Born to be similar? Global isomorphism and the emergence of latecomer business schools

Abstract

By building on insights from institutional isomorphism, this paper investigates the development paths of latecomer business schools in Hong Kong, (South) Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. The global isomorphic pressure prevalent in higher education (e.g. the global regime of rankings) drives latecomers to imitate the practices of incumbents in order to enhance their academic impact through business and management research. Our study argues that latecomers respond to global isomorphism by forging their own paths. Our analysis shows that business knowledge production in Hong Kong and Singapore was more responsive to coercive (research strategy) and normative (faculty recruitment strategy) isomorphic pressure than Korea and Taiwan. The response to mimetic isomorphic pressure (co-authorship strategy) was less salient in Hong Kong and Taiwan than in Singapore and Korea. Further, we find that research, faculty recruitment, and co-authorship strategies affect the academic impact (citations) of the higher education institutions across each country differently. Our study sheds new light on the role of global isomorphism in the emergence of latecomer business schools.