An Insight into the Historical Development of Business School and its Uniqueness within the Higher Education Context: Debating the Legitimacy of Business Schools

For several decades universities have enjoyed a robust position at the heart of global economy of knowledge, and business schools have been one of the major success stories in higher education over the last four decades (Ivory et al. 2006, and Mintzberg 2005). Even in the financial market turmoil of the last few years, business schools still keeping healthy as ever with many more students applying to study for a business degree, even though there are scholars who suggest that business schools are reaching a crossroads in their development and the ‘end’ of a very successful time is coming because they are moving on to the wrong way (e.g. Pfeffer and Fong, 2002 and Bennis and O’toole, 2005). The purpose of this chapter is to argue for the business schools' legitimacy based on its historical development and its uniqueness. It will examine the specific issues that have impacted on business schools to date and some of the predicted difficulties that lie ahead for business schools.