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Prof. Dr Sabine Pitteloud

Sabine Pitteloud
Vice-dean Programme direction for the Master in History Assistant Professor

Documents

CV

Sabine Pitteloud is Assistant Professor of Contemporary History at UniDistance Suisse. Her research explores the political history of capitalism, with a particular focus on multinational corporations, political risk, and the role of business associations in shaping regulation and environmental governance in Europe after 1945. She is the principal investigator of the Swiss National Science Foundation project “Organized Business and Environmental Governance in Western Europe [1945–1995].”

She was previously Harvard Newcomen Fellow at Harvard Business School and lecturer at the University of Geneva, and has held visiting positions at Humboldt Universität Berlin, the New School for Social Research in New York, and the University of Glasgow. She also serves as co editor in chief of Entreprises et histoire and sits on the editorial board of traverse, Zeitschrift für Geschichte and Relations internationales.

Her publications include Les multinationales suisses dans l’arène politique (1942–1993) (Droz, 2022); the co edited volume Environmental Regulation and the History of Capitalism: The Role of Business from Stockholm 1972 to the Climate Crisis (Routledge, 2025, with Sandra Bott and Janick Schaufelbuehl); and The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2026, co edited with Geoffrey Jones). Her article “Have Faith in Business: Nestlé, Religious Shareholders, and the Politicization of the Church in the Long 1970s,” published in Enterprise & Society (2024), received the Philip Scranton Best Article Prize awarded by the Business History Conference in 2025.

News

UniDistance Suisse Research
Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship brings international visiting researcher to UniDistance Suisse Shaun Yajima Watanabe, a PhD candidate in Economic History at the University of Tokyo and TU Bergakademie Freiberg, has been awarded the prestigious Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship. From September 2026, he will spend one year as a visiting researcher at the Faculty of History at UniDistance Suisse, where he will collaborate with Prof. Dr Sabine Pitteloud.
History
SNF AGORA funding: Prof. Sabine Pitteloud involved in interuniversity project The Faculty of History at UniDistance Suisse is involved in a new project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The AGORA programme supports initiatives that make research accessible to a wider public.
History
Business and the Environment: A Retrospective of Professor Sabine Pitteloud’s Work Sabine Pitteloud, assistant professor of contemporary history at UniDistance Suisse, has developed a research program analyzing the links between businesses and environmental regulation after 1945. In the fall of 2024, she received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation to continue her work on this topic. This provides an opportunity to take a retrospective look at her research and discuss its relevance for upcoming debates.
History
UniDistance Suisse at the 7th Swiss Congress of Historical Sciences The Faculty of History highlighted the diversity of its researchers through a wide range of approaches to (In)visibility.

Research focus

Multinational Companies and Political Risks in Historical Perspective

Business-Government Relations

Global Governance 

Environmental Regulation 

Relocations and Labor Issues  

Research projects

Back to Kathmandu: Environmental and Sensory Histories of Mountain Landscape Protection
Approved amount: 199802 CHF
Funding scheme: FNS - Project funding
Pitteloud Sabine
Status: Ongoing
Start: 01.08.2026
End: 31.07.2028
History
Back to Kathmandu: Environmental and Sensory Histories of Mountain Landscape Protection
Pitteloud Sabine
Approved amount:199802 CHF
Funding scheme: FNS - Project funding
Status: Ongoing
Start: 01.08.2026
End: 31.07.2028
History
Organised Business and Environmental Governance in Western Europe [1945-1995]
Approved amount: 822169 CHF
Funding scheme: FNS - Project funding
Pitteloud Sabine // Ambrosino Alessandro // Denzer Naomi // Roost Michal
Status: Ongoing
Start: 01.03.2025
End: 28.02.2029
History
Organised Business and Environmental Governance in Western Europe [1945-1995]
Pitteloud Sabine // Ambrosino Alessandro // Denzer Naomi // Roost Michal
Approved amount:822169 CHF
Funding scheme: FNS - Project funding
Status: Ongoing
Start: 01.03.2025
End: 28.02.2029
History
Transnational Swiss Financial Networks between 1770 and 1860 (PhD Thesis)
Approved amount: -
Funding scheme: -
Wildbolz-Gallego Raul // Pitteloud Sabine
Status: Ongoing
Start: 01.02.2024
End: 31.01.2029
History
Transnational Swiss Financial Networks between 1770 and 1860 (PhD Thesis)
Wildbolz-Gallego Raul // Pitteloud Sabine
Approved amount:-
Funding scheme: -
Status: Ongoing
Start: 01.02.2024
End: 31.01.2029
History

