This paper challenges the established view that business school rankings are very stable over time. Our analysis reveals significant regional shifts with a marked decline in the position of North American Schools and a simultaneous rise of European and Asian Schools. We explain this ascent by the concurrent rise of the demand for MBA graduates in Europe, a stagnant level of internationalization of U.S. business schools and the institutional work of European business schools to increase their legitimacy. We find that similar dynamics are at work in Asia. We contribute to debates on management education by: (a) challenging the view that rankings are highly stable structures (b) showing that the destiny of a business school is largely tied to the legitimacy of business education in its home region; (c) elucidating interdependencies across regions; (d) outlining factors that may influence the future of business schools and rankings.

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