Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2021
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.
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.