Purpose This study reviews the literature on business-school (b-school) competition and competitiveness to extend our understanding of b-schools’ competitive strategies. Design/methodology/approach Both content and network analysis were used in the examination of the scholarly discourse. Findings The analyses distinguish three literature streams. The first concentrates on resources, capabilities and competencies; the second focuses on measures of competitiveness; and the third includes competitive dynamics and strategy discourse. The analysis shows that the conceptions of competitiveness are quite coherent concerning resources, capabilities and competencies. However, in the “measures of competitiveness” and “industry dynamics and strategy,” discourses were more diverse, indicating greater ambiguity in how the core competencies, capabilities and resources are portrayed as competitiveness outside the institutions. The literature suggests that the measures and indicators of competitiveness are ambiguous to external stakeholders and, furthermore, reflect institutional goal ambiguity. Originality/value The question of how, and to what extent, increasing competition in management education and research catalyzes unwelcome changes in the industry has been of great concern to management educators and scholars. This has given rise to a considerable body of literature referring to b-school competition. Despite its topicality, this discourse has remained theoretically fragmented and separate from the mainstream strategy literature. Therefore, this study provides a review and critical discussion of the current state of research on b-school competition, as well as proposes avenues for future research and tools for strategic management of b-schools.

No abstract

No abstract

Tämä raportti on osa Jyväskylän yliopiston monitieteistä Menestystä menneisyydestä -tutkimushanketta, jossa selvitetään yritysten historiatietoisuutta. Raportin teko ei olisi ollut mahdollista ilman Keski-Suomen liiton ja Business Finlandin rahoitusta – kiitos molemmille tärkeästä tuesta tutkimushankkeelle. Kiitos myös Keski-Suomen Yrittäjille ja Keski-Suomen kauppakamarille, joiden verkostojen kautta kysely levisi keskisuomalaisyrityksille. Raportti on pohjana tutkimushankkeen seuraaville vaiheille, joissa sekä syvennytään tarkemmin yksittäisten yritysten historiatietoisuuteen että laajennetaan analyysiä valtakunnalliselle tasolle.

This article analyses the career paths of Swedish and Finnish sailors from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. The article shows that, for the most of the men, the seaman's occupation was just a passing phase before taking up a job on shore, but many of them also created a longlasting and advancing career by going to sea. There was not necessarily, however, a clear distinction between job opportunities at sea and those on shore in those days: men worked both at sea and on shore. We therefore argue that an individual's advancement in a maritime career was a context-specific socio-economic phenomenon. In Scandinavia, work on board ships was dependent on features that characterized the division of labour in a predominantly agricultural domestic economy on land and emerging industrialization during the turn of the century. Here we present an analysis of the career paths of almost 60,000 men recruited to serve on Swedish and Finnish merchant vessels from the 1840s to late 1940s.