While research evaluation has achieved particular significance in the United Kingdom, there is growing interest and activity in this area among Scandanavian countries. Funded by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, this book is a product of the increasing recognition of the importance of evaluations. The principal aim of "Economics of Sweden" is to locate Swedish economic research in an international setting and from there, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Swedish economics. Throughout, an effort has been made to relate to recent work on evaluation by developing a theoretical foundation for assessing the future of Swedish economic research. The authors have achieved this by maintaining close two-way contact with the profession and by combining different empirical methods. This has taken the form of continuous interaction with the economics profession in seminars and on site visits to various economics departments. Although the study is focused on Sweden the analysis should also be relevant to several other countries, particularly the other Nordic countries, Canada, Australia and Israel.

Defining Management charts the expansion of management as an idea and practice from a time when it was limited to churches and households to its current ubiquity, focusing in particular on the role of business schools, consultants, and business media in this process. How did an entire industry develop around business schools, consultants, and business media who are now widely considered the authorities regarding best management practice? This book shows how these actors - on their own and in interaction - became taken-for-granted and gained such definitional power over management and managers, expanded across the globe from often modest and not always respected origins, and impacted, and continue to impact businesses and, increasingly, the broader economic and social context. Building on extant and some new research, the book is unique in bringing together issues and actors that have been examined elsewhere separately. Any student or professional of management interested in the evolution of their field or the rise of business schools, consultants and business media will find this book both novel and thought-provoking.

Over time we have seen large corporations, in many cases with multinational operations, begin to play an increasingly significant role in modern society. This in turn has put the governance of these corporations into focus. Against this background, Corporate Governance in Action helps provide a framework for examining corporate governance through a focus provided by external pressures on large corporations. It also brings together the approach of economics and finance with theories in organization studies, such as aspects of resource dependency theory. This framework takes into consideration not only the market relations of modern corporations but also their dependence on regulators and different kind of scrutinizers. This thoughtful book is a complete research guide that provides a new understanding and applicable framework for advanced students, academics and researchers in the area of corporate governance and the related disciplines.

During the 1980s and 1990s, organisations have undergone both regulation and deregulation. This set of papers written by a distinguished selection of international experts examines the nature of regulation, its evolution in particular sectors and its impact on social and economic equality. It draws on social theory concerned with the nature of regulation and order in modern societies as well as providing as a series of detailed analyses of particular forms of regulatory regimes in national and international contexts. This book, first published in 1999, should be of particular interest to management and business researchers, sociologists and political economists concerned with the process of regulation and its impact on organisations and management.

Defining Management charts the expansion of management as an idea and practice from a time when it was limited to churches and households to its current ubiquity, focusing in particular on the role of business schools, consultants, and business media in this process. How did an entire industry develop around business schools, consultants, and business media who are now widely considered the authorities regarding best management practice? This book shows how these actors - on their own and in interaction - became taken-for-granted and gained such definitional power over management and managers, expanded across the globe from often modest and not always respected origins, and impacted, and continue to impact businesses and, increasingly, the broader economic and social context. Building on extant and some new research, the book is unique in bringing together issues and actors that have been examined elsewhere separately. Any student or professional of management interested in the evolution of their field or the rise of business schools, consultants and business media will find this book both novel and thought-provoking.

Over time we have seen large corporations, in many cases with multinational operations, begin to play an increasingly significant role in modern society. This in turn has put the governance of these corporations into focus. Against this background, Corporate Governance in Action helps provide a framework for examining corporate governance through a focus provided by external pressures on large corporations. It also brings together the approach of economics and finance with theories in organization studies, such as aspects of resource dependency theory. This framework takes into consideration not only the market relations of modern corporations but also their dependence on regulators and different kind of scrutinizers. This thoughtful book is a complete research guide that provides a new understanding and applicable framework for advanced students, academics and researchers in the area of corporate governance and the related disciplines.

