Business schools face significant challenges in terms of faculty recruitment, retention and development, with datasuggesting that there are worrying shortfalls in terms of numbers of PhD students graduating and taking up facultypositions in UK business schools (Francis, 2005). Add to this...

Commentators suggest that to survive in developed economies manufacturing firms have to move up the value chain, innovating and creating ever more sophisticated products and services, so they do not have to compete on the basis of cost. While this strategy is proving increasingly popular with...

Increasingly universities are seen to be one of the key actors in national innovation systems (Bessant & Venables,2008; Cosh, Lester, & Hughes, 2006; Etzkowitz, Webster, Gebhardt, & Terra, 2000; Lundvall, Johnson, Andersen, &Dalum, 2002). Firms reach out to universities as a source of knowledge and support...

The question of how best to assess research performance is clearly of great concern. In December 2007, HEFCE launched a national consultation on the future of Research Assessment, proposing that a Research Excellence Framework replaces the current Research Assessment Exercise. Fundamentally the...

Business schools, both in the UK and internationally, face serious challenges as to their future role and legitimacy.Questions have been raised about the value of the MBA degree, and its role as a preparation for management. Thegrowth of business schools as sites for knowledge production has...

UK business schools have grown rapidly over the last forty years1. Despite a tentativestart, when many commentators (including some vice-chancellors) appeared toquestion the status of management as an academic discipline, business schools havenow come of age. They account for a substantial...

Since the 1960s business schools have prospered in the UK. Now, however, there aresigns that the success story is coming to an end. The future of UK business schoolsis under threat from a number of directions. Their purpose is questioned – they areaccused of focusing on theoretical research at...