Over the past three decades, business historians at Utrecht University have conducted and contributed to a wide range of commissioned and fundamental research projects. Below is a sample of recently completed projects.

Equinor 2001-2022: history of a Norwegian oil and gas giant

In National Champion. Statoil and Equinor since 2001, Dr. Marten Boon traces Statoil’s attempt at becoming a greener and more global company since its partial privatisation in 2001. Statoil’s history since 2001 has been turbulent and transformative. On the one hand, an unprecedented rise in oil prices between 2004 and 2014 and the merger with Norsk Hydro’s oil and gas division in 2007 buoyed the company’s rapid internationalization, transforming it from a Norwegian company into a global one. On the other hand, the impending climate crisis forced the company to consider a world without oil and gas, transforming it into an energy company under a new name, Equinor.

Navigating these turbulent global events, Statoil met with success and failure. Major strategic shifts into unconventional oil and gas and offshore wind proved particularly vexing, exposing a recurring tension in Statoil’s governance between public expectations and capital market demands. On the one hand, Statoil’s management felt the pressure from investors to become a competitive, global oil and gas company. On the other, management had to navigate public demands to become a greener company. Out of that conundrum emerged Equinor as a somewhat more global and greener company than Statoil was in 2001 but still with deep roots in Norway and in oil and gas.

National Champion was published by Universitetsforlaget in Oslo in 2022 and also appeared in Norwegian as En nasjonal kjempe. Statoil og Equinor etter 2001 .

One hundred years KLM

In Welcome aboard, Dr. Bram Bouwens describes the history of the Dutch flagcarrier KLM of the past century on the basis of five themes. With the emphasis on developments in recent decades, the close bond between the airline and the Netherlands, the competition that led KLM to join Air France, the dizzying technological developments and the way in which KLM managed to retain both passengers and staff, are reviewed. The book, which also appeared in Dutch, is larded with pictorial sections compiled by KLM.

Welcome aboard. 100 years of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was published by WBooks, Zwolle in September 2019. It is also published in Dutch as Welcome aboard. Een eeuw KLM..

Driven by steel: from Hoogovens to Tata Steel, 1918-2018

How do you survive as a company in a global economy that is constantly changing? That is the question posed by the four historians from Utrecht, Bram Bouwens, Joost Dankers, Keetie Sluyterman and Jaap Verheul in their study of the iron and steel company in IJmuiden. Founded in 1918 as NV Koninklijke Nederlandsche Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken, it is now part of the Indian multinational Tata Steel. This study describes how the company managed to hold its own in the international steel market over the past century. Its location on the North Sea was always regarded as an important competitive advantage.

This study also shows how, in addition to foreign technology, the company’s own research also played a role in its impressive expansion. As a result of this growth, the company had a major impact on its surroundings. Tens of thousands of people found work there, but the company was also faced with the challenge of reducing its environmental impact while at the same time producing efficiently and profitably. After all, the company’s shareholders and financiers also had to be kept satisfied to ensure continuity. Despite the many challenges, after a hundred years the steel company in IJmuiden is still one of the figureheads of Dutch industry.

Driven by steel. From Hoogovens to Tata Steel, 1918-2018, was published by Toth Bussum publishers in September 2018 and is also published in Dutch as Door staal gedreven: van Hoogovens tot Tata Steel, 1918-2018 .