Prelims

Half Title Page

LATIN AMERICA: MANAGEMENT EDUCATION’S GROWTH AND FUTURE PATHWAYS

Title Page

LATIN AMERICA: MANAGEMENT EDUCATION’S GROWTH AND FUTURE PATHWAYS

BY

GABRIELA ALVARADO

ITAM, Mexico

HOWARD THOMAS

SMU, Singapore, and Boston University, USA

LYNNE THOMAS

Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK

ALEXANDER WILSON

School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2018

Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78756-808-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78756-807-5 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78756-809-9 (Epub)

Dedication

To the Thomas, Tuch, and Wilson families who are the foundation of our lives.

Acknowledgments

This book would not have come into being without the collaboration, stimulus, and support from a number of people, and of professional organizations.

Strong support has come from funding provided by EFMD (The European Foundation for Management Development) and GMAC (The Graduate Management Admissions Council). In particular, Eric Cornuel, Director General of EFMD and Sangeet Chowfla, President and CEO of GMAC, became the catalysts for a project examining pathways in the global evolution of management education in Latin America, but also the need for innovation and learning about the similarities and differences in the business models of management schools globally. Helpful advice in this effort has also been given by Matthew Wood, Director of Operations at EFMD, Ron Sibert, Director for Africa at GMAC and Dan Le Clair, COO at AACSB.

Among collaborators and contributors to this project, it is important to recognize the generosity and openness of deans and faculty colleagues. For example, Andrew Pettigrew of Birkbeck, London, and Ken Starkey of Nottingham University have urged the importance of undertaking research studies on the evolution of global management education and on the adaptation of business school models to different cultures, contexts, and countries. Further, deans and strong friends, such as Michel Patry (HEC, Montreal), David Schmittlein (MIT Sloan), and Ken Freeman (Questrom School, Boston University) in North America; Peter Lorange (CEIBS, Europe), Santiago Iñiguez (IE, Madrid, Spain), Jordi Canals (IESE, Barcelona, Spain), and Simon Collinson (Birmingham, UK) in Europe; Nicola Kleyn (GIBS, South Africa), Nick Binedell (GIBS, South Africa), Enase Okenedo (Lagos, Nigeria), and Thami Gorfi (ESCA, Morocco) in Africa; and finally Fernando D'Alessio (CENTRUM) in Latin America deserve special thanks and gratitude for their support. We would also like to thank colleagues such as Kai Peters (Coventry), Rick Smith (SMU), Steve Davidson (Boston University, BU), Paul Carlile (BU), and Venkat Venkatraman (BU) for forcing us to re-examine the business models for business schools.

However, it is also extremely important to recognize the considerable institutional and personal support provided by Singapore Management University. Howard is Director of ASMEU (The Academic Strategy and Management Education Unit) at SMU, which has provided research assistance, data analysis, and administrative support to this project. Beyond that, Professor Arnoud De Meyer, President of SMU, has mentored and given advice in his inimitable, quiet, effective leadership style. His long-term friendship is much appreciated by Howard.

At SMU, we also owe a debt of thanks to many other colleagues such as Professor Gerard George, Dean of LKCSB, Gregor Halff, Deputy Dean of LKCSB, and Professor Michelle Lee who is a co-author of Howard's papers and books about the evolution of global management education. We want to thank the research assistants involved with this project. And our sincere appreciation goes to Jes Ong, Howard's PA, for assisting and managing the many stages and revisions that occurred as the project came to a successful conclusion.

We also want to acknowledge the institutional and financial support provided by ITAM and Asociación Mexicana de Cultura, A.C. Gabriela Alvarado has worked for 24 years at ITAM and was rewarded with a sabbatical leave during the academic year of 2016–2017. This sabbatical allowed her to fully devote herself to this research project. Further, special thanks and profound gratitude to Santiago Iñiguez, President of IE University, and Martin Boehm, Dean of IE Business School, for giving Gabriela the opportunity to spend a part of her sabbatical at IE Business School. During that period, a significant portion of this book was written.

We also wish to thank the 24 individuals listed in the appendix who gave us two to three hours of their time and were highly supportive, open, warm, and frank in sharing their expertise, insights, and opinions about management education in Latin America.

