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This research paper aims to examine the global trends in publishing in the leading marketing journals between 1964 and 2008, focusing on how public policy intervention in the assessment and funding of academic research has influenced Britain's relative productivity in the world's leading marketing journals.

The method was an audit of contributions to the leading journals based on the authors' affiliation, country of origin and country in which they obtained their doctoral training.

The results show that the proportion of leading marketing publications by authors affiliated to British universities have held steady at about 2 per cent, while the productivity of several other countries has accelerated past Britain. However, to retain that share, Britain has increasingly depended upon importing people whose PhD is not British. This contrasts with some other European countries that are now more productive than Britain, but mainly recruit locals with local PhDs. The pattern of decline in the UK is related to the impact of Britain's research assessment exercise and the continuation of relatively weak social science research training.

The analysis is limited by only looking at one academic discipline and only the top few academic journals in the field.

The findings have implications at several levels. At a national policy level it questions the value of the research assessment exercises that appear to have presided over a decline in research productivity. For institutions, it questions the value in investing in developing local talent when success has come to those who buy talent internationally. Perhaps, the major implication arises from Britain's academic productivity declining while neighbouring countries have grown in international excellence.

At a time when the continuation of expensive university research assessments is being questioned the research findings add value to the current debate in showing how that very process has accompanied academic decline.

This article is based on the author’s experience as head of a leading international business school, with strong embedded values in providing the highest level of quality business education within a global perspective. The scope of the article is one of focusing on a global business school, i.e. one which is able to draw on professors and students to come together for teaching and learning in a “global meeting‐place” from all over the world. The article provides the following results, conclusions and recommendations: first, a distinction is made between local business schools, serving typically a national market, regional business schools, typically serving a number of national markets, but within the same language area, and global business schools, typically serving the entire world community. Then the content of a global curriculum is reviewed, and five items are being identified: a strategic competence, a partnership competence, a staffing competence, a learning competence, and an organizational competence. In order to pursue global growth and to develop the capabilities for this, a conceptual model by Chakravarthy and Lorange is then being introduced, where one’s strength will be the starting‐point/basis for further global expansion, either by leveraging one’s capability vis‐à‐vis new markets, or by building a new business by adding new competences to the existing ones, or as a next step by combining the two leveraging and building dimensions into a transform strategy. Four managerial challenges are then being reviewed for the leading global business school, namely the issue of language, the mix of the student body, the degree of internationalization of the teaching and administrative staff, as well as the global marketing challenge. The article concludes with a discussion regarding an optimal location for the global business school. It is argued that perhaps many of today’s leading business schools, being located in major markets, will not have an optimal location, due to the fact that these major markets can more or less explicitly lead to a nationally based bias of the teaching and research being undertaken, i.e. obstructing the globality focus of the business school. A small country location might therefore be preferable.

Brings up and examines the concept of a business school as a learning organization. Discusses the issue of change as a stimulus to learning ‐ as businesses face new challenges, so, therefore, do business schools ‐ hence the necessity to become a learning organization. Proposes the idea of the faculty member as the learner, as well as the integration of various modes of organizational learning: faculty group discipline‐based learning, cross‐disciplinary programme‐based learning, and learning via a “partnership” with a major customer organization. Illustrates a working model for organizational learning comprising learning from research activities, workshops/ “discovery events”, open teaching programmes as well as in‐company tailored programmes. The total of this ‐ when aggregated as it relates to all the major learning partnerships the school is involved in ‐ leads to acquisition of knowledge by the faculty and the business school becomes a deliberate organizational learner. Concludes with emphasis on partnerships with multinational cutting‐edge firms as the key to the most relevant real‐life organizational learning.

Communication studies have expanded significantly around the globe in the last decades. Due to new channels of communication and more and more mediatised societies, the role of communication has gained significance. In contrast, communication does not seem to be a topic of high priority for many corporate leaders. They often still value communication as a mere support function.

This chapter explores communication courses of business schools in the United States and Europe. It is hypothesised that only if communication courses are recognised in such programmes the profession of business communicators will realise entry into the highest levels of corporate decision-making.

The main question is how far top-ranked Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes integrate communication courses. This is investigated via website analysis and interviews. This chapter also provides explanations for the current status quo. The results will be of interest to all those responsible for shaping MBA curricula and give insights into how the communication discipline is viewed by leaders of business schools.

Business school accreditation has been long established in North America. Its development in the UK and Europe is of much more recent origin and has been fuelled primarily by concerns to protect the MBA brand. It is only recently that a European process of whole school accreditation (EQUIS) has emerged, and the process is now continuing with the “second wave” of schools. This paper traces the development of accreditation processes in the USA, the UK, across the European Union and Central and Eastern Europe. It also explores the implications of accreditation and recognition systems for providers and consumers of business qualifications, whether employers or prospective students. The relationship between these systems and national and institutional approaches to academic quality standards is explored. Finally, we analyse the future of the range of accrediting systems in the UK and the wider European Union.

