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Making European Managers in Business Schools: A Longitudinal Case Study on Evolution, Processes, and Actors from the Late 1960s Onward

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2021

Abstract

There have been calls in recent literature for researchers to open up the “black box” of business schools to explore their dynamics and behaviors in-depth for a context-sensitive understanding of their evolution. Drawing on the case of ESCP, a leading business school in France, this article shows how European business schools’ curricula have evolved since the late 1960s in response to a combination of powerful actors’ demands and the emergence of new processes in the educational domain. This article finds that while European business schools’ curricula reflect the influence of internal and external forces, they do not converge to a common type, because of the different markets and political and cultural contexts in which they operate. It also finds that business schools in Europe purposefully do not imitate those in United States.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved

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Footnotes

Parts of this article were presented at the World Economic History Conference in Boston, August 2, 2018, and at the Business History Conference in Cartagena de Indias, March 14–16, 2019. The encouragement and support of Jacqueline McGlade, Matthias Kipping, and Rolv Petter Amdam were particularly helpful in the drafting of this article. The author would like to thank Andrew Popp, from whom he received many helpful comments and valuable advice. The author is also grateful for the comments from three anonymous referees, who each helped improve the article. He also wishes to thank the many ESCP employees and executives who participated in this study. Finally, the author would like to pay tribute to Christopher Kobrak, an outstanding professor, whose guidance and support were critical to the preparation of the first version of this paper.

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Engwall, Lars. Mercury Meets Minerva. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1992.Google Scholar
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Engwall, Lars, and Zamagni, Vera, eds. Management Education in Historical Perspective. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Field, Lloyd. Business and the Buddha: Doing Well by Doing Good. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2007.Google Scholar
Gourvish, Terence, and Tiratsoo, Nick, eds. Missionaries and Managers: American Influences on European Management Education, 1945–1960. Bath, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Khurana, Rakesh. From Hired Aims to Hired Hands. The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Locke, Robert. Management and Higher Education since 1940: The Influence of America and Japan on West Germany, Great Britain and France. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
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Starkey, Ken, and Tiratsoo, Nick. The Business School and the Bottom Line. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, William, and Kumar, Arun. “US Philanthropy’s Shaping of Management Education in the 20th Century: Towards a Periodization of History.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 19, no. 1 (2020): 2139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Engwall, Lars. “The Anatomy of Management Education.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 23, no. 1 (2007): 435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Gemelli, Giuliana. “American Influence on European Management Education.” In Management Education and Competitiveness: Europe, Japan and the United States, edited by Amdam, Rolv Petter, 3868. London: Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
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Kaplan, Andreas. “European Management and European Business Schools: Insights from the History of Business Schools.” European Management Journal 32, no. 4 (2014): 529–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Andreas. “Towards a Theory of European Business Culture: The Case of Management Education at the ESCP Europe Business School.” In The Routledge Companion to European Business, edited by Suder, Gabriele, Riviere, Monica, and Lindeque, Johan, 113–24. London: Routledge, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khurana, Rakesh, and Penrice, Daniel. “Business Education: The American Trajectory.” In Business Schools and their Contribution to Society, edited by Morsing, Mette and Rovira, Alfons, 511. London: Sage, 2011.Google Scholar
