Tracing Their Pathways: Business Education or Education Business

This paper explored how North American business schools have transformed a business education into an education business.  First, business schools secured a legitimate role as a discipline in higher education through substantial efforts, which included adding liberal arts courses to programs, increasing the use of scientific rigor, increasing the amount of research conducted, and by adding doctoral education.  The academic literature showed that the commercialization of business education was largely propelled by the use of contemporary marketing techniques especially for MBA programs.  This allowed business schools to morph into a legitimate business selling the MBA credential.  However, many business schools have become complacent when it comes to improving their program offerings.  This is because many business schools have achieved an enjoyable position in the higher education system and in the higher education marketplace.  Therefore, rising concerns have emerged that business schools will increasingly continue to engage in commercial behavior for the purpose of elevating student enrollments.  Additionally, it is worrisome that business schools are expected to exert less effort in the future to improve current product offerings for the benefit of students.  In light of these trends, it is time to formulate business ethics for business schools as businesses.  However, this must be accomplished in a way that balances traditional academic values with the commercial behavior of treating education as a business product.