From Dârülfünûn to Harvard: The Fox-Robinson Mission and the Establishment of the Institute of Business Administration at Istanbul University

This article examines the establishment of the Institute of Business Administration at Istanbul University through the lens of the 1953 Fox-Robinson Mission, situating it within Turkey’s post-World War II transformation and growing alignment with the United States. Drawing on archival sources, particularly the Fox-Robinson report prepared under the auspices of the Ford Foundation in collaboration with Harvard Business School, the study analyzes the initiative’s institutional and intellectual foundations. The article argues that the mission played a decisive role in transferring an American model of business education to Turkey, marking a shift from the Continental European tradition rooted in law and economics to a practice-oriented approach emphasizing managerial training and the case method. By focusing on the mission’s recommendations and implementation, the study highlights the interaction between transnational actors and local elites. Ultimately, the article contributes to an understanding of knowledge transfer and the development of a modern managerial class in mid-twentieth-century Turkey.