Kodeih, Farah, and Greenwood, Royston. “Responding to Institutional Complexity: The Role of Identity.” Organization Studies 35, no. 1 (2014): 739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, Rajesh, and Usunier, Jean-Claude. “Management Education in a Globalizing World: Lessons from the French Experience.” Management Learning 32, no. 3 (2001): 363–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, Eirinn. “Cultures of Content: A Comparison of French and Norwegian Business Schools” In Inside the Business Schools, edited by Rolv Petter Amdam, Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild, and Larsen, Eirinn, 178–93. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Thomas, Suddaby, Roy, and Leca, Bernard. “Introduction: Theorizing and Studying Institutional Work.” In Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations, edited by Lawrence, Thomas, Suddaby, Roy, and Leca, Bernard, 127. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maffre, Philippe. “Les Origines de l’Enseignement Supérieur Commercial en France au XIXe siècle.” Unpublished doctoral thesis, Université Paris-I, 1983.Google Scholar
McLaren, Patricia Genoe. “Stop Blaming Gordon and Howell: Unpacking the Complex History Behind the Research-Based Model of Education.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 18, no. 1 (2019): 4358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGlade, Jacqueline. “The Big Push: The Export of American Business Education to Western Europe after the Second World War.” In Management Education in Historical Perspective, edited by Engwall, Lars and Zamagni, Vera, 5065. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
McKiernan, Peter, and Wilson, David. “Global Mimicry: Putting Strategic Choice Back on the Business School Agenda.” British Journal of Management 22, no. 3 (2011): 457–69.Google Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. “Between Filial Piety and Managerial Opportunism: The Strategic Use of the History of a Family Business after the Buyout by Non-family Purchasers.” Entreprises et Histoire 91, no. 2 (2018): 6281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. “Issues in European Business Education in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Perspective.” Business History 58, no. 7 (2016): 1118–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. “The Early Emergence of European Commercial Education in the Nineteenth Century: Insights from Higher Engineering Schools.” Business History 61, no.6 (2019): 1051–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy, and Arreola, Fernanda. “Depuis quand apprend-on l’Entrepreneuriat? Une étude de cas historique dédiée à l’ESCP.” Entreprendre et Innover 42–43, no. 3 (2019): 146–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Andrew. “Building a Research Agenda for the Institutional Development of Business Schools.” In The Institutional Development of Business Schools, edited by Pettigrew, Andrew, Eric s, and Hommel, Ulrcih, 294311. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Andrew. “Context and Action in the Transformation of the Firm: A Reprise.” Journal of Management Studies 49, no. 7 (2012): 1304–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lefebvre, Radu, Miruna, and Redien-Collot, Renaud. “Achieving Legitimacy in Entrepreneurship Education: A Case Study.” Journal of Enterprising Culture 20, no. 4 (2012): 481500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takagi, Junko, and Carlo, Laurence De. “The Ephemeral National Model of Management Education: A Comparative Study of Five Management Programmes in France.” In Inside the Business Schools, edited by Amdam, Rolv Petter, Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild and, Larsen, Eirinn, 2957. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Tiratsoo, Nick. “The ‘Americanization’ of Management Education in Britain.” Journal of Management Inquiry 13, no. 2 (2004): 118–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tu, Wei-ming. “A Confucian Perspective on the Rise of Industrial East Asia.” In Confucianism and the Modernization of China, edited by Krieger, Silke and Trauzettel, Rolf, 2941. Mainz, Germany: Von Hase & Koehler Press, 1991.Google Scholar
ESCP Archives, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Paris Chamber of Commerce Archives, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Barsoux, Jean-Louis. INSEAD: From Intuition to Institution. New York: Palgrave, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchard, Marianne. Les Écoles Supérieures de Commerce. Paris: Garnier, 2015.Google Scholar
Chessel, Marie-Emmanuelle, and Pavis, Françoise. Le Technocrate, le Patron et le Professeur. Une Histoire de l’Enseignement Supérieur de Gestion. Paris: Belin, 2001.Google Scholar
Crainer, Stuart, and Dearlove, Des. Gravy Training: Inside the Shadowy World of Business Schools. Oxford: Capstone, 2001.Google Scholar
Engwall, Lars. Mercury Meets Minerva–Business Studies and Higher Education–The Swedish Case. Stockholm: Stockholm School of Economics, 2009.Google Scholar
