Business schools focus on teaching business and also doing research on business, while universities usually have many faculties (e.g. law, philosophy...): business (or business & economics) is only one of them. Some business schools are also more practitioner-oriented than universities, they focus more on training managers, while some universities focus more on training future researchers.

Primarily the universities are created with triple motto i.e. teaching, research and extension and the University Teaching Departments of the universities also follow the core philosophy of the university and strive for the triple motto. However the Business Schools work on the philosophy of training the budding managers and consulting. But experiences have shown that on later stage both categories of institutions i.e. Business Schools and University Teaching Departments try to adopt the best practices of each other to gain competitive edge.

Business schools impart technical  education; so they need to focus on translating the theoretical management concepts into identifying the probable problems, their causes and their solution. On the other hand, universities are more concerned with creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge or of liberal arts.  Business schools must make use of the rich theoretical knowledge that the universities create and use it for understanding the whole dynamics of the related problems. Universities can also learn to create knowledge with the help of the way business schools strive to provide solution for  them through consulting, research  and teaching.   

From my vantage point, I find that business school departments are very similar to any department at a university.  What goes on in a business school classroom is virtually identical to what goes on in any other university classroom - readings, discussion, tests, etc. Where universities and business  schools differ is typically their missions.  Universities seek to advance knowledge.  Business schools seek to train leaders.  Yes, business schools also seek to advance knowledge, too, but research in business schools typically has more practical applications and usually focuses on the future where research in fields such as history or English may investigate writers or events in the past.  

Hello,

Thank you for your answers - Perhaps from the comments it could be said that there is no 'one size fits all' characterization for either b-schools or universities.  What is driving my question could elaborated as:

Do these two types of institutions share the same fundamental academic values and goals?  Should their role in society be thought of as similar, or do they invoke different visions of what education and resaerch are for?

So I'm looking less for a description of observable differences than for some thoughts about the two institutions' respective places in society. 

Thoughts or ideas - Please comment!

Gazi

There is an short book by Stefan Collini entitled "What are universities for?" that gives an excellent outline of the fundamental purpose of universities. You can find a summary on the following link: 

https://globaleduc.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/book-review-what-are-universities-for-by-stefan-collini-2012/

Mark 

Thank you Mark! Yes, part of the motivation for my question is the large number of soul-searching type books that have emerged recently regarding the nature of universities.  Many of these books tend to locate the issue most acutely in the humanities and their 'crisis'. 

On the other hand, I have seen a lot of critical work  (mostly in journals) around changes in the business school, but they are largely around rankings, control mechanisms, etc.  So this led me to a larger interrogation of how we in B-schools see our missions vis-a-vis those in universities. I'm still, by the way, trying to form my own opinion about this, which is why I threw the question out there.

Universities and B-schools have one mission in common: to develop critical thinking in their students and develop their capacity to ask questions and develop question the staus-quo of today´s business models to try to change them. The current sustainability crisis in which business as usual have a great responsibility requires a change in the current logics and values of doing business. Universities have an important role in in leading this change process.