This paper presents a comparative historical reconstruction of the evolution of the management discipline in Argentina and Spain - two countries that share common institutional and linguistic characteristics, which derive from their colonial relationship, but differ in terms of their economic development paths. We conclude that there are important paralless in both cases. First, the two countries have a role of "importers" of management knowledge, particularly from the United States, which may result from the positions that they have historically occupied in the capitalist world system. Second, the discipline is dominated by a clearly professionalist orientation, and the production of academic management knowledge seems to have little importance.
Argentina; Spain; management knowledge; management history