A Red Queen approach to the fading margins of business education

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a “change” stance towards the current situation of business education. Drawing on a theoretically embedded model, the authors hold a critical stance towards understandings of stability in the business education industry. In this respect, a model of change drivers is proposed for the industry and the authors elaborate on how business schools enact responses to comply with change pressures. Compliance with those pressures enables business schools to gain legitimacy from stakeholders and enhance their survival prospects.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ theoretically‐informed analysis draws on a combination of literature review and personal observations of business schools’ behavioural patterns.FindingsThe authors submit that the business school industry experiences four main sources of change: multi‐polar competition, new organizational species, content and mode of education and institutionalization. These sources of change impact on the fading margins of business schools. Drawing on the insights of the evolutionary model, the authors suggest that business schools engage in a process of continuous change and adaptation to these sources of pressure. In this manner, they conform to the adaptation model featured by the Red Queen metaphor; business schools must keep running and moving in order to stay in the same place.Practical implicationsThe paper proposes a roadmap of main change drivers, which business schools may take into consideration to provide a systematic response to environmental changes.Originality/valueIn contrast to authoritative statements and elaborations on the situation of the business education industry, the paper provides a theoretically informed, systematic model of change.

Are business school deans doomed? The global financial crisis, Brexit and all that

“…Over time, the pace of change has intensified with deans experiencing the "Red Queen effect" of having to run to stand still (Iñiguez de Onzoño and Carmona, 2012). In practice, the role entails herding cats (Hammond, 2002) as deans need to respect academic autonomy (Raelin, 1995), grappling with a broad portfolio, and ensuring that the university's "cash cow" (Starkey et al, 2004) produces surpluses.…”

“…Starkey and Tiratsoo (2007, p. 55) traced the evolution of the business school deanship from a position that 40 years ago was "a matter of duty shortly before retirement" for a senior professor in a professional bureaucracy (Mintzberg, 1979) to the scenario today where highly paid executive deans are similar to "sports coaches hired to improve performance, fired at will". Over time, the pace of change has intensified with deans experiencing the "Red Queen effect" of having to run to stand still (Iñiguez de Onzoño and Carmona, 2012). In practice, the role entails herding cats (Hammond, 2002) as deans need to respect academic autonomy (Raelin, 1995), grappling with a broad portfolio, and ensuring that the university's "cash cow" (Starkey et al, 2004) produces surpluses.…”