From 'Ecoles Supérieures de Commerce' to 'Management Schools': transformations and continuity in French business schools

Part of the national system of grandes écoles, French Business schools have known radical changes since the 1980s, notably in size, and have become more attractive to students both at a national and an international level. As a consequence, the French elitist system has been questioned by the competition of foreign –especially Anglo-Saxon — models. An organisational/institutional analysis of these transformations is presented here. Considering that French business schools have been progressively building an organisational field since the end of the 19th century, we will analyse how this field has seen a process of de-structuration and re-structuration since the late 1980s. The article first introduces some specificities of the French higher education system. The historical construction of the national business schools field is then presented, before analysing the increasing competition between schools and its effects over the last decades.