Do Business Schools Walk the Talk? A Critical Examination of Espoused Values and Reputational Façades

Amid increasing pressures from external stakeholders, business schools are adopting characteristics similar to corporations to enhance their ability to address these demands and enhance their competitiveness. One such feature that has gained popularity is the explicit articulation of a school’s espoused values. Drawing upon previous work on organizational façades and authenticity, we argue that external pressures often lead business schools to superficially adopt espoused values without genuine integration. Consequently, this leads to the construction and manipulation of reputational façades aimed at influencing reputational performance. Our study examines 841 accredited post-secondary business schools from 62 countries across six continents. Using established frameworks by Bourne, Jenkins, and Parry (2019) and Cardona and Rey (2008), we analyze and map the espoused values of each institution, probing the relationship between these values and reputational performance. We find evidence that business schools espouse values that are disconnected from academic principles. Furthermore, we observe a disconnect between the articulation of more espoused values and reputational performance, as evidenced by poorer ranking outcomes. Overall, our research demonstrates that schools utilize espoused values as a low-cost signal to construct a reputational façade, which may ultimately harm perceptions of organizational authenticity and undermine reputational performance.