Purpose

This paper aims to study the origin story of Harvard Business School’s involvement with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to study the reasons for the spread of American management education. It introduces both the explicit influence of Cold War politics and Indian development imaginaries to the export of American management thought in the early 1960s.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper relies on archival research for its primary source material, drawing upon rich archives of documents found at the Baker Library of Harvard Business School.

Findings

Harvard’s role in Ahmedabad was explicitly influenced by the Cold War anti-communist foreign policy of the USA, but did so opportunistically and contrary to the Ford Foundation’s (FF) original plans. Vikram Sarabhai, who was a key player in the Indian national imaginary of development, invited Harvard on his own initiative and forced the foundation to follow his interests rather than being a mere “subaltern.”

Research limitations/implications

This paper could additionally add to the historical debate about the scope and periodization of the Cold War and the role of non-state actors.

Originality/value

This paper covers new ground in exploring the early connection between the Indian development imaginary and business education. It concludes that the export of hegemonic US management education was not successful during Cold War, and the FF was not as dominant as it was made out to be.

中文翻译：

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从奥尔斯顿到艾哈迈达巴德：重新审视美国管理教育霸权

目的

本文旨在通过研究哈佛商学院与印度艾哈迈达巴德管理学院合作的缘起故事，研究美国管理教育传播的原因。介绍了冷战政治和印度发展想象对20世纪60年代初美国管理思想输出的显性影响。

设计/方法论/途径

本文依赖于档案研究作为其主要来源材料，利用了哈佛商学院贝克图书馆发现的丰富文档档案。

发现

哈佛大学在艾哈迈达巴德的角色明显受到美国冷战反共外交政策的影响，但这样做是机会主义的，与福特基金会（FF）的最初计划背道而驰。维克拉姆·萨拉巴伊（Vikram Sarabhai）是印度国家发展想象中的关键人物，他主动邀请哈佛大学，并迫使基金会遵循他的利益，而不仅仅是一个“底层”。

研究局限性/影响

这篇论文还可以增加关于冷战的范围和分期以及非国家行为者的作用的历史争论。

原创性/价值

本文涵盖了探索印度发展想象与商业教育之间早期联系的新领域。其结论是，冷战期间美国管理教育霸权的输出并不成功，FF并不像人们想象的那样占据主导地位。