Typologising Business Schools:An Empirical Examination in London

Building on the notions of organisational typologies and taxonomies, this study aims to explain the diversity within the business school field through multidimensional approaches. Based on our empirical analysis of the business school field in London, specifically 46 business schools, the study constructs five non-exclusive configurations of business schools: formidable science-based (élites, e.g. Imperial, UCL), familiar (respected brands: Cass, London Business School, LSE), factory (metropolitan undergraduate institutions such as Westminster Business School), foreign (non-traditional, alternative and national and overseas branch campuses, e.g. ifs, BPP, Coventry University London, Chicago Booth), and fraudulent (Rayat London College). These include Simon’s vision of excellence both in academic performance and engagement with business practice, as well as variations in high, low and medium performance on multiple dimensions. The objective of this study is to develop concepts and methods for categorising business schools. Our research questions are: Why are business schools different and how different are they