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?