisciplinary nature as a scientific field spanning economics, history, and other social sciences. The goal is to understand businesses’ socioeconomic functions while contextualizing their development within broader frameworks of market evolution, culture, and politics. The platform emphasizes the classical study of microeconomic development through case studies of enterprises as such or of selected segments of their business activities. Additionally, it connects business history with a macroeconomic perspective by synthesizing the impact of private and state enterprises on economic development.
Members: