To whom the management research rings

Citation

Pundziene, A. (2006), "To whom the management research rings", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 1 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/bjm.2006.29501caa.001

To whom the management research rings

To whom the management research rings

Baltic Journal of Management is a unique management research Journal for the region of the Baltic sea. looking at the history the region was not the calmest place since 2000 BC and on. Finno-Ugrians and Indo-Europeans settled the region. Baltic, Slavic, Germanic and other tribes were trying to establish themselves as comfortable and as close to the water as possible. Most of the tribes were agriculture communities, however constantly exposed to nomad cultures fighting for Eastern and Southern territories. The Baltic sea region countries were growing and shrinking through out the history, however this has not prevented developing education and science traditions. The first Universities in the Baltic sea region are dated back to XV century – Restock (1419), Greifsvald (1456), Upsala (1977), Copenhagen (1479), Karaliaucius (1544), Vilnius (1579), Tartu (1632), Turku (1640) and Lund (1666). Vilnius university established in 1579 as “Academia et Universitas Vilnensis Societatis Jesu” was the first and the only University most East until 1755 when Moscow University was established. The longer history has Prague (1348), Vienna (1365), Krakow (1364), Buda (1389) and few other Central European Universities. Philosophy, Theology and Law were the first disciplines lectures and researched within the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) universities (VU, 2004). Physics and Mathematics, Medicine and Art were also flourishing. For Social science, including Management, was still long way to go for establishing themselves within the family of sciences. Social sciences came as a stepchild of Philosophy and Medicine with the need created by the Industrial revolution and the development of the organisation of Labour. However, the natural development of the Social sciences in the CEE was disrupted by Soviet occupation (1944-1990) for 46 years. The social issues were too much of ideological nature to be let free. Under the Soviet Union natural and exact sciences were developed and nurtured.

In most CEE countries the era of Management research started since 1990 with the quantitative research background brought from Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and, etc. That means 15 years of the “legitimised” Management research history, taking into account that to grow “pure” management scientist (awarded Doctoral degree in Management) it takes 10 years (hypothetically if academic carrier is consistent – 4 years of Bachelor, 2 years of Master studies and 4 years of Doctoral studies). However, the region took the shortcut of evolutionary development and already since 2000 was showing enormous GDP growth rates (e.g. 2003 Lithuania with the nine per cent of GDP growth was titled “Tiger” of economic growth in the region (The Economist, 2003). Accelerated growth of the economy and businesses created high demand for management knowledge and niche for management development and research. Partially the needed knowledge was imported from Western countries with consistent evolution, however, each bit had to be adapted to fit the “shortcut” conditions. Management research at least could be seen as a tool to test the applicability of “classical” theories under rapid growth conditions.

Reflecting on the history and analysing already third number of the Baltic Journal of Management the need for scientific media on management research in the region confirms itself. The interest to the region is expressed also by the Western Europe as well as USA, Canada, etc. researchers (Table I).

The dialog is extremely important by sharing the traditions of management research developed in historically different conditions.

For the 3rd number of the BJM 7 papers are selected: Strategic Planning of Regional Development in Higher Education, E-learning as Internationalisation Strategy in Higher Education – Lecturer's and Student's Perspective; Taking Ideology Out Of Ethics: From Failed Business Strategies to New Cross-Cultural Platforms, Building Employee Commitment in the Hospitality Industry, Leadership Prototypes: A Russian Perspective, Finnish Managers' Careers in ICT and Paper Business Sectors and Retail Service Quality Success Factors in Estonia: A Qualitative Approach. This time the review section reveals the happenings from the 4th Annual BMDA Conference “Creating Well-being – Entrepreneurs in the Driver's Seat” that took place on 5-7th June 2006 in Helsinki. The papers cover strategic management of Higher Education Institutions and education innovations, Cultural and Human Resource Management issue as well as Marketing.

As Editors we hope that Journal provides deeper insight into the Management and Management researchers' challenges within the Region both for the Western as well as for the Easter management researchers.

Asta Pundziene