Finally, the quality and readability of this book's contents is largely due to the professionalism and helpful criticism derived from our consulting editor at EFMD, George Bickerstaffe. However, we are solely responsible for the book's argument. We sincerely hope that it provides some insights and stimulates thinking about necessary contextual and adaptions to management education as it continues to evolve.

Gabriela Alvarado, Howard Thomas, Lynne Thomas, and Alexander Wilson

About the Authors

Gabriela Alvarado is the Director of the Business Intelligence Center and a Professor of Marketing at ITAM, Mexico. She holds a Doctor in Business Administration degree from IE Business School, and an MBA and a BS in Actuarial Science from ITAM. Gabriela was the Associate Dean of MBA programs at ITAM Business School for 14 years, where she developed the international MBA program portfolio. Her research focuses on management education, business schools’ reputation, international accreditations, and rankings.

Howard Thomas is an Emeritus Professor of Strategic Management and Management Education at Singapore Management University (SMU) where he is currently Mastercard Chair of Financial and Social Inclusion. He is also the inaugural Ahmass Fakahany Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Leadership at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University. As a highly-cited scholar (having written over 300 articles and 40 books) in strategic management and management education and an experienced business school dean across several continents (US, Europe, and Asia), Howard continues to serve the academic community through his roles at EFMD and professional academic bodies such as the British Academy of Management. He is regarded as one of the foremost authorities in management education.

Lynne Thomas is a writer and co-author in the field of management education.

Alexander Wilson is a Lecturer in Strategy at the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University. He holds a BA (hons) in Management from the University of Leeds, an MA (Distinction) in Organization Studies, and a PhD in Management from the University of Warwick. He has been Lim Kim San Fellow in Strategy and Organization (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014) and Visiting Researcher (2017) at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. He is currently a Research Fellow for the Chartered Association of Business Schools (UK) and is conducting an analysis of management education in the UK. His research examines the development of management education globally as well as conducting research on open-strategy and strategic IT projects with a focus on technology in-use.

Preface

After attending several international academic conferences for more than 20 years, Gabriela Alvarado and Howard Thomas have witnessed how the level of awareness of Latin American business schools and their activities have increased through time. Yet, it is still relatively low when compared to the publicity that schools from other parts of the world have achieved. In addition, not much has been written about Latin American management education despite efforts such as those made by CLADEA in advancing the quality and awareness of Latin American schools.

Hence, this research project got under way motivated by the opportunity of sharing the progress that Latin American business education has made over the last decades with management education colleagues outside the region. It was also catalyzed by the strong spirit of collaboration and friendship among the authors. However, when conducting the interviews and developing the manuscript, a further opportunity presented itself: namely, providing some insights that could aid Latin American management educators in reflecting on the current state of business education on the continent and actions that need to be undertaken to strengthen its positioning within the international academic and business community in the years to come.

As such, this volume on Latin American business education adds to previous work by Howard Thomas, Lynne Thomas, Michelle Lee, and Alexander Wilson (Emerald, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017) about management education in different regions across the globe. Thus, it sharpens our understanding of the similarities and differences between business schools across geography and time and it allows us to examine systematic differences in the business models and performance of business schools across continents. It is based on the responses from a number of face-to-face in-depth interviews with rectors, deans, and influential educators from leading business schools in Latin America, and follows a past, present, and future perspective on the growth of management education.

After providing a brief overview of the main historical, cultural, social, political, and economic aspects of the Latin American continent, the book describes the evolutionary path of business education in the region until its current state. In particular, it analyzes and interprets the major events, key issues, the impact of different actors, main changes, and “blind spots” in the evolution of management education in Latin America over the last 10 years. The book then identifies the biggest ongoing challenges confronting business education on the continent and discusses whether a Latin American model for management education is a realistic proposition. Finally, it explores how the competitive environment of business education in the region will evolve over the next 10 years, outlines a set of potential scenarios, and examines critical issues for the future.

We hope this book will contribute and, more importantly, create an open debate among Latin American management educators about the future evolution of business education on the continent. Clearly our main aim is to spark a growing interest from global stakeholders about Latin American business schools and their role in growing and developing inclusive growth in Latin America.