Research groups

Multinationals, Organized Labor, and the Environment in the Postwar World: Contributions to an International History
2026-07 | The International History Review
DOI: 10.1080/07075332.2026.2700040
  • Sandra Bott
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl
Journal article
Introduction
2026-01 | The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
DOI: 10.1017/9781009679558.001
  • Geoffrey Jones
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book chapter
Multinationals and Organized Business
2026-01 | The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
DOI: 10.1017/9781009679558.006
  • Pierre Eichenberger
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book chapter
Multinationals in Historical Perspective
2026-01 | The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
DOI: 10.1017/9781009679558.002
  • Geoffrey Jones
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book chapter
The Cambridge Companion to the History of Multinationals and Society
2026-01 | Cambridge University Press
DOI: 10.1017/9781009679558
  • Geoffrey Jones
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book
Recension de: Iberg Ludovic, Le grand patronat suisse et l'Europe (1957-1984). Le rôle du Vorort face aux organisations patronales européennes, Neuchâtel, Alphil, 2025
2026-01 | Infoclio
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book review
A Negative Brussels Effect? Organised Business and the Europeanisation of the Environment in the 1970s
2026-01 | Journal of European Integration History
DOI: 10.5771/0947-9511-2026-1-75
  • Sabine PITTELOUD
Journal article
The rise and fall of private advocacy forums from 1945 to the twenty-first century
2025-09 | Socio-Economic Review
DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwaf056
  • Grace Ballor
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Journal article
International human resource management and political risks: Nestlé in the Global South during the Cold War (1950–1980)
2025-07 | Management & Organizational History
DOI: 10.1080/17449359.2025.2503140
  • Pierre-Yves Donzé
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Journal article
Environmental Regulation and the History of Capitalism
2025-04 | Routledge
DOI: 10.4324/9781003515494
  • Sandra Bott
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl
Book
Tracking Business Involvement in Environmental Policies since the 1970s
2025-04 | Environmental Regulation and the History of Capitalism
DOI: 10.4324/9781003515494-1
  • Sandra Bott
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Janick Marina Schaufelbuehl
Book chapter
Business Facing Activism
2025-03 | Climate Change and Business
DOI: 10.4324/9781003478089-13
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book chapter
1972. Réguler les multinationales, un enjeu politique
2025-02 | Multinationales. Une histoire du monde contemporain
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Michel Capron
Book chapter
Swiss Multinationals versus the French Welfare State? The Social Security Deficit, European Integration, and the Battle for ‘Fair’ Drug Prices (1970–1990)
2025-02 | Contemporary European History
DOI: 10.1017/S0960777323000668
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Pierre-Yves Donzé
Journal article
De la liberté d’interdire au verrou socio-technique. La Suisse face aux dangers de l’usage de l’essence au plomb (1921–2000)
2025-01 | Itinera
DOI: 10.24894/978-3-7965-5241-0
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Tiphaine Robert
Journal article
Echoes of the New Deal: Historical Narratives and the European Green Deal
2025-01 | European University Institute (EUI)
  • Sabine Pitteloud
working-paper
Wirtschaftliche Dependenz | Dépendance économique
2025-01 | Traverse. Zeitschrift für Geschichte – Revue d’histoire
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Daniel Allemann
  • Mischa Suter
  • Juan Flores Zendejas
journal-issue
«Neue Normen, nur keine Panik!» Umweltverschmutzung und Regulierung in der industrialisierten Schweiz | «Nouvelles normes, surtout pas de panique!» Réguler les pollutions en Suisse à l’âge industriel»
2025-01 | Itinera
DOI: 10.24894/978-3-7965-5241-0
  • Nicolas Chachereau
  • Alexandre Elsig
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Tiphaine Robert
journal-issue
Have Faith in Business: Nestlé, Religious Shareholders, and the Politicization of the Church in the Long 1970s
2024-09 | Enterprise & Society
DOI: 10.1017/eso.2023.7
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Journal article
Zeitgeschichte und Unternehmensgeschichte
2024-05 | Neue Perspektiven der Unternehmensgeschichte
DOI: 10.30965/9783657794775_008
  • Christian Marx
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book chapter
Natur. Einblicke in die 6. Schweizerischen Geschichtstage. Editorial
2024-01 | traverse, Revue d'histoire
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Stéphanie Ginalski
  • Sarah Maria Schober
journal-issue
Introduction: Capitalism and Global Governance in Business History
2023-01 | Business History Review
DOI: 10.1017/s0007680523000855
  • Grace Ballor
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Journal article
The power and limits of expertise: Swiss–Swedish linking of vehicle emission standards in the 1970s and 1980s
2022-09 | Business and Politics
DOI: 10.1017/bap.2022.3
  • Mattias Näsman
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Journal article
