What is “business chemistry”? After one successful year of the new international “Journal of Business Chemistry” we will try to answer that question in this fourth issue.

It all started seven years ago with the foundation of an interdisciplinary institute of business administration at the department of chemistry and pharmacy (University of Muenster, Germany) – as far as we know the only such construct in the academic world. Naturally research at this institute would focus on management and business questions, problems and solutions for all industries closely related to the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, with biotechnology and nanomaterials as two of the “hot spots”. Interestingly we found that this interdisciplinary field was quite new but we also found that some people were working on research questions closely related to our own. To give this whole research area a name, we choose “business chemistry”. And to support this new idea and give all people over the world a forum to publish their research, we founded the “Journal of Business Chemistry”.

The term “business chemistry” is surely not perfect, and as all new terms do, they sometimes confuse people. Misinterpretations were not uncommon – from native speakers as well as from others. Looking back to all the issues of the “Journal of Business Chemistry” we see how diversified and broad the field of “business chemistry” is. It ranges from portfolio analysis, economics and politics to financial aspects, strategies and product test systems. However, there are two things that they all have in common. First, all articles have a connection to one industry setting (making all conclusions within this field comparable). Second, all articles are interdisciplinary in nature as they combine at least two different academic spheres (giving deeper insight than conventional research does).

So what does “business chemistry” mean? “Business chemistry” is the research field which combines all aspects of business administration and management in the context of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in an interdisciplinary approach.

Now enjoy reading the articles. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send us an e-mail to contact@businesschemistry.org. We thank all authors, reviewers and editors for their great contributions.