Chapter 14: Contribution of The Socio-Economic Approach To Management To Updating Joseph Wharton's Legacy

Today, the universal paradigm of business schools doesn't date back to the founder of the first business school, Joseph Wharton, in 1883, at the college of liberal arts of the University of Pennsylvania, the place where, as “ironmaster,” he was heading one of the largest industrial companies of that time. In fact, it dates back to the dawn of the fifties, when the situation of business schools was a success for the Master's programs, which had been growing from 110 students in 1910 to 4,335 in 1949 (Daniel, 1998). At that period of time, a failure of academic research had been observed, because professors were mainly involved in vocational education and consultancy.