Business School Strategies for the Single European Market

Abstract

Throughout Europe business schools are redesigning their strategies to cope with the rapidly developing Single European Market. As the SEM evolves as a distinct entity, so does the notion of a European manager and a European management distinct from the American model, and even more distinct from the several Asian models. Business schools are having to discover how to prepare managers for Europe; how the schools will compete in the changing market; how they will transform themselves in order to compete effectively in future; what resources, capabilities, and knowledge they will have to develop. This article uses the authors' combined experience of working in European management education in the UK, France, Germany and Spain to analyse the different strategies being pursued by business schools, and to identify some of the key issues and problem areas involved in transforming a business school from being a local or national school to being a real European competitor.