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The basis for this paper is that all firms are children of their time. They all depend on their environment: on technology and available markets, on prevailing attitudes, in short, on all institutions at hand. This means that the individual firm with the help of theory might be linked to the macro level and analysed as an expression of contemporary trends. This approach is exemplified by the study of AB angstrom tvidabergs forenade industrier during World War I. Developments in this company were part of broad industrial trends. Before the war, the company expanded on international markets; during the war, expansion on the stock exchange opened up for a shift in management in 1918; and in the deflationary crisis, in the early 1920s, the company went bankrupt. The war meant the loss of foreign markets and inflation that brought new institutions to be handled. As a member of the managerial elite, the founder of the angstrom tvidaberg company considered it his duty to work not only for his company, but also for Sweden. In the war he tried in various ways to influence politics. It turns out that the company's bankruptcy during the deflationary crisis had a background in an inability to account for inflation. Inflationary book profits spurred high dividends and heavy investments in 1918-19 - investments that could not be supported when the prices fell in the early 1920s. A recalculation of the accounts of the angstrom tvidaberg company using a method elaborated in the 1920s turns the book profit of 1918 into a loss. Thus, the lack of methods for accounting for inflation meant inflationary profits that in the war and the following years stimulated heavy investments not only in the angstrom tvidaberg company, but also in quite a number of Swedish companies. In professional circles it was stressed in the 1920s that this sharpened the deflationary crisis.

This book is a Festschrift to professor emerita Kersti Ullenhag in honour of her 75th birthday. Kersti Ullenhag has been a teacher and researcher in economic history at Uppsala University since the mid 1960’s. Her research has focused on different aspects of business history, often combining micro-oriented empirical case studies with Schumpeterian theories on entrepreneurship. In 19 chapters this book deals with research topics such as the roots of business history,political economy, business and entrepreneurship, the development of financial markets and gender perspectives in business and society.