BUSINESS SCHOOL GRAFFITI is a highly personal and revealing account of the first ten years (1965–1975) at Britain’s University Business Schools. The progress achieved is documented in a whimsical fashion that makes it highly readable. Gordon Wills has been on the inside throughout the decade and has played a leading role in two of the major Schools. Rather than presuming to present anything as pompous as a complete history of what has happened, he recalls his reactions to problems, issues and events as they confronted him and his colleagues. Lord Franks lit a fuse which set a score of Universities and even more Polytechnics alight. There was to be a bold attempt to produce the management talent that the pundits of the mid‐sixties so clearly felt was needed. Buildings, books, teachers who could teach it all, and students to listen and learn were all required for the boom to happen. The decade saw great progress, but also a rapid decline in the relevancy ethic. It saw a rapid withering of interest by many businessmen more accustomed to and certainly desirous of quick results. University Vice Chancellors, theologians and engineers all had to learn to live with the new and often wealthier if less scholarly faculty members who arrived on campus. The Research Councils had to decide how much cake to allow the Business Schools to eat. Most importantly, the author describes the process of search he went through as an individual in evolving a definition of his own subject and how it can best be forwarded in a University environment. It was a process that carried him from Technical College student in Slough to a position as one of the authorities on his subject today.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the responsibilities and opportunities that arise for management education out of the 2008/2009 economic and financial crisis, with a focus on the emerging leadership role of Asian business schools, notably in China.

The paper begins by identifying three fundamental challenges for management education. It then discusses two conceptual issues relating to, first, the contents and systems to be included in curriculum reform and learning, and second, the drivers of change in management education. The paper draws upon conceptual papers advanced by leading business school deans, and identifies conditions which provide Asian business schools with a unique, transformational role.

The depth, breadth and seriousness of current economic and social problems in emerging economics suggest that the necessary reform and transformation of management education is most likely going to be led by business school deans and management education faculty located in and working with business leaders in emerging markets. China business schools are likely to emerge as thought leaders in the reform process in part due to the quality of scholars, especially “returnees”, now locating there.

Thought leadership from Asian/Chinese business schools will change the current academic model, based on one‐way knowledge transfer, to a two‐way learning model. This transformation from industrialized to emerging economies will have far‐reaching consequences for curriculum design, faculty exchanges and international cooperation between business schools.

The shift toward Asia‐ or China‐originated thought leadership is evidence of a wider international social trend.

The paper challenges existing views of management education which are still led by Europe and North America, thus offering a new perspective on the drivers of change in management education.

This paper aims to develop a clearer understanding of the role of business education and business schools in fostering global mobility. As business schools seek to educate managers who can work globally and adjust to new business and cultural environments, it is important to assess which specific dimensions of business education, such as the location of the school and its curriculum, play a significant role in fostering greater global mobility among business graduates. This also helps how business schools potentially influence global talent flows.

This study uses an empirical research methodology in the form of a multivariate analysis to examine a sample of 91 business schools that are accredited by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in the 2015 Financial Times Global MBA Ranking.

This study finds that international mobility of MBA graduates is mediated both by the design of the curriculum and the location of the business school. MBA graduates from leading business schools that offer greater levels of international experiential learning are more likely to pursue overseas careers after graduation. MBA graduates from leading business schools that are located in economically globalized locations, by contrast, are often more likely to remain in the country where they studied after graduation to pursue local employment opportunities.

This paper contributes to the knowledge of how business education influences the international mobility of business graduates and how it influences global talent flows.

Considerable debate since the global financial crisis has been evident concerning the role of business schools. This article aims to outline the authors’ research on their role.

The paper begins with an overview of the significant literature highlighting the current debates impacting on business schools and their leaders. From this the authors argue that the most significant challenge is the role business schools should play in the resolution of urgent global issues. The paper then details and analyses the research and provides recommendations.

The authors argue that the most significant challenge is the role business schools should play in the resolution of urgent global issues. The main finding from the research was that the leaders of participating business schools did not convey the impression that steering business toward helping humanity achieve a sustainable future and tackling urgent global issues was seen by them as one of their main current or future roles.

Funding constraints and the desire to make a timely contribution to the debate mean that this research is limited in scale. It is therefore viewed as a scoping study, paving the way for more detailed investigation and analysis, and recommendations for further research are provided.

The authors argue that, rather than make the same mistakes as the West, BRIC economies and related business school leaders should be looking for an alternative strategy that would lead to a just, sustainable and fulfilling human presence on the planet. The authors also suggest that Type 1 European business schools are well advised to focus their limited resources locally but should be aware of global issues and bear them in mind in their actions.