In the trend of globalization, global citizenship, social responsibility,and sustainability are seen as the benchmark for assessing the sociology of schools. However, there are few formal definitions or concepts of global citizenship and convincing evidence of how global citizens engage in cultural activities at universities. Therefore, it is essential to research extensively and accurately to create concepts about global citizens in higher education. International higher education, social sciences,and business materials are considered to have integrated a deep understanding of global citizenship in the context of universities in general and business schools in particular. The recognition of the concept of global citizens through the moral and transformative lens is considered a practical solution when approaching this new and full of problems. This paper describes the learning of global citizens through social imagination, relationships,and reflexes. These qualities will help students develop complex and ambiguous global business thinking. The materials and knowledge considered in this paper are the basis for establishing ethical reasoning, sensitivity and value-based teaching in universities. These aspects will create new ways to integrate the concept of global citizens into training programs at business schools. Global citizen learning will create the necessary links of social responsibility with sustainable development and ethical principles when implementing the curriculum at business schools. Besides, the paper also outlines how to learn from global citizens and apply that learning method to teaching practice.

Higher education institutions are facing increased national and international competition for research talent and research funds (OECD, 2009). The best way for a university to react to this situation is to foster its reputation. Not only for firms (Raithel & Schwaiger, 2015), but also for universities, reputation is one of the most valuable intangible assets (Albers, 2015). Therefore, this study investigates the drivers of business school reputation as perceived by academics. The impact of the following potential drivers is analyzed in this study: research performance, third-party research funds and standing of professors within the academic community. We used the variable research reputation from the business school ranking of the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE) as a proxy for reputation. In addition, also the variable sum of third-party funds was available from the CHE dataset. Furthermore, we measured professors’ standing in the academic community by considering if they are outstanding members in the two major German research communities and if they are in the editorial board of one of the A+ or A ranked journals according to the vhb-jourqual ranking. Moreover, we measured research performance by means of the score of the faculty achieved in the Handelsblatt Rankings Faculties as well by means of the publication output per faculty member. Besides, the previous score of the CHE ranking was included to control for path dependency of reputation (Gray & Balmer, 1998). As additional control variables, the size of the business school, the research reputation of the host university (measured as the number of Nobel-price winners from the university) and the size of the city (measured by the number of inhabitants) were used. Research performance as measured by the Handelsblatt Ranking accounts for 31% of current reputational assessment. The influence of third-party funds as well as professors’ standing within the academic community could not be confirmed. Moreover, city size was found to be correlated to reputation. The obvious explanation would be that large cities are able to attract better researchers (be it for quality of life or because universities in large cities offer more attractive compensation schemes), which in turn leads to a higher research productivity – an important driver for academics’ reputational assessments of a business school.

This paper proposes a conceptual model for understanding the determinants of business school reputation from a company’s perspective, and further, investigates the potential effect that business school reputation has during the recruitment process. Although extant research enhanced the knowledge of business school reputation enormously (e.g. Corley & Gioia, 2000; Rindova, Williamson, & Petkova, 2010), business school reputation from the stakeholder perspective of practitioners has been largely underrepresented. Instead researchers have focused on examining business school education from students’ and academics’ perspectives (e.g. Baden-Fuller, Ravazzolo, & Schweizer, 2000). However, only few studies examine all three constituencies: students, firms and academics (e.g. Safón, 2009; Vidaver-Cohen, 2007). Reputation is pertinent as it reduces uncertainty among stakeholders and foremost, serves as signal to evaluate the quality of a product or service (Fombrun & Shanley, 1990, p. 237). For example, in the context of business schools recruiters assess the quality of graduates by recruiting candidates directly “off campus”. Thus, practitioners are regarded as a stakeholder group that exerts a powerful influence on business schools (Safón, 2007, p. 218). That is, successful alumni not only influence the perception of prospective and current students directly, but more generally contribute to external perceptions as part of rankings and media (e.g. Glick, 2008, p. 19). Hence, it is pivotal for business school management to know what drives the reputation of the institution in order to invest in and leverage on the most important determinants. Responding to a more holistic approach of business school reputation (e.g. Safon, 2009), the proposed conceptualization of business school reputation moves beyond prior literature to an understanding of multiple factors, internal and external, that influence business school reputation. Based on empirical qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 12 recruiters from multidisciplinary backgrounds, in terms of industry and experience and extant literature, four main determinants of business school reputation were identified. These determinants include Media Coverage, Quality, Alumni and the Institution itself and are in line with prior research findings (e.g. Armstrong & Sperry, 1994; Sweitzer & Volkwein, 2009). Adding to the above, it is also evident that business school reputation has an influence on the selection process during recruitment (e.g. Safon, 2009). Therefore, this study not only contributes to the discussion on business school reputation from a multiple stakeholder perspective in identifying main drivers of reputation, but also on its influence on the recruitment process. Thus, the scarcity of research on business school reputation from practitioner’s perspective calls for a theory-based conceptual model for further foundation of research. By addressing these research gaps, this study makes several contributions. First, examining business school reputation from a practitioner’s perspective expands existing literature on business school reputation. Second, the proposed conceptual framework advances the importance of business school reputation from a management perspective with regard to its influence on the recruitment process.