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Business schools are vital in promoting responsible management (RM) – a management grounded in ethics and values beneficial to a wide array of stakeholders and overall society. Nevertheless, due to deeply embedded institutional modernistic dynamics and paradigms, RM is, despite its importance, repeatedly marginalised in business school curricula. If students are to engage with RM thinking, then its occlusion represents a pressing issue. Drawing on the United Kingdom (UK) business school context, this paper aims to examine this issue through a framework of institutional theory and consider the role played by (modernistic) institutional accreditation and research assessment processes in marginalisation of RM.

This study used an exploratory qualitative research method. Data were collected from 17 RM expert participants from 15 UK business schools that were signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analysed using the six phases of Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis.

The study identifies a potent institutional isomorphic amalgam resulting in conservative impacts for RM. This dynamic is termed multiple institutional isomorphic marginalisation (MIIM) – whereby a given domain is occluded and displaced by hegemonic institutional pressures. In RM’s case, MIIM operates through accreditation-driven modernistic-style curricula. This leads business schools to a predilection towards “mainstream” representations of subject areas and a focus on mechanistic research exercises. Consequently, this privileges certain activities over RM development with a range of potential negative effects, including social impacts.

This study fills an important gap concerning the need for a critical, in-depth exploration of the role that international accreditation frameworks and national institutional academic research assessment processes such as the Research Excellence Framework in the UK play in affecting the possible growth and influence of RM. In addition, it uses heterotopia as a conceptual lens to reveal the institutional “mask” of responsibility predominantly at play in the UK business school context, and offers alternative pathways for RM careers.

This paper aims to find an answer to the questions: To what extent is the implementation of responsible management education (RME) perceived to be adequate for developing responsible leadership skills among business school students? How should it be used effectively to guarantee such an outcome?

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 management educators working at three public business schools. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data.

The findings show that the implementation of RME alone is not adequate to ensure the development of responsible leadership skills among students in business schools. However, management educators do perceive it as a considerable step towards that outcome if accompanied with internship and training opportunities to exercise and observe how social roles and activities are practiced in business, not-for-profit and civil society organisations.

This study is a pioneering attempt to address the relationship between RME and developing responsible leadership skills among students in non-Western business schools.

This paper aims to examine the creation of the first commercial school in early independent Argentina in 1826 – the Academy of Accountancy of Buenos Aires (AABA) – at the request of the Argentine Government, which entrusted its direction to French expatriate Amédée Brodart, who was considered an expert in commercial education.

This study adopts a microhistory approach based on individual biography and archival research. First, it investigated published biographies of contemporary political figures Brodart had been in contact with. Then, the Argentine archives of the Ministry of Finance and the Arturo Jauretche Museum of the Bank of the Province of Buenos Aires provided information on Brodart’s life during his expatriation to Latin America. Finally, the French Archives of the Paris National Library and ESCP Business School in Paris provided information on Brodart’s life before his departure for Argentina and after his final return to France. These primary sources include extracts from Brodart’s correspondence, financial ledgers, study plans and a few rare iconographic documents.

AABA was connected to a nationalist agenda: to develop Argentinian trade to overcome national underdevelopment and to counter political agitation in the country. However, the lack of local expertise in commercial education, as well as Argentine authorities’ desire to avoid depending on foreign powers, led them to call on a French expatriate rather than on a network of organizations to open this school.

This paper contributes to the literature on the history of commercial education in Latin America and to the literature on the international transfer of commercial education models. This paper is also among the first to consider the origin story of Argentina’s relationship with commercial education.

This research offers new reflexive perspectives on the emergence of commercial education in Latin America by highlighting the agentivity of local actors.

Through a lens of dependency ambiguity, this paper repositions narratives of the development of commercial education in Latin America away from a Western-centric explanation, highlighting the role of local contextual actors. In doing so, it offers an alternative history of commercial education focused on Latin America.

This study aims to identify the strategic leadership and change management used to obtain the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations as well as the research development on AACSB in the past decade.

This study used a systematic literature review following Petticrew and Roberts’ study. The articles were limited to empirical studies published from 2013 to 2022, taken from the Dimensions AI database.

The findings suggested that two leadership styles were used to obtain AACSB accreditation: dominance-oriented transformational and financial leadership, alongside three traits of academic leaders: commitment, engagement and encouragement. Additionally, three change management models/processes were found in the articles: teaching evaluation framework, temporary isomorphism and authenticity. Finally, they discovered that the object of the studies on AACSB accreditation had been narrowed down from the organizational level to smaller objects consisting of schools’ identity, teaching, learning and business schools’ key players.

As this study only used Dimensions AI, potential articles related to the topic outside the database could not be obtained. Thus, it limits the scope of the findings of this paper.

This study informs academic leaders in business schools about the role of strategic leadership and change management in obtaining AACSB accreditation.

Through a systematic scoping review, this study presented a decade of research development on AACSB in addition to the strategic leadership and change management needed to obtain it.

This paper aims to clarify how business education has and should incorporate more resources, policies and stakeholder engagement towards the incorporation of sustainability, by conducting a literature review on sustainability in business and international business education and proposing future opportunities for researchers and practitioners.

The authors take a systematic, qualitative analysis approach to evaluate multidisciplinary literatures on sustainability in business education. The authors identify 192 qualifying papers published in 68 journals between 2015 and 2023.

The authors propose five categories of education solutions. Four of them are integrated, in two macro–micro levels: university (stakeholders and shared-mindset change) and student (pedagogical methods and curriculum); and one at meso level: international business (holistic integration) serving to unify the university and student levels.