Engwall, Lars. Mercury Meets Minerva. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Engwall, Lars, Kipping, Matthias, and Üsdiken, Behlül. Defining Management. Business Schools, Consultants, Media. New York: Routledge, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engwall, Lars, and Zamagni, Vera, eds. Management Education in Historical Perspective. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Field, Lloyd. Business and the Buddha: Doing Well by Doing Good. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2007.Google Scholar
Gourvish, Terence, and Tiratsoo, Nick, eds. Missionaries and Managers: American Influences on European Management Education, 1945–1960. Bath, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Khurana, Rakesh. From Hired Aims to Hired Hands. The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Locke, Robert. Management and Higher Education since 1940: The Influence of America and Japan on West Germany, Great Britain and France. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
McDonald, Duff. The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite. New York: Harper Collins, 2017.Google Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. À l’Origine des Écoles de Commerce. ESCP Business School, la Passion d’Entreprendre. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2020.Google Scholar
Starkey, Ken, and Tiratsoo, Nick. The Business School and the Bottom Line. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, William, and Kumar, Arun. “US Philanthropy’s Shaping of Management Education in the 20th Century: Towards a Periodization of History.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 19, no. 1 (2020): 2139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul, and Powell, Walter. “The Iron-Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Field.” American Sociological Review 48, no. 2 (1983): 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enders, Jürgen. “The Academic Arms Race: International Rankings and Global Competition for World-Class Universities.” In The Institutional Development of Business Schools, edited by Pettigrew, Andrew, Corneul, Eric, and Hommel, Ulrich, 155–75. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Engwall, Lars. “The Anatomy of Management Education.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 23, no. 1 (2007): 435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engwall, Lars., Kipping, Matthias, and Behlül, Üsdiken. “Public Science Systems, Higher Education and the Trajectory of Academic Disciplines: Business Studies in the United States and Europe.” In Reconfiguring Knowledge Production, edited by Whitley, Richard, Glaser, Jochen, and Engwall, Lars, 325–54. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fragueiro, Fernando, and Michelini, Josefina. “Leading Breakthrough Initiatives in Business Schools.” In The Institutional Development of Business Schools, edited by Pettigrew, Andrew M., Corneul, Eric, and Hommel, Ulrich, 3968. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fridenson, Patrick, and Paquy, Lucy. “Du Haut Enseignement Commercial à l’Enseignement Supérieur de Gestion (XIXe–XXe siècles).” In La Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris 1803–2003, edited by Normand, Pierre Le, 199258. Paris: Droz, 2008.Google Scholar
Hommel, Ulrich, and Thomas, Howard. “Research on Business Schools.” In The Institutional Development of Business Schools, edited by Pettigrew, Andrew, Corneul, Eric, and Hommel, Ulrich, 836. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Gemelli, Giuliana. “American Influence on European Management Education.” In Management Education and Competitiveness: Europe, Japan and the United States, edited by Amdam, Rolv Petter, 3868. London: Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
Gemelli, Giuliana. “From Imitation to Competitive Cooperation: The Ford Foundation and Management Education in Western and Eastern Europe (1950s–1970s).” In The Ford Foundation and Europe (1950s–1970s): Cross-Fertilization of Learning in Social Science and Management, edited by Gemelli, Giuliana, 167306. Brussels: European Interuniversity Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Hedmo, Tina. “Rule-Making in the Transnational Space: The Development of European Accreditation of Management Education.” Unpublished doctoral thesis, Uppsala University, 2004.Google Scholar
Hunter, Murray. “The Occidental Colonization of the Mind: The Dominance of ‘Western’ Management Theories in South-East Asian Business Schools.” Economics, Management, and Financial Markets 9, no. 2 (2014): 95114.Google Scholar
