Squeezing the Middle: the Consequences of Quality Oversight in Management Education

Abstract

This study examines the linkage between quality and institutional dynamics with a focus on the business school sector. For this purpose, we consider the triad of quality management—quality assurance, reputation management, and risk management—and apply Fligstein and McAdam’s (A theory of fields, 2012) theory of fields to analyze its impact on the institutional dynamics of the sector. We observe that a large tranche of incumbent business schools is dependent upon field stability for its resources, but that stability is being unsettled by internal and external forces. We argue that, unlike the ranked (elite) schools, middle-of-the-pack incumbents lack the existential and material slack to abandon the status quo in times of change, and, unlike unranked (challenger) schools, they lack the irreverence to eschew quality management practices altogether. Our logic explains why “institutional entrepreneurs,” here defined as agents of innovative collective action, can mainly be found at the top end and the fringe of the business school sector.