International comparisons and rankings of universities and business schools have proliferated in recent years. Ranking Business Schools provides a welcome analysis of this development and its implications for the field of management education, theorizing the role of classifications such as rankings in forming and structuring organizational fields. Focusing on the European experience with rankings and the subsequent response, the book illustrates how business schools use rankings to form identities and positions, and to draw boundaries for the field. By both creating and confirming 'belonging' to a business school community and providing distinction within that group, rankings are important for defining an international field of management education organizations, constructing an international business school market, and constitute an arena for debating and establishing the boundaries of this field. Building an extensive theoretical framework for understanding classification mechanisms and field construction, the study draws on theories of cultural and institutional fields, field boundaries and identities as well as on theories of classifications, transnational regulations and audit procedures.

This book will be of great interest to a wide-ranging audience, including practitioners in business schools, management education organizations, and universities; researchers, students and academics interested in the development of management education and the forming of academic disciplines and scientific fields; and those interested in new forms of transnational regulations and governance principles