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.

Shaking the Status Quo: Business Accreditation and Positional Competition

“…In management education, the 10 university-based business schools form a tightly knit, cooperative, and collegial network of institutions and scholars (Alajoutsijärvi, Kettunen, & Tikkanen, 2012;Kettunen, 2013). Consequently, many collaborative arrangements, such as national-level graduate schools and joint entrance examination systems, exist among the business schools, and no systematically conducted, formal business school ranking has been created at the national level.…”

“…Svenska Handelshögskolan (Hanken) AACSB, EFMD, AMBA EQUIS (2000), AMBA (2008), AACSB (2015AACSB ( ) 1911 Aalto University School of Business AACSB, EFMD, AMBA AMBA (1997), EQUIS (1998), AACSB (2007AACSB ( ) 1927 Handelshögskolan (Sihvonen, & Vähämaa, 2015) History of business schools in Finland (Alajoutsijärvi et al, 2012;Kettunen, 2013) Talouselämä business magazine's ranking of Finnish business schools (Mikkonen, 2012) Productivity of research and teaching in Finnish universities (Kivinen et al, 2011) Kimmo Alajoutsijärvi works as a professor at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and at the University of Agder, Norway. Prof. Alajoutsijärvi's research interests are in management education, business cycles, and business relationships and networks.…”

Challenges for academic organizations' legitimacy in Colombia's transition to a postconflict context

“…internships in the downtown area) create ethical ambivalence in relation to formal education (Juusola et al, 2015). Scholars argue that academic organizations appear to bow to isomorphism pressures to establish a common cognitive base (Alajoutsij€ arvi et al, 2012), such as the homogenous Americanization (Juusola et al, 2015) of management education in response to the mercantilist logic imposed by others, including business groups. We posit that this is a source of pragmatic legitimacy.…”

“…Nevertheless, such organizational change might be challenged by the societal norms and values in and outside academic institution (e.g. Alajoutsij€ arvi et al, 2012; Legitimacy in Colombia's postconflict context Treviño et al, 2014). We explore and explain how academic organizations attempt to establish legitimacy in a transition to a postconflict context, and we explore the ethical challenges that emerge from insightful approaches to formal education in such contexts.…”

Transitioning business school accounting from binary divide to unified national system

“…We then review the early years of its commerce and accounting education programs in the department of accounting studies from early 1970s to the mid-1990s (see Appendix 1). [2] RMIT, originally named the 'Working Men's College' was founded by Francis Ormond with the help of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council as a night school offering only evening classes for working men in Australia [3]. The college officially opened in 1887, enrolling 600 students in its first term.…”