Shaping Performance: Do International Accreditations and Quality Management Really Help?

Abstract

In recent years, international accreditations from private providers have gained importance among business schools all over the world. Higher education managers increasingly see these accreditations as a way of assuring and developing quality in order to comply with international standards, enhance performance, and increase reputation. However, given that an accreditation process requires a great deal of resources and that it might increase bureaucratization and control, international accreditations remain highly disputed in academia. This paper contributes to the discussion, providing quantitative empirical evidence regarding the effect of international accreditations on the research performance of business schools. On the basis of an international survey, we analyse how the acquisition of an AACSB and/or EQUIS accreditation affects the institutions’ position in the Top 1000 Business School Ranking of the Social Science Research Network, as compared to other quality management approaches. We find that international accreditations are positively related to research performance, while other forms of quality management do not exhibit any significant relationship to ranking positions. These results point to the importance of professional coaching in quality management. Because of AACSB and EQUIS’s high standards concerning a coherent strategy and the quality of faculty, applying for an international accreditation seems to be a useful way to improve a business school’s research performance.

Keywords: higher education, business school, accreditation, quality management, AACSB, EQUIS

JEL Classification: I20, I29