Kailer, Norbert. “Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Education.” In Handbook of Research in Entrepreneurship Education—A Contextual Perspective, edited by Alain Fayolle, 221–43. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Andreas. “European Management and European Business Schools: Insights from the History of Business Schools.” European Management Journal 32, no. 4 (2014): 529–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Andreas. “Towards a Theory of European Business Culture: The Case of Management Education at the ESCP Europe Business School.” In The Routledge Companion to European Business, edited by Suder, Gabriele, Riviere, Monica, and Lindeque, Johan, 113–24. London: Routledge, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khurana, Rakesh, and Penrice, Daniel. “Business Education: The American Trajectory.” In Business Schools and their Contribution to Society, edited by Morsing, Mette and Rovira, Alfons, 511. London: Sage, 2011.Google Scholar
Kodeih, Farah, and Greenwood, Royston. “Responding to Institutional Complexity: The Role of Identity.” Organization Studies 35, no. 1 (2014): 739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumar, Rajesh, and Usunier, Jean-Claude. “Management Education in a Globalizing World: Lessons from the French Experience.” Management Learning 32, no. 3 (2001): 363–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, Eirinn. “Cultures of Content: A Comparison of French and Norwegian Business Schools” In Inside the Business Schools, edited by Rolv Petter Amdam, Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild, and Larsen, Eirinn, 178–93. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Thomas, Suddaby, Roy, and Leca, Bernard. “Introduction: Theorizing and Studying Institutional Work.” In Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations, edited by Lawrence, Thomas, Suddaby, Roy, and Leca, Bernard, 127. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maffre, Philippe. “Les Origines de l’Enseignement Supérieur Commercial en France au XIXe siècle.” Unpublished doctoral thesis, Université Paris-I, 1983.Google Scholar
McLaren, Patricia Genoe. “Stop Blaming Gordon and Howell: Unpacking the Complex History Behind the Research-Based Model of Education.” Academy of Management Learning & Education 18, no. 1 (2019): 4358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGlade, Jacqueline. “The Big Push: The Export of American Business Education to Western Europe after the Second World War.” In Management Education in Historical Perspective, edited by Engwall, Lars and Zamagni, Vera, 5065. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
McKiernan, Peter, and Wilson, David. “Global Mimicry: Putting Strategic Choice Back on the Business School Agenda.” British Journal of Management 22, no. 3 (2011): 457–69.Google Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. “Between Filial Piety and Managerial Opportunism: The Strategic Use of the History of a Family Business after the Buyout by Non-family Purchasers.” Entreprises et Histoire 91, no. 2 (2018): 6281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. “Issues in European Business Education in the Mid-Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Perspective.” Business History 58, no. 7 (2016): 1118–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy. “The Early Emergence of European Commercial Education in the Nineteenth Century: Insights from Higher Engineering Schools.” Business History 61, no.6 (2019): 1051–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Passant, Adrien Jean-Guy, and Arreola, Fernanda. “Depuis quand apprend-on l’Entrepreneuriat? Une étude de cas historique dédiée à l’ESCP.” Entreprendre et Innover 42–43, no. 3 (2019): 146–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Andrew. “Building a Research Agenda for the Institutional Development of Business Schools.” In The Institutional Development of Business Schools, edited by Pettigrew, Andrew, Eric s, and Hommel, Ulrcih, 294311. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, Andrew. “Context and Action in the Transformation of the Firm: A Reprise.” Journal of Management Studies 49, no. 7 (2012): 1304–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lefebvre, Radu, Miruna, and Redien-Collot, Renaud. “Achieving Legitimacy in Entrepreneurship Education: A Case Study.” Journal of Enterprising Culture 20, no. 4 (2012): 481500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takagi, Junko, and Carlo, Laurence De. “The Ephemeral National Model of Management Education: A Comparative Study of Five Management Programmes in France.” In Inside the Business Schools, edited by Amdam, Rolv Petter, Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild and, Larsen, Eirinn, 2957. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Tiratsoo, Nick. “The ‘Americanization’ of Management Education in Britain.” Journal of Management Inquiry 13, no. 2 (2004): 118–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tu, Wei-ming. “A Confucian Perspective on the Rise of Industrial East Asia.” In Confucianism and the Modernization of China, edited by Krieger, Silke and Trauzettel, Rolf, 2941. Mainz, Germany: Von Hase & Koehler Press, 1991.Google Scholar
ESCP Archives, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Paris Chamber of Commerce Archives, Paris, France.Google Scholar