The Business School and the Bottom Line

Do business schools deliver? This is the first rigorous examination of the contemporary business school, and how it should develop.

Ken Starkey (Author), Nick Tiratsoo (Author)

9780521865111, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 August 2007

252 pages, 5 tables
23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.548 kg

'Increasingly influential - and increasingly criticized - there is no better gathering of facts about what's going in business schools than this work from two experienced authors who have read, probed, and interviewed widely. Especially fine are their analyses of the changing relationship between town and gown; Chapter 6 is a jewel. Their no-holds-barred remarks about the weaknesses of today's business school strategies, and the possibilities for tomorrows', are simply the best available in this globalizing discussion.' J. C. Spender, Queen's University, Canada and Lund University School of Economics & Management, Sweden

In recent decades, business schools have become important components of higher education throughout the world. Yet, surprisingly, they have received little serious attention. This book provides a sober and evidence-based assessment, charting the history and character of business schools in the light of current debates about the role of universities and the evolution of advanced economies. Previous commentators have viewed business schools as falling between two stools: lacking in academic rigour yet simultaneously derided by the corporate world as broadly irrelevant. However, over-concern with criticism risks ignoring the benefits of reform. What business schools need is reconfiguration based on new relationships with academia and business. Such change would deliver institutions that are truly fit for purpose, allowing them to become key players in the 21st century's emergent knowledge societies. This timely critique should be read by academics and policy-makers concerned with the present state and future development of business education.

List of tables
Acknowledgements
Prologue
1. Introduction
2. The development and diffusion of the business school
3. Business schools in the era of hyper-competition: 'more 'business' and less 'school'
4. Business school education
5. Business school research
6. Experiments and innovations
7. Imaginary MBAs
8. Business school futures: mission impossible?
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ], Finance & accounting [KF], Higher & further education, tertiary education [JNM]