["British Journal of Management, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nThis article revisits the view that UK business schools emerged as late and imitative responses to American models. Drawing on archival evidence and a longitudinal dataset of 130 institutions, it shows that the field developed incrementally from diverse origins, including mechanics’ institutes, civic universities, colleges of commerce and polytechnics. Using a field‐theoretic lens, the study traces four phases of development – emergence, status elevation, convergence and stratified expansion – to explain how coherence formed without institutional homogeneity. It identifies three mechanisms underpinning field emergence from diversity: symbolic alignment, structural integration and integrated stratification. The analysis shows that hierarchy was constitutive of field formation rather than a later outcome of competition, and that historical legacies continue to shape legitimacy, research capacity and market position. The article advances organizational field theory by showing how coherent fields can emerge from heterogeneous origins, while highlighting history as a strategic resource in contemporary business education.\n"]