In search of isomorphism: An analysis of the homepages of flagship universities

Flagship universities are expected to assume a national mission of increasing a country’s appeal in the competitive global higher education system, an imaged space often visualized through world university rankings. Based on a comparative analysis of 58 top universities from 39 different countries ranked by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2009, this paper contributes to, first, to the discussion of a potential global communication model adopted by universities competing internationally with empirical input, and, second, to the development a mixed conceptual framework, built around the clarified concept of isomorphism, for explaining the similarities and differences of the self-representation of such universities. The comparative analysis shows that there remained sufficient differences in the representation of flagship universities despite a common trend for them to switch from text-based to image-based websites. The much-feared homogenizing impact of world university rankings were mitigated by other contextual factors and the time needed in the process of emulation. When more universities adopted new websites with dominant images, the top university on the ranking, supposedly the target of emulation, went against the trend to adopt a new form of text-based website that integrated its social media presence. The study, therefore, concludes that regardless of the existence of a global communication model or not, flagship universities are restrained by contending isomorphic forces that keep them different from their global peers, intended or not