Towards Americanisation and the corporate university in an elite business school: A leadership history of the Helsinki School of Economics/Aalto University School of Business, 1974–2022

Figures & data

Table 1. Sources and source use in the focal study.

	Types of material	Use in historical analysis
(1) Documents from HSE/Aalto archives, author’s personal archive	Correspondence Curricula, course descriptions, agendas, meeting minutes, memos used in workshops, meetings, and other events Strategic planning documents Documents of the HSE Doctoral centre Annual reports of HSE (1974–2009) Annual reports of Aalto University (2010–2021) Author’s personal archives from 2001 containing numerous documents related to the focal organisation (e-mails, memos, plans, other correspondence) Altogether over 3200 documents, partly digitised	Reconstruction of the timeline of key events during the entire research period. Production of the fourfold periodisation of leadership eras. Reconstruction and interpretation of leader characteristics, leadership styles and intentions. Identification of new data sources and informants. Overall, getting insight and material for interpretative work related to leadership during the four eras.
(2) Interviews and feedback	Former rectors, vice-rectors, chancellors, deans, and professors Administrative personnel and unit directors Altogether 18 semi-structured video interviews Informal discussions and feedback (both written and oral) from 15 former leaders and professors on the original manuscript of the paper	Reaching complementary information and clues necessary for the reconstruction of the sequence of key events. Complementary insight into the personalities and intentions of central actors. Evaluation of facts and assumptions concerning especially the timeline of key events and outcomes of the four eras. Finding new archival evidence and identifying key informants.
(3) Biographies and other literature central to our analysis	Official histories of the HSE: Saarsalmi (1961), Helsingin kauppakorkeakoulu (1983), and Michelsen (2001) HSE/Aalto anniversary publications (Pöykkö & Åberg, 2010; Pöykkö & Jalas, 2010) Biographies/autobiographies of key actors (e.g. Lehtonen, 2014) Professor festscrifts, speech collections (e.g. Kasanen, 2011) Who’s Who in Finland publication 1978 Academic articles on HSE/Aalto	Reconstruction of timeline of key events. Understanding and contextualising the event sequences and strategic choices related to Americanisation and the emergence of the corporate university. Complementary insight into the personalities and intentions of central leaders and their leadership teams.
(4) Media material	Newspaper and magazine articles on HSE and Aalto throughout the research period. Altogether over 200 individual articles.	Reconstruction of timeline of key events. Understanding and contextualizing the event sequences and strategic choices related to Americanisation and the emergence of the corporate university. Helping to weight the trustworthiness of other materials by referring to the in situ created media texts.
(5) Autoethnografic aspects	Author’s more than 20-year experience as a full professor, department chair, program director and an MBA dean in the focal organization. Author’s personal acquaintance with most of the key actors. Author’s personal archive significantly feeding to (1).	Understanding and contextualising the event sequences and strategic choices related to Americanisation and the emergence of the corporate university. Complementary insight into the personalities and intentions of central leaders and their leadership teams. Understanding of the changing leadership culture of the focal organisation, long-term evolutionary trends.

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