Constructing Symbolic Value Through Categorization Tools: The Role of Rankings in Building Business School's Reputation

Syed Haider Khalil, Fahad Sultan and Muhammad Tufail
Additional contact information
Syed Haider Khalil: Assistant Professor, Institute of Business and Leadership Studies, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, KP, Pakistan.
Fahad Sultan: Deputy Director, Institute of Business and Leadership Studies, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, KP, Pakistan.
Muhammad Tufail: Assistant Professor, Institute of Business and Leadership Studies, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, KP, Pakistan.

Global Social Sciences Review, 2018, vol. 3, issue 3, 354-377

Abstract: Investigating rankings in the field of business education, we aim to examine field structuration process to understand how categories build symbolic value in an institutional field. We selected twenty reputed business schools from Pakistan and the United Kingdom (UK) through purposive sampling method. Adopting the concept of data triangulation, we gathered empirical evidences through interviews with business school marketing managers, academic experts in the field of marketing and reputation, and with industry experts. This data was further supplemented by variety of secondary sources such as internal student surveys, annual reports, newsletters and industry reports to perform a thematic analysis adopted in this study. Thematic analysis helped us to develop a model of institutional work and field level change by emphasizing on the key role categorization systems (rankings) in shaping perceptions of symbolic value (reputation). Our findings suggest, categorization tools create a contest at different levels. Consequently, it redefines the perception about value in the field. The current study may be useful for academia and Higher Education policy-makers by providing them with a theoretical understanding of categorization systems such as university rankings and the changing perception of value in the field.

Keywords: Rankings; Reputation; Categorization; Institutional Work; Symbolic Value; Business Schools (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://gssrjournal.com/jadmin/Auther/31rvIolA2LALJouq9hkR/hl92ckTqwE.pdf (application/pdf)
http://www.gssrjournal.com/issue/Constructing-Symb ... s-Schools-Reputation (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gss:journl:v:3:y:2018:i:3:p:354-377

DOI: 10.31703/gssr.2018(III-III).20

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Global Social Sciences Review from Humanity Only
Bibliographic data for series maintained by M Imran Khan ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).