In this essay, we integrate institutional and business bubble
perspectives to build a theoretical explanation for the growth and
subsequent decline of the business school sector in Dubai during the
period 2002-2012. The motivation for our research-based essay stems from
the question: "How is it possible that the world's top business schools
simultaneously judged the market so badly and collectively invested in
activities that, in retrospect, were far from economically rational and
more closely resembled euphoria and mania?" Furthermore, we ask: "Why
did business school leaders decide to enter the overcrowded Dubai market
in particular, precipitating its boom-and-bust cycle? Our novel
integration of institutional logics and bubble literatures produces a
detailed theoretical understanding of why business school bubbles have
emerged in the past and may emerge again in the future. From a practical
perspective, we also indicate that business schools are not immune to
business cycles or to bubbles and bursts. Business schools can even
create their own bubbles and bursts.