The Corporatization of the Business School : Minerva Meets the Market

Business schools, and universities more generally, are becoming increasingly corporate and market-driven, and the outcomes of this are not necessarily positive. Using studies from leading scholars in a variety of disciplines and countries, this book delves into the experiences within today’s corporatized business schools. It targets the debates surrounding the commercialization of business schools and how these affect the daily practices and routines of academic life.

With business schools becoming increasingly market-driven, questionable trends have emerged, such as the conflation of academic and corporate management, and the notion that academics and students are market players, who respond rationally to market signals.

Using individual studies from leading scholars in a variety of disciplines and countries, this book identifies the global pressures behind these trends. It focuses on the debates surrounded the commercialization of business schools, and the rise of different methods of measuring their success. In their unique approach, the authors and editors discuss the impact of the confrontation between the timeless values embodied by Minerva, the Roman goddess of Wisdom, and the hard realities of competition and corporatization in modern society.

This book will be compelling reading for students and academics in critical management studies, organizational studies, public management and higher education, as well as for stakeholders in academia and educational policy.