How Do Prestigious Universities Remain at the Summit: A Bourdieusian View of their Business Models
研究基于布迪厄理论，分析192所美国私立非营利大学的数据，揭示精英大学通过资本积累与转换维持主导地位的机制，并探讨其对社会责任的影响。
Abstract This study investigates how the specificity of a university business model supports the dominance and persistence of a handful of elite non‐profit universities, while considering the implications this phenomenon has on social responsibility. Despite their longstanding positions at the top of academia for over four decades, these universities often struggle to actively embrace social mobility, diversity and inclusion. The existing literature on business models lacks a comprehensive conceptualization that captures the ability of some institutions to establish and maintain their domination within non‐economic fields, such as higher education. Drawing on Bourdieu's framework and a unique dataset comprising 192 private non‐profit American universities, the study uncovers two fundamental mechanisms of accumulation and conversion of forms of capital (economic, social, cultural and symbolic) behind the perpetuation of dominance among non‐profit universities. This research contributes to both business model and higher education studies by introducing a novel conceptual tool for investigating the business models of non‐profit universities. Important managerial and social implications, including a call for leading non‐profit universities to enact socially responsible and diversifying measures, follows.