On 11 October 2022, MBA matching platform Unimy, part of Advent Group, announced the results of its research into the cultural character of 45 top-ranked and accredited European business schools.
The European MBA Cultural Fit data comes as part of the growing demand to objectively compare business schools in new ways. The data about US schools will be ready for release later in 2022.
The European MBA Cultural Fit contains data about schools in 13 countries across Europe: France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Schools profiled include HEC Paris, IE Business school, IESE Business school, ESADE, Oxford Saïd Business school, Cambridge Judge Business school, and SDA Bocconi, among others.
The schools’ 6-dimensional cultural scores are an innovative alternative to rankings. No school is better or worse as culture is only ever different. The MBA Cultural Fit is an objective measure of what is distinct about the culture of each school.
This alternative emerges as the recent ‘unranking’ movement grows with the closure of The Economist and Forbes’ MBA rankings this year, Columbia University announcing that it will pull out of the 2023 Best College Rankings, and the Graduate Management Admissions Council writing that it will address business schools’ concerns about rankings through its standardized reporting criteria.
Kalin Yanev, Chief Business Officer at Advent Group, who developed the MBA Cultural Fit project with his team at Unimy, said:
The MBA Cultural Fit empowers both schools and MBA candidates. Schools gain a new perspective on their positioning in the emerging context of culture as of growing importance. Candidates have a way to choose schools in terms of the degree of shared values, as well as the learning and living environment in which they intend to grow as leaders.
With our European analysis, we see a picture of European business schools that are diverse and distinct from one another - ranging from liberal to classical in their values; from formal to less formal; from highly structured in their communication to more fluid. This is valuable information for candidates and schools alike.
Data Highlights
Long-termism vs. an ad hoc approach is one of the cultural dimensions measured in the study. European business schools tend to value responsiveness and spontaneity more than US Business schools do.
• Only 18 out of the 45 profiled European business schools have a preference for long-term working and planning of 76% or more. By contrast, 42 out of the 54 profiled US schools have a preference for long-term working and planning to the same level or above.
European business schools also tend to value personal contribution over collective accomplishment more than North American business schools do.
• 70.37% of the profiled US business schools sit lower in their preference for personal contribution than 75% of European business schools.
Oxford Saïd Business School and Cambridge Judge Business School stand out on numerous cultural dimensions.
• Out of all schools measured across the world, Oxford Saïd Business School most prefers and rewards responsive performance with a 35.47% preference for ad hoc behaviors. Cambridge Judge Business School is near to it in this dimension with a score of 31.87%.
• We see a trend emerging among Oxford Saïd Business School, Cambridge Judge Business School, and London Business School. These three schools favor intuitive forms of communication (as opposed to explicit ones) more so than other European schools. They also favor a flexible approach to organization and planning more so than other European schools. The Cultural Fit data therefore paints the picture of a certain distinctive character for these three British schools. It seems that a long-running sense of tradition leads to a high-context culture – that is, one that relies on its members interpreting implicit ways of behaving and communicating.
