Signaling impact: research, collaboration and reputation at European business schools

Abstract Business school reputation is an important but complex signal of academic and societal value. Although the reputation of business schools is still mainly assessed through bibliometric indicators, accreditations or rankings, these indicators cannot provide access to the broader impact of research on industry and society. This study fills this gap and examines how European business schools translate their research productivity and collaborative practices into reputational capital among academic peers, industry and the public. Using a mixed methods approach, the study quantitatively analyses the relationship between bibliometric indicators at 83 European business schools from 2017 to 2022. These findings are further interpreted through qualitative insights from expert interviews. The results show that elite publications and international collaborations are significant predictors of peer reputation and ranking, while traditional metrics such as number of citations and national collaborations have limited significance. Qualitative evidence shows the importance of aligning research with industry needs, integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and utilizing different communication channels to translate academic reputation into broader societal recognition. The study proposes a new theoretical model with seven propositions that explain how research activities, collaboration and stakeholder engagement jointly influence institutional reputation. The findings argue for a shift from quantity of output to quality of research, recommend a multidimensional assessment of impact, and call for future research to incorporate alternative metrics and broader stakeholder perspectives.