Imitation, tension, and hybridization: multiple "Americanizations" of management education in Mediterranean Europe

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1056492604265348

This article provides a comparative examination of academic business and management education in four European countries, namely, France, Italy, Spain and Turkey, addressing in particular the issue of Americanization both as a historical event in the aftermath of World War II and an ongoing process since then. There is first a consideration of the institutional models that have emerged in these countries in the first part of the 20th century. Set against this historical context, the article examines the often-contested processes and the extent of the transfer of American models for management education in the two decades after World War II. It also looks at the national trajectories that have ensued since. The central argument is that the interaction with American models has not led to local replicas but hybrid forms and institutional fields that have varied across the four countries.