Squeezing the Middle: the Consequences of Quality Oversight in Management Education

Ulrich Hommel () and Ben Woods ()
Additional contact information
Ulrich Hommel: EBS Universität für Wirtschaft & Recht
Ben Woods: EBS Universität für Wirtschaft & Recht

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, No 6, 96-114

Abstract: Abstract This study examines the linkage between quality and institutional dynamics with a focus on the business school sector. For this purpose, we consider the triad of quality management—quality assurance, reputation management, and risk management—and apply Fligstein and McAdam’s (A theory of fields, 2012) theory of fields to analyze its impact on the institutional dynamics of the sector. We observe that a large tranche of incumbent business schools is dependent upon field stability for its resources, but that stability is being unsettled by internal and external forces. We argue that, unlike the ranked (elite) schools, middle-of-the-pack incumbents lack the existential and material slack to abandon the status quo in times of change, and, unlike unranked (challenger) schools, they lack the irreverence to eschew quality management practices altogether. Our logic explains why “institutional entrepreneurs,” here defined as agents of innovative collective action, can mainly be found at the top end and the fringe of the business school sector.

Keywords: Business schools; Theory of fields; Quality assurance; Reputation; Rankings; Risk management; Resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-018-0559-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:jknowl:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s13132-018-0559-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-018-0559-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().