Capitalism and Global Governance in Business History: A Roundtable Discussion
2022-01 | SSRN Electronic Journal
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4151101
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Grace Ballor
  • Grace Ballor
  • Patricia Clavin
  • Neil Rollings
  • Nicolás M Perrone
  • Quinn Slobodian
working-paper
Les multinationales suisses dans l'arène politique (1942-1993)
2022-01 | Librairie Droz
DOI: 10.47421/droz63289
Book
Multinationals and Varieties of Capitalism: When U.S. Giants Stepped into the Swiss Coordinated Labor Market in the 1950s
2022-01 | SSRN Electronic Journal
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4135740
  • Sabine Pitteloud
working-paper
Nestlé, Shared Value and KitKat Diplomacy. Harvard Business School Case 323-018
2022-01 | Harvard Business School
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Geoffrey Jones
  • Geoffrey Jones
online-resource
Qui dirige la Suisse ? Multinationales et diplomatie suisse sous une perspective historique
2022-01 | SAGW Rubrique "décodage"
  • Sabine Pitteloud
newspaper-article
Les multinationales comme catégorie politique : les années formatrices (1970-1990)
2021-11 | Entreprises et histoire
DOI: 10.3917/eh.104.0093
Journal article
Let’s coordinate! The reinforcement of a ‘liberal bastion’ within European Industrial Federations, 1978-1987
2021-04 | Business History
DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2021.1905797
Journal article
Moteurs et menteurs. Recension: Samuel Klebaner (2020), Normes environnementales européennes et stratégies des constructeurs automobiles: Un jeu coopératif aux résultats ambigus, Presses de l’École des mines
2021-01 | La vie des Idées
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book review
Multinationals’ Need for State Protection: the Creation of the Swiss Investment Risk Guarantee in the 1960s
2021-01 | Security and Insecurity in Business History. Case Studies in the Perception and Negotiation of Threats.
Book chapter
Unwanted Attention: Swiss Multinationals and the Creation of International Corporate Guidelines in the 1970s
2020-12 | Business and Politics
DOI: 10.1017/bap.2020.10
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Journal article
‘American Management’ vs ‘Swiss Labour Peace’. The closure of the Swiss Firestone factory in 1978
2020-02 | Business History
DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2020.1726890
Journal article
Delay and dilution in the implementation of environmental norms: business groups and the regulation of car emissions in Switzerland in the 1970s–1980s
2020-01 | Working Papers of the Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History; 4/2020
  • Sabine Pitteloud
working-paper
The social desirability of offshoring: a Swiss consensus (1945–1975)
2019-09 | Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte
DOI: 10.1515/zug-2018-0034
Journal article
Benjamin C. Waterhouse (2017), The Land of Enterprise: A Business History of the United States
2019-01 | Traverse
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book review
Industrie-Holding: Creating a Community of Interest among Swiss «Multinationals»
2019-01 | Revue suisse d'histoire SZG/RSH
DOI: 10.24894/2296-6013.00045
Journal article
Multinationale et fermetures de filiales : les conséquences sociales et politiques de décisions économiques
2019-01 | Entreprises et histoire
DOI: 10.3917/eh.097.0097
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Sabine Pitteloud
  • Leo Grob
Journal article
Nestlé : le directeur financier de 2018 et celui de 1886 ont-ils des idées différentes sur l’importance de la nationalité de la multinationale ?
2019-01 | Entreprises et histoire
DOI: 10.3917/eh.095.0120
Journal article
Stéphanie Ginalski (2017), Du capitalisme familial au capitalisme financier? Le cas de l’industrie suisse des machines, de l’électrotechnique et de la métallurgie au XXe siècle
2019-01 | Revue suisse d'Histoire
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book review
«Les invisibles deviennent visibles»: le rôle politique des multinationales et les débats sur l’internationalisation en Suisse [1942-1993]
2019-01 | Université de Genève
DOI: 10.13097/ARCHIVE-OUVERTE/UNIGE:121457
dissertation-thesis
Délocalisation, une tradition bien de chez nous
2017-01 | Le Journal, Université de Genève
  • Sabine Pitteloud
newspaper-article
L'autodiscipline en guise de régulation : la stratégie patronale à l'heure de la surchauffe économique en Suisse autour de 1960
2017-01 | Chronos
DOI: 10.5169/SEALS-731230
Journal article
Offshoring: reassessing the rhetoric of ineluctability
2017-01 | Public Seminar New School
magazine-article
Nicolás M. Perrone (2021), Investment Treaties and the Legal Imagination: How Foreign Investors Play by their Own Rules, Oxford
  • Sabine Pitteloud
Book review

Teaching

M09 Histoire sociale Bachelor of Arts in Historical Sciences
M01 Sources and data: History of Pollutions and Their Regulation Master of Arts in Historical Sciences
Sources and data: History of Pollutions and Their Regulation Master of Arts in Historical Sciences

Functions at UniDistance Suisse

Faculty of History

  • Vice-dean
  • Programme direction for the Master in History
  • Assistant Professor

Political History of Capitalism

  • Assistant Professor

Faculty Council of the Faculty of History

  • Vice-dean
  • Assistant Professor
  • Programme direction for the Master in History