The review highlights the value of applying a holistic approach and interdisciplinary pedagogical methods in future research on sustainability education in business school to effectively prepare future business leaders to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Insights from this review can usefully guide scholars and programme directors in their future research and administrative efforts towards business curriculum design, stakeholder management and policy-making.

The findings highlight how by embracing holistic perspectives, proper policies and self-awareness, business education shapes the mindsets and skill sets of the next generation of socially conscious practitioners.

The review stands out as one of the few that offers a forward-looking trajectory for the adaptation of international business education in response to sustainability challenges, through a holistic perspective.

In this chapter, we examine the role that business school accreditation agencies play in influencing attitudes to gender, exploring the documentation of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB); Association of MBAs (AMBA) and European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) to develop an understanding of their stake in promoting greater gender equality or inadvertently encouraging gender washing. These agencies are powerful stakeholders who, arguably, set the recognized global standards. We focus on the organizational rhetoric espoused by them and have found that they are using practices we have defined as genderspinning: presenting a favorable impression to stakeholders; and moving in endless circles.

This research paper aims to explore how secondary school-aged business owners utilise social media to engage in informal learning. The authors make use of the concept of a self-directed experiential learning cycle to empirically explore adolescents’ entrepreneurial learning processes without formal guidance or curriculum.

The study adopts a one-on-one interview approach with a critical incident technique in interviewing to examine the experiences of 10 Grade 9–11 business owners who run social media-based businesses on Instagram.

The results demonstrate that student business owners were able to capitalise on social media for venture creation and informal learning. They effectively engaged in experiential learning cycles with active help-seeking and mentorship in response to challenges in their business journey. A variety of resources within social media, their social circle and the internet were employed by students, highlighting the role the self-directed element plays in their experiential learning process.

The research urges institutions to recognise the potential of informal learning on social media and offer more support to strengthen students’ learning.

This research represents the first exploratory study on the potential of school-age teens’ self-initiated informal entrepreneurial learning while testifying the theory of the self-directed experiential learning cycle in the context of social media businesses. The study offers novel insights into the fields of students’ informal learning, entrepreneurial learning and social media learning.

Capitalism is under siege (Porter & Kramer, 2011), and business schools are under fire (Amann et al., 2013). So, management and leadership education in higher education institutions should be reinvented under the more challenging era of capitalism. How then can business schools cope with these challenges and contribute to global endeavor for making sustainable capitalism? In this context, there is thus reason for the following three core concerns that new understanding of management and leadership education is required. First, shortcomings of contemporary capitalism lead to failures of responsible management. Second, ethical failure of management leadership is a pressing issue. Third, academic responsibility under the new capitalism remains unexamined. Based on these three core concerns, we seek to generate inclusive insights into the educational embeddedness of management and leadership members and the consequences of such embeddedness on managerial processes, structures, and outcomes under contemporary capitalism.

The importance of developing and implementing sustainable business practices has never been greater. Business schools are increasingly tasked with preparing students to contribute to this imperative and although progress is being made, the impact of integrating sustainability into business school curriculum has remained uncertain as studies exploring the impact have been lacking. The purpose of this multi-case study was to examine the impact of integration efforts in two distinct undergraduate business programs at Royal Roads University. The research focused on how students' understanding of sustainability and their associated attitudes and behaviors changed as they progressed throughout their programs. In addition to considering the impact of a sustainability-infused curriculum, other factors affecting sustainability orientations were also explored. The study was unique in both its comparative nature and in its investigation of the various contextual factors shaping sustainability orientations. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and through document analysis. Findings suggest a combination of approaches to integration is most effective in impacting sustainability perspectives. While sustainability was generally understood in a multidimensional manner, there was a noticeable environmental bias and a tendency to view it within the business framework. A need for stronger and more comprehensive conceptualizations was identified. Recommendations include: (a) embed sustainability in a comprehensive manner across the curriculum, (b) move beyond a disciplinary conceptualization of sustainability and introduce stronger sustainability discourse, (c) utilize powerful experiential and place-based pedagogies, (d) pay attention to context and ensure both the formal and the informal curriculum mutually reinforce a pro-sustainability agenda.

This paper aims to explore the importance of tailored faculty development for neurodiverse business educators. It focuses on how specialized support can enhance research output, teaching effectiveness and service contributions within the academic community.

This paper’s conceptual approach uses elements of autoethnography to inform and support prior theoretical and empirical work. An explication of how neurodiversity can be integrated into faculty development efforts is presented with emphasis on individualized support systems, empathetic mentorship and customized teaching and research support strategies to leverage often unrecognized abilities.

The research identifies that neuroatypical faculty possess certain strengths such as heightened problem-solving skills and attention to detail, which, when supported, can significantly enrich the academic environment. However, there is a lack of targeted support mechanisms for, and general awareness of, these faculty. The paper proposes modifications to existing faculty development activities, emphasizing general and individualized approaches to better harness the talents of neurodiverse educators.

Implementing the proposed strategies will foster an inclusive educational atmosphere while enhancing academic creativity, innovation and productivity. This approach also aligns with important trends in diversity and inclusion, promoting a more equitable and dynamic academic environment.

This research contributes to the field by extending the discourse on neurodiversity in higher education beyond student-focused initiatives to include faculty development. It provides actionable strategies to create inclusive environments that leverage the cognitive strengths of neurodiverse faculty, a relatively unexplored area in business education.