What's behind the name? The intensification of co-branding in elite US colleges of business and education

Abstract

This article presents research that draws attention to the intensification of co-branding within elite US graduate colleges of business and education. A robust set of descriptive data collected and analyzed according to a content analysis strategy is used to develop an initial understanding of the trend of naming of colleges and academic units in recognition of individual leadership, private sector funding, and philanthropy. The patterns underpinning this trend that are revealed through this research are considered in the context of the academic capitalist knowledge/learning regime. The findings of this study illustrate how co-branding has become a pronounced, but surprisingly overlooked set of market-oriented activities that further link the post-secondary academy with the private marketplace. The article concludes with a set of questions that encourage further research on the potential policy implications and organizational outcomes of the co‐branding trend.

Keywords:

• co-branding
• academic capitalism
• content analysis

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Sheila Slaughter, Gary Rhoades and Randy Accetta for reading and commenting on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. Rhoades (1998) and Rhoades and Sporn (2002) termed personnel such as development offices as ‘managerial professionals’. Managerial professionals are charged with facilitating the interactions between post-secondary institutions and the private market and conduct work that is both creative and innovative, but outside of the framework that guides traditional academic work.

2. The AACSB did not include the 2004 naming of the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business following Ross's gift of $100 million.

3. At the time of this research the gross domestic price index for the years 2006 and 2007 was not yet available. Therefore, the real monetary amounts for funding acquired after 2005 were included, which was the most current gross domestic price index at the time of this research.

4. The branding amounts for the following named business colleges were excluded: Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) and Tuck (Dartmouth College). The amounts leading to the naming of the following education college were also excluded: Peabody (Vanderbilt University). The rationale for excluding the monetary amounts associated with the naming of these colleges is based on being named before 1919, which is the first year that the gross domestic price index was recorded.