Kerttu Kettunen

Accelerating the Americanization of Management Education: Five Responses From Business Schools

The Journal of Management Inquiry astutely predicted in 2004 that the Americanization of business education would not just continue but increase. Ten years later, it is arguable that the acceleration of the Americanization of management education has exceeded all expectations. To theoretically build toward understanding how and why the American business education model has been adopted to different extents, this comparative study builds on the institutional logics perspective, arguing that different institutional logics can potentially explain the various forms and patterns of Americanization and how they are manifested in the world’s business schools.

Institutional evolution of business schools in Finland 1909–2009

Abstract This study focuses on the institutional evolution of Finnish business schools 1909–2009. Its theoretical starting point is institutional theory, which attempts to explain change and inertia in societies, industries and organizations. When making sense of the evolutionary process, we capitalize on three perspectives on institutional theory related to business schools: the market demand approach, the national heritage approach and the professional system approach. Based on extensive historical evidence gathered for our study, we provide a narrative and a theorization of the evolution of the Finnish business school institution as ‘oscillations’ in certain clearly visible trends related to our research framework, for instance from early private ownership to nationalization and regionalization from the 1970s onwards, and again to privatization and reduced governmental control in 2009. Finally, we conclude that the scattering of small, barely viable business school units around the country combined with a dual system of Finnish- and Swedish-language business schools has led to a situation in which the Finnish business school institution has not yet been able to produce a truly competitive global business school, attractive to foreign students, faculty members and global corporations.

The “Dean’s Squeeze” Revisited : A Contextual Approach

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for identifying the primary tensions that business school dean’s encounter when moving between different university contexts. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is part of a larger research project on the development of business schools. This conceptual paper builds on the studies and personal experiences of business schools and their management in a number of different countries, primarily in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. Findings – The present study argues that as a response to the increasing corporatization of higher education, the university sector has fragmented into at least three identifiable contexts: the traditional research university, the academic capitalist university, and the corporate university. The authors conclude that the match between a dean’s worldview and the university context ultimately determines the appropriateness, survival, and success of deanship. Practical implications – The paper...

Book Review: Defining management: Business schools, consultants, mediaEngwallLarsKippingMatthiasÜsdikenBehlül, Defining management: Business schools, consultants, media, Routledge: New York, 2016. 318 pp. ISBN: 9780415727884 (pbk)

Chayko’s book is not really – as the book back cover would persuade – a groundbreaking study of the field, but rather a quite informative introduction to the field. The author seems to be concerned to offer an overview in a true Weberian style, as much value-free as possible; the strength claimed in the book – that is a perspective covering communication, sociology, psychology and technology studies – turns into a weakness when exploring foundational, ethical and political issues. Many digital media problems can be indeed better explored, analysed and explained just through instruments offered by philosophy, history and economics.