EVOLUTION OF TRADITIONAL UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL INTO MARKET-ORIENTED KNOWLEDGE PROVIDER/RAZVOJTRADICIONALNE SVEUCILISNE POSLOVNE SKOLE U TRZISNO ORIJENTIRANOG PONUDACA AKADEMSKOG ZNANJA

Business schools are important higher education institutions with a visible mission in a society in which they function as independent private business education institutions or, alternatively, as part of the national public higher education system. Irrespective of their legal status in a national higher education system, however, all business schools have recently been exposed to increasing dynamics and challenges in their broader external environment. As knowledge and innovation increasingly function as key drivers of the competitiveness of businesses and prosperity of the global society, they tend to be treated as marketable goods and as a lucrative market product that may be offered in the marketplace by a broad array of knowledge suppliers. Due to a dynamic proliferation of new business knowledge providers that have recently entered the business education marketplace in transition countries, the position of university business schools as traditional credible knowledge providers has started to erode. Besides numerous private business schools that entered the marketplace during recent years of dynamic privatization of higher education, a variety of non-traditional suppliers have entered the market for business knowledge and education, business consulting, and research. With a broader offering of mostly similar business education programs the competition for students has increased and, accordingly, the marketing and business sides of business school operations have become as important as their academic processes. Thus, a strategic adjustment of business schools to a more uncertain world should start with a profound and comprehensive evaluation of market dynamics and change in the business education and broader environment. Detailed strategic analysis forms the foundation for evaluating the appropriateness of school's own resources and competencies, for defining its future strategic ambitions and delineating a desired position that the school wishes to occupy in a future competitive and dynamic academic setting.