Biography
Ben Wubs is Professor of International Business History, at the ESHCC Erasmus University Rotterdam and a Appointed Project Professor Graduate School of Economics Kyoto University. He is engaged in various research projects related to multinationals, business systems, transnational economic regions, Dutch-German economic relations, tax strategies, and the transnational fashion industry. In 2008 he published *International Business and National War Interests. Unilever between Reich and Empire* (Routledge) and in 2009 (with Keetie Sluyterman), *Over Grenzen. Multinationals en de Nederlandse Markteconomie* (Boom). As an Erasmus Fellow (2008 to 2012) he did research into The Dutch Big Four in Germany: AKU, Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever and Philips, 1920-1960. He co-supervised (with Hein Klemann) a NWO funded project on Rotterdam and its German hinterland called Outport and Hinterland, 1870-2000. A synthesis of this project is to be published with Routledge in 2018. Wubs was secretary of RHINe, i.e. a collaborative network of economic, business and technology historians consisting of scholars from various universities in Germany, France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Japan, Denmark, United States, and the Netherlands. With Ralf Banken he edited "The Rhine Economy. A Transnational Economic History" (Nomos 2017). In addition, he was council member of the European Business History Association. In 2013, his Anglo-Dutch-Norwegian consortium received a HERA II grand to do research into the transnational connections of Fashion industry since 1945. At the Erasmus University he started a subproject: Building brands and fashion fairs. Transnational networks in the fashion industry in Europe which explores Fashion Fairs and Fashion Prediction Companies in Europe after 1945. With Regina Lee Blaszczyk he edited "The Fashion Forecasters: The Hidden History of Color and Trend Prediction" (London: Bloomsbury Publishing 2018). In 2019 he edited with Neil Forbes and Takafumi Kurosawa "Multinational Enterprise, Political Risk and Organisational Change. From Total War to Cold War". In 2022 Wubs received a research grant from the Volkwagen Stiftung for a research project: Historical Tensions between International Business and National Taxation: a challenge for Europe today. This is a joint research project of the Erasmus, Coventry, Bayreuth and Prague universities.
Wubs teaches various subjects at the Erasmus University, including International Business and Nation States, Business History of Fashion, International Economic Relations, Heritage and Fashion, and Histories of Creativities and Innovation. Furthermore, he is a Programme Director of an Erasmus Mundus project GLOCAL (Global Markets and Local Creativities), an International Master set-up by University of Glasgow, University of Göttingen, University of Barcelona, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Kyoto University, Los Andes in Bogota, and Uppsala University.
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
- wubs@eshcc.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Christian Marx & Ben Wubs (2021) - National conflicts in a multinational: The case of the Dutch-German AKU/VGF/Akzo, 1920s to 1970s - Business History - doi: 10.1080/00076791.2021.1994947 - [link]
- Ninnet Ongartthaworn, Alina Maria Dumitru, Lisa van Barneveld, Isabel Cavalcanti de Albuquergue, Dyana Wing So & Ben Wubs (2021) - The Value of Student Engagement: The European Fashion Heritage Association - [link]
- F White, J Stefanova, TF Yu, SP Weng, Mariangela Lavanga, Ben Wubs & Carla Gatt (2020) - You are what you (co)curate: A participatory approach to fashion curation in the digital world. Teaching Case and Teaching Notes - [link]
- Mariangela Lavanga, Ben Wubs, D Geveke & L Julicher (2020) - Re-Frame Fashion (supported by the Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership grant; it contains blogs articles and video interviews with fashion stakeholders, i.e. M. Rendina, EFHA, S. Stanfill, Victoria&Albert Museum London) - [link]
- Ben Wubs, Mariangela Lavanga & Alice Janssens (2020) - Letter from the Editors: The Past and Present of Fashion Cities - Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, 24 (3), 319-324 - doi: 10.1080/1362704X.2020.1732012 - [link]
- W So, E Shapiro, T Hofman, D Stanisljevic, M Sirijindaphan, Carla Gatt, Mariangela Lavanga & Ben Wubs (2020) - EFHA: Connecting Academia with Fashion Heritage. Teaching Case and Teaching Notes
- Ben Wubs, Mariangela Lavanga, Denis Darpy, Colette Depeyre, L Segreto & Magdalena Popowska (2020) - RE-FRAME FASHION Report. Innovation in Fashion Education - [link]
- Ben Wubs (2020) - Tensions within the Lower Rhine economy: AKU versus VGF, 1929–1969 - doi: 10.4324/9781315617404
- Ben Wubs & PY Donzé (2019) - Storytelling and the Making of a Global Luxury Fashion Brand: Christian Dior - International Journal of Fashion Studies, 6 (1), 83-102 - doi: 10.1386/infs.6.1.83_1
- PY Donze & Ben Wubs (2019) - Global competition and cooperation in the electronics industry: the case of X-ray equipment, 1900–1970 - Scandinavian Economic History Review, 67 (2), 210-225 - doi: 10.1080/03585522.2019.1583123 - [link]
- Ben Wubs, Mariangela Lavanga & Alice Janssens (2020) - Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (Journal)
- Ben Wubs & Mariangela Lavanga (2019) - Re-Frame Fashion: preliminary results from The Netherlands
- Pauwke Berkers & Ben Wubs (2017) - Co-creatie van impact: Voorbeelden uit de creatieve industrie
- Mariangela Lavanga, Ana Uribe Sandoval & Ben Wubs (2017) - Invited speaker - Minor in Fashion Industry
- Ben Wubs, T Kurosawa & N Forbes (2016) - From Total War to Cold War: International Business and Organisational Innovation
- Ben Wubs (2016) - LVMH: Storytelling and organizing creativity in luxury and fashion
- Ben Wubs & P-Y Donzé (2016) - LVMH: Storytelling and organizing creativity in luxury and fashion
- Ben Wubs & Rika Fujioka (2015) - Competitiveness of the Japanese denim and jeans industry: the cases of Kaihara and Japan Blue, 1970-2015
- Ben Wubs & T Kurosawa (2015) - Total War, Political Risk and Organizational Change of Swiss and (Anglo)-Dutch Multinationals
- Ben Wubs & TG Maillet (2015) - The French Style Bureaus Become Key Players in the Re-Birth of the Paris Fashion System, 1950-1990’
Master Thesis
- Year Level
- MA, MA, MA, MA
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH4050
Histories of Creativity and Innovation
- Year Level
- MA, MA
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH4239
Business History of Fashion
- Level
- Minor
- Year Level
- Minor
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH9010
Honours Class
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH2100
Intern. Bussn. and Nation-States
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH2202
Applied History MA Project
- Level
- MA
- Year Level
- MA
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH4052
Heritage and Fashion
- Year Level
- MA, MA
- Year
- 2024
- Course Code
- CH4128