During the 1980s and 1990s, organisations have undergone both regulation and deregulation. This set of papers written by a distinguished selection of international experts examines the nature of regulation, its evolution in particular sectors and its impact on social and economic equality. It draws on social theory concerned with the nature of regulation and order in modern societies as well as providing as a series of detailed analyses of particular forms of regulatory regimes in national and international contexts. This book, first published in 1999, should be of particular interest to management and business researchers, sociologists and political economists concerned with the process of regulation and its impact on organisations and management.

Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic expansion of management education and practice. At the same time, the formalization of management practice has allowed for a widespread diffusion of management ideas across sectors and continents. This book provides an up-to-date summary of the development, refinement, and diffusion of managerial ideas, adding detail and explanation to commonly held conceptions about the explosion of management knowledge.
The contributors contend that management ideas do not flow automatically but are actively shaped and transformed by knowledge carriers--business schools, consultancies, and the media. Drawing on data from worldwide empirical studies, the chapters analyze how such carriers are organized, how they act and react, and how they shape and reshape knowledge. The book places the development and diffusion of management knowledge in a wider environmental and historical context and offers stimulating comparisons of European and American management traditions.
The combination of theory and practice will make this book a valuable resource for courses dealing with management, organizational and institutional theory, and globalization.

Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic expansion of management education and practice. At the same time, the formalization of management practice has allowed for a widespread diffusion of management ideas across sectors and continents. This book provides an up-to-date summary of the development, refinement, and diffusion of managerial ideas, adding detail and explanation to commonly held conceptions about the explosion of management knowledge.
The contributors contend that management ideas do not flow automatically but are actively shaped and transformed by knowledge carriers--business schools, consultancies, and the media. Drawing on data from worldwide empirical studies, the chapters analyze how such carriers are organized, how they act and react, and how they shape and reshape knowledge. The book places the development and diffusion of management knowledge in a wider environmental and historical context and offers stimulating comparisons of European and American management traditions.
The combination of theory and practice will make this book a valuable resource for courses dealing with management, organizational and institutional theory, and globalization.

This volume makes an important contribution to the growing literature on management consulting. It brings together international contributors from a wide variety of backgrounds and draws on recent empirical research from a diverse range of countries, consultancy firms, and client companies. The analysis focuses on three key areas. The first part of the book looks at the emergence and development of the consulting industry in different countries and time periods. The interplay between national systemic context and outside influences is stressed, and the efforts of consultants to become recognized as 'legitimate' knowledge carriers by their clients is highlighted, in competition - and sometimes cooperation - with other suppliers of management knowledge, notably academia. The volume goes on to consider the generation, management, and validation of consulting knowledge by consultancy organizations and management gurus, showing how these activities are influenced not only by the consultancies' own characteristics in terms of size, structure, and national origin, but also by the (national and cultural) context in which they are operating, and by the role of 'gatekeepers', such as book publishers or journalists. The third part of the book focuses on the nature and dynamics of the consultancy-client relationship, focusing especially on the ways in which consultants convince managers of the need to hire outside advisors; on the reaction of those concerned in the client organization towards the consultants' recommendations; and on the methods used by the consultants to overcome the possible reluctance and resistance from within the organization. From a more theoretical point of view, the chapters in this volume also show that research on management consulting has to take into account different levels of analysis: the consulting industry as a whole and its position relative to other knowledge providers such as academia; the specific consultancy organization and its relationships with internal and external sources of knowledge; and the particular consultancy project and notably the interplay between the consultants and the various stakeholders within and outside the client organization.

This volume examines different aspects of management consulting in an innovative and comprehensive way. The chapters are based on original research and cover a wide range of countries (e.g. Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Norway), consulting firms, and client organizations. They show how the consulting industry managed to reach the importance it has today; how consultancies and management gurus develop new ideas and/or repackage old ones; and how consultants find or retain clients and interact with them in a given project.