Learning lessons from the past: A historical exploration of a century of business education at Oxford and Cambridge (1900s-2000s)

This research aims to identify a set of generative mechanisms which are shared by business schools' process of development in their search for strategic comparative advantage. We use a processual approach (Pettigrew, 1997) based on two detailed historical studies supported by unexplored archival data and interviews: the case of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and the case of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge (1990s - 2000s). Preliminary results indicate a complex process of emergence, development and institutionalisation which was neither a conscious desire expressed by existing academic institutions nor the result of a clear vision provided by academic leaders at the time. This research confirms Weick's idea that business schools are loose couple systems that do not systematically express plans and intentional selection of means that get them to agree upon goals set a priori (Weick, 1976). Last but not least, our research shows that the nature of business schools' organisational change combines a series of exogenous and endogenous generative mechanisms, through disjointed clusters of events. It is from this combination of exogenous and endogenous generative mechanisms inherited from the past that future business schools' strategies might be considered.