ANPAD was founded in 1976 in Rio de Janeiro during the period of the institutionalization of graduate programs in Brazil.
The founder members were nine graduate programs in administration and one in accounting: COPPEAD/UFRJ, EBAP/FGV, EAESP/FGV, FEA/USP, PPGA/UFRGS, PPGA/UFPB, PUC-Rio, UFMG, UnB, and the Accounting Program at USP.
On March 30, 1977, the first Extraordinary Assembly of the Brazilian agency CAPES took place. At this meeting, the topic of applying basic aptitude tests as a requirement to access graduate programs was discussed for the first time – which became the current ANPAD Test. Also, the proposal for the 1st Annual Meeting of ANPAD (EnANPAD) was put forward.
The first EnANPAD was held later that year, sponsored by CAPES, and designated as Symposium on the Curriculum of Graduate Programs in Administration
The ANPAD Test was created as part of the admission process for graduate programs in administration and accounting members of ANPAD. It was called TS ANPAD (ANPAD Selection Test) and applied once a year. The test consisted of questions to assess the candidates’ knowledge of Portuguese and English and decision-making abilities.
Professor Suzana Braga Rodrigues, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, was the first female elected president of ANPAD. Her administration (1989-1990) was followed by the administration of another woman, Professor Tânia Maria Diederichs Fischer, from the Federal University of Bahia (1991-1992).
The Journal of Contemporary Administration (Revista de Administração Contemporânea – RAC) is one of Brazil’s most well-known scientific journals. With articles on theoretical development and theoretical-empirical work in administration and accounting, in line with open science practices, RAC stands out from others in its niche. The idea of having a journal was on the agenda since the beginning of ANPAD and was finally implemented in 1997, under the administration of Professor Peter Spink and led by the first editor-in-chief Professor Clóvis Machado-da-Silva. RAC published three issues in its first year, portraying 30 of the best scholarly works presented at EnANPAD.
ANPAD’s web portal was launched on August 5, 1998, under the administration of Professor Roberto Moreno. The portal is one of ANPAD’s main means of communication with its members.
That same year, there was a change in the ANPAD Test, which started to be applied twice a year (May and September), and the test validity was established at two years. The content of the test also changed, encompassing five parts: logical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, Portuguese, English, and essay – all with 25 questions each.
This year saw an expansion of the thematic areas in EnANPAD, which went from 10 to 17 thematic areas.
The first Doctoral Consortium took place in 2001, organized by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), immediately before the 25th EnANPAD. During the event, doctoral students presented their projects to panels formed of members of various doctoral programs. Since then, the Doctoral Consortium has become an activity of EnANPAD, increasing the event’s duration by one more day. Currently, the consortium aims to promote the integration and exchange of ideas among the participants of doctoral programs in administration, controllership, and accounting.
In addition, the ANPAD Test came to be applied three times a year.
During the General Assembly that preceded the 27th EnANPAD, the members approved the establishment of Scientific Divisions. Professor Clóvis Luiz Machado-da-Silva, ANPAD’s president at the time, said in a statement that the initial purposes of the scientific divisions were to: increase interactions between professionals with similar intellectual interests, raise the quality of scientific production, and improve the process of evaluating works submitted to the various events promoted by ANPAD.
At the same assembly, the organization’s original name – Associação Nacional de Programas de Pós-Graduação em Administração (National Association of Graduate Programs in Administration) – changed to Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração (National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Administration), keeping the same acronym “ANPAD.” For a better understanding of the international audience, ANPAD’s official English name is the “Brazilian Academy of Management”.
BAR – Brazilian Administration Review was founded as ANPAD’s international electronic journal, and its first issue was the July-December 2004 edition. Created during the administration of Prof. Clóvis Machado-da-Silva, the journal aims to promote and disseminate the best works produced in Brazil to a broader academic community, not limited to Portuguese speakers. Professor Tomás de Aquino Guimarães was BAR’s first editor-in-chief.
The Academic Divisions were approved in 2003 under Prof. Clóvis Machado-da-Silva’s administration and officially established in 2005 under the presidency of Prof. Carlos Osmar Bertero. The Divisions created were: Management Information Systems; Public Administration and Social Management; Strategy; Organizational Studies; Finance and Accounting; Science, Technology, and Innovation Management; People Management and Labor Relations; Industrial Operations, Service and Marketing; and Teaching and Research in Administration and Accounting.
The development of the online ANPAD Test began in mid-2004. The aim was to run the tests on computers connected to the Internet, supervised by inspectors. The idea was to carry out the test in application centers in more distant cities since the logistics for transporting the exams and test material presented more risk of loss.
From June 2006 until 2012, some institutions started applying the ANPAD Test online.
Conceived in 2012, Spell-Scientific Periodicals Electronic Library is a referenced database of scientific content produced by registered journals, a free-to-use product promoted and maintained by ANPAD. The database allows consultation of national scientific production in the area of social sciences, specifically in administration, accounting, and tourism. It periodically publishes citation indexes and other metrics about the journals registered in the database, supporting the decisions of authors and editors.
The 96th ANPAD’s General Assembly took place on June 23, 2015, at the Grand Bittar Hotel in Brasília/DF. The meeting discussed changes in the organization’s bylaws and the decision to increase the mandates of the board of directors, audit committee, and chairs of the divisions from 2 to 3 years.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required a change in the application of the ANPAD test, scheduled to occur in March, July, September, and November. Only three out of the four editions of the test were carried out. The March edition was regularly conducted face-to-face, following the instructions and dynamics determined by the application centers. The edition scheduled to take place in July 2020 was canceled, and the September and November editions were held online. Therefore, 2020 was a year of transition for the ANPAD Test to adopt the online model. In 2021, all tests were conducted exclusively online.