ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the historical evolution of business schools, in which management education is incorporated and institutionalized, in an attempt to identify the common threads linking European business schools and to pinpoint the distinctions between these schools and comparable institutions in the US. On the basis of this examination, a definition of European management will be derived. The chapter discusses which knowledge and skills European business schools should impart to their students in order to form successful European managers within a globalized world. The school's approach to management was social and demand-oriented, owing to the influence of Jean-Baptiste Say, who was a neo-classical economist. French business schools evolved outside the public university system, with the chambers of commerce playing a predominant role in French management education. German business schools had to overcome opponents who were convinced that management could only be learned in practice, a problem that the founders of theoretical business education in France had encountered.
