Shaping performance: do international accreditations and quality management really help?

Abstract

In recent years, international accreditations have become an important form of quality management for business schools all over the world. However, given their high costs and the risk of increasing bureaucratisation and control, accreditations remain highly disputed in academia. This paper uses quantitative data to assess whether accreditations can help a business school to foster its research performance and consequently its reputation. On the basis of an international survey, we analyse how being accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) or the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) affects the institutions’ position in the Top 1000 Business School Ranking of the Social Science Research Network. We find that international accreditations are positively related to research performance, while other approaches to quality management do not exhibit any significant relationship to ranking positions. These results point to the importance of specific standards required by AACSB and EQUIS accreditations such as having a coherent strategy and employing highly qualified personnel.

Keywords:

• accreditation
• business school
• higher education
• quality management

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Loran Lampart, Nadine Broghammer and Maria Olivares, who collaborated on this research project. We also thank Professors Bill McKinley and Ruth Alas, the reviewers of the CLADEA Annual Assembly 2012 and the reviewers of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management for their helpful comments and suggestions on prior versions of this paper.