Competing through international accreditation: cost-benefit analysis and process of AACSB for a business school in Japan

Abstract

PurposeThe current article aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What types of business schools should pursue the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)? and (2) What types of strategic leadership would be necessary for that?Design/methodology/approachA case study approach with archival research and interviews is employed.FindingsThe findings suggest that regional, teaching-oriented business schools at the graduate level with dominance-transformative leaders should consider acquiring AACSB accreditation due to its potential benefits, the most pronounced being an increase in the number of graduate students. Other advantages include improvements in the quality of schools' strategic planning, faculty qualifications, intellectual research contributions and assurance of learning, as well as branding.Research limitations/implicationsGiven its qualitative nature as a single case study with a small sample size, the findings may not be statistically generalizable. Future research could employ multiple case studies to examine several accredited schools, utilizing larger sample sizes to obtain more detailed results about the AACSB acquisition process, as well as the potential benefits and costs of AACSB.Originality/valueFew studies have examined the processes and impacts of acquiring AACSB accreditation, or the associated barriers in the context of an individual, international accreditation-seeking business school, in particular those that are small and regional. Likewise, few studies have addressed management leadership issues in acquiring AACSB accreditation. Our research addressed these research gaps by describing the processes, impacts and issues associated with acquiring AACSB from the perspective of a regional, teaching-oriented institute. Further, the study helped identify kinds of leadership appropriate for the acquisition of AACSB.

Navigating AACSB accreditation with strategic leadership and change management: a systematic literature review

“…The findings uncovered two leadership styles and several change management processes or models. Two articles mentioned two leadership styles: dominance-oriented transformational leadership (see Ito, 2022) and financial leadership (see Mohamed et al, 2020). Moreover, committed to obtaining AACSB accreditation through engagement with stakeholders and AACSB mentors or assessors by encouraging the faculty and staff seemed to be important traits that academic leaders should have.…”

“…All of the studies applied the qualitative approach, with variants of case studies as the method. The details are six case studies (see Ito, 2022;Siddiqui and Lento, 2022;Avolio and Benzaquen, 2020;Mohamed et al, 2020;Chedrawi et al, 2019;Guillotin and Mangematin, 2018. ), two multiple case studies (see Sziegat, 2021;Elliott and Goh, 2013) and one exploratory case study (see Galperin et al, 2017).…”

“…In fulfilling the criteria, schools need leaders committed to obtaining the accreditation and sharing their commitment to all elements of the institutions (p. 525). However, embedding the same commitment poses challenges, because the process could change the schools' culture (Ito, 2022(Ito, , pp. 1387(Ito, -1388.…”

“…The articles were conducted in five different regions/countries, including Asia (3 Articles. See Ito, 2022;Mohamed et al, 2020;Chedrawi et al, 2019), Canada (2 Articles. See Siddiqui and Lento, 2022;Elliott and Goh, 2013), Europe (2 Articles.…”

“…However, obtaining an AACSB accreditation requires significant effort and poses challenges. A study by Ito (2022) revealed that AACSB costs around US$130,000 and directly influences teaching-oriented schools to become research-oriented, burdening the entirety of the school (pp. 1387-1388).…”