The Role of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada in Institutionalizing Management Education in Canada

Abstract

The development of management education and research practices in Canadian universities closely followed the evolution of practices in the United States. The national Canadian association of management scholars‐the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC)‐is examined to track the phases in its development that helped to foster this deliberate replication of American models in the somewhat different Canadian environment. The study supports the emphasis of the new institutional theory on cognitive isomorphism but shows variation in the normative practices. Résumé Le développement de l'enseignement et de la recherche en gestion dans les universités canadiennes a suivi de près celui effectué aux états‐Unis. La présente étude examine l'Association des sciences administratives du Canada, association nationale canadienne des experts en gestion, dans le but de retracer les étapes de ce développement qui a contribué à favoriser la réplique délibérée des modèles américains dans le milieu canadien quelque peu différent. Elle souligne l'importance de la nouvelle théorie institutionnelle de l'isomorphisme cognitif mais démontre également la différence qui existe dans les pratiques normatives.

Home bias effect in the management literature

“…At first sight, one might imagine that the closeness of the US would lead to less home bias in Canada, and that Canada would be strongly influenced by America, its paradigms and massive output of management literature. However, even though Canadian business schools were inspired by the American model (as well as other models in the case of French-speaking Canada), they have jealously guarded their national identity-as Austin (1998a, b) notes in his study. Through a three-stage process: first through the Deans Association, then through The Learned Society and finally through The Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC), they achieved a management education and research approach for Canadian universities that, while close to the American tradition, showed clear bias towards Canadian culture.…”

“…The result of this complementary search was the incorporation of Canada and China in our countries table, given that existent literature did mention the level of Americanization in management education with respect to those two countries. Specifically, the papers are: Austin (1998b), Liang and Lin (2008) and Davies (1996).…”

Internal Cohesion in Response to Institutional Plurality: The Administrative Sciences Association of Canada

“…In embarking on textual analysis we also undertook some preliminary research on ASAC and its history. Primarily, we examined Austin's history of the organization (Austin, , , , ) and related documents from the Academy of Management (AoM) archives (housed at Cornell University). To that end, we also treated the Austin histories and the AoM documents as texts to be analyzed rather than concrete facts about the history of ASAC.…”

“…This is where the archives start to show the struggle that the ASAC executive went through in trying to balance building international recognition while retaining a Canadian focus. Discussion around CJAS, in particular, involved arguments for adopting and promoting a strong Canadian focus (ASAC Strategic Plan 1999-2001, 1998) and strengthening the journal through greater focus on its Canadian character (CJAS Report, 2001), versus convincing well-known experts to submit articles (anonymous review of CJAS Vol 1, No 2, submitted to Corinne Hodgson, Grants Officer, Strategic Grants Division, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, March 4, 1985) and voting in favour of selling the journal to a publisher that would drop the Canadian from CJAS and create an international editorial board (Executive Meeting Minutes, Oct 14, 2004).…”

Constructing a legitimate history: crisis, legitimacy, and the atlantic schools of Business Conferences

“…We understand the relevant sociohistorical context as primarily concerned with enhancing the legitimacy of management education, and academic conferences are recognized as having a high level of utility toward this end of improving the quality and quantity of internally generated management knowledge (Austin, 1998). It is perhaps inevitable that the ASB, being a socially constructed institution of a particular kind-a management association-should, through the forces of isomorphism, develop a homogeneity of structure and purpose with other like institutions, coming to resemble each other over time through the adoption of legitimated practices (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983).…”