Economia&Management, a 30-year journey in managerial culture

SDA Bocconi School of Management’s review Economia&Management celebrates 30 years from its foundation with a special edition covering the milestones of this long history.

Considering that this anniversary comes just a few months ahead of SDA Bocconi turning 50, the two can well be called family events. And not just because they are born from the vision of their common founder, Claudio Dematté.

As Dean Giuseppe Soda writes in his introductory text to Economia&Management’s special edition: “SDA has been figured to give Italy, the production world, companies and institutions a place where competent leaders can be educated and become capable of guiding development and facing the great challenges in economy and society.” The School has never come short of this commitment and its review has just naturally reported and expressed it, along with its website E&MPlus in most recent years. “Economia&Management could always grasp the spirit of the times and their challenges,” Soda said. From the very first signals of the globalization of economy to the great deregulations in the 1980s; from the birth of the internet to the digital revolution and the new ethical questions about corporate social responsibility and sustainable finance, the review has always been able to capture challenges and issues in the social and productive spheres.

In line with Claudio Dematté’s original vision, Ecoomia&Management has never ceased being an open platform for plural discussion, a place to debate and work out mainly the social role of companies, entrepreneurs and managers, acknowledging how complex this role is and that it cannot be forced into fixed paradigms. As he wrote in a 1994 op-ed, fully reproduced in the present special edition, governing companies is a hard task, halfway between art and science, where it is key to understand collective actions not only based on reason but also on feelings and passion.

Passion and feelings are also shared by those who have directed the magazine over time. Among them Vincenzo Perrone (Editor-in-Chief from 2004 to 2013) and Guido Corbetta (from 2014 to 2017), who have been interviewed on the occasion of this anniversary issue. Perrone recalls how demanding and energy-intensive it is for today’s managers “to be virtuous administrators and grow personally, company-wise and country-wise”. Corbetta underlines how valuable academic research and the spreading of its results are to managerial education: “A review like Economia&Management needs to continue delivering useful knowledge for entrepreneurs and managers.”

The magazine’s strength lies in its roots, therefore in its past, which the reader can explore from scratch thanks to four historiographic articles edited by Stefano Basaglia and Zenia Simonella. Quoting from Winston Churchill, present Editor-in-Chief Fabrizio Perretti reminds us that such an introspective analysis about what we have been is the best way to find the energy, and the right values, to face the future. Economia&Management will continue to address “the higher expressions of Italian entrepreneurship and leadership, abiding by its autonomy and freedom of judgment,” well aware of the social role it has embedded throughout its 30-years existence.

Go to Economia&Management 30-years special edition >>

SDA Bocconi School of Management