40 years young - 1971-2011
40 Years ! Hard to imagine, especially for those who were there or who remember the very beginning.
Since its foundation in 1971, the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) has striven to accomplish its mission as a main driver of academic rigor and excellence in the field of management research and management teaching in Europe, and has dedicated itself to raising the profile of European Management Research in general.
According to an early development plan for EIASM, the Management Board saw the Institute as
- initiator, catalyst and co-ordinator of joint efforts;
- a basic resource to be used jointly by the European academic community;
- making the vision of international innovative management education and research come through in attitudes as well as in concrete action;
- striving to come closer to the real crucial problems of public and private organisations .
In Management Studies, as is the case in many other disciplines, research is the engine which has a significant impact on the quality of management education. In turn, both management education and practical experience form the basis for improved management practice. That explains why for 40 years, EIASM has put the major part of its efforts into supporting and emphasising the importance of high-quality research.
It is clear that over these 40 years the frontiers of management have changed. We all witnessed increasing diversification and specialisation at the cutting edge, adaptation to the inter-disciplinary character of today’s major problems and more and more fundamental research conducted with application in mind.
Whereas in the first 5 years EIASM operated as a highly sophisticated think-tank that created the basis for the worldwide reputation of the Institute, we have subsequently developed into a large and successful think-net that at present comprises over 50.000 researchers and teachers in the wider field of management in Europe and the rest of the world.
It is said that networks are appropriate when knowledge resides in dispersed centres, is required for only a limited time and purpose, and must flow interactively among multiple nodes. The big advantages of networks are that they can disperse risks and reduce investments, release imaginations, multiply the opportunities for innovation, and increase the likelihood of revolutionary inventions (Quinn, Sloan Management Review, Summer 2000).
As a network organisation with its primary emphases on applied research and on doctoral education, EIASM has run Workshops, Conferences and has developed its well-known and highly-appreciated EDEN Doctoral Seminars. In the process, EIASM has built the capabilities and competences of other networks (associations) and of generations of researchers.
With the help of all our partners, individual researchers, institutional members of our Academic Council, Associations, and indeed all our friends in Europe and beyond, the EIASM will continue to reflect on its commitments to action, learning, and strategic understanding of the needs of its key stakeholders, so as to derive the greatest benefit for them in the New Europe, and the globalised World.
