Repairing Leaks in the Pipeline: A Social Closure Perspective on Underrepresented Racial/Ethnic Minority Recruitment and Retention in Business Schools

Despite initiatives to diversify business school administration, faculty, and doctoral student bodies, challenges to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities (URMs) persist. A “leaky pipeline” metaphor is often leveraged to describe these challenges, whereby disproportionately few racial/ethnic minorities initially “enter” the pipeline (i.e., academic career), and this initially low supply dwindles (“leaks”) at more advanced stages of the pipeline. Beyond simply describing leaks in the business school pipeline, we seek to explain why leaks occur and how they can be repaired. Specifically, we contend that mechanisms of social closure—discriminatory evaluation, knowledge- and resource-hoarding, and the preservation of dominant group identities—not only restrict URMs’ access to the academic pipeline, but also contribute its “leaks.” After discussing these mechanisms, we conclude with recommendations to the AACSB, an institution that can facilitate change and reduce social closure within business schools.