Search results

The purpose of this chapter is to develop a deeper understanding of the CSR perspectives of MBA in the European context. The chapter will review literature from the USA and Europe focused on business school ethics and the CSR. The chapter will then present the findings generated from research into MBA students’ ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a European business school research site.

This was inductive research that used qualitative, semi-structured interviews, along with other qualitative techniques, to collect data. The research population was purposely selected from two cohorts of MBA students, one comprising P/T, the other F/T students.

The research confirmed that there are broad similarities between the USA and Europe, in terms of students’ experiences of business school scholarship and pedagogy. The research also confirmed, however, that these European-based students wanted a greater focus on CSR, for instance in terms of addressing the relationship between business and the environment, which students do not consider is adequately addressed in their programmes. Furthermore, and reflecting US experience, students reported at the completion of the MBA that they were conscious that they had become more focused on their individual ‘rational’ self-interest, with the goal of increasing their own material success. Not all of these students were content with this change, but they reported that it had been embedded within them, as a consequence of studying for an MBA.

US-based research and this example from the European context both point to the conclusion that there is dominant instrumental paradigm in HE business and management pedagogy. This paradigm needs to be challenged to restore society’s ethical and CSR expectations, and also to facilitate the moral education of more socially responsible MBA graduate managers. The research confirmed that students are very much in favour of CSR framed changes to the MBA programme.

This chapter contributes to a developing research stream into MBA programmes and CSR in a European context.

The reforms in business schools based on the Ford and Carnegie Foundation reports (Pierson, 1959; Gordon and Howell, 1959) have been very successful in embedding management in a research-based body of knowledge, thereby elevating the academic status of business administration. These reforms, however, did nothing toward making management more socially trustworthy or management education more responsible. In the light of the pressing economic, social and environmental crises the world is facing, the feeling is spreading that not only business and economics but business schools also need to change fundamentally, if they want to be a provider of solutions to these crises and thereby keep and regain their legitimacy. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the fundamental challenges facing the role of business schools and their contributions in the areas of education, research, managing faculty, and role of the business school. It presents suggestions what responsible management education for a sustainable world could and should look like.

The paper builds on the existing literature on the needed changes in business schools and has been written as part of a large international project, the 50+20 initiative (www.50plus20.org), which was developed by a broad coalition of organizations with the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business (WBSCSB), the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) and the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) at its core and 16 business schools and organizations from all around the world as supporters (Muff et al., 2013).

Business schools need to transform themselves fundamentally, if they want to be a provider of solutions to the crises of responsibility and sustainability and thereby keep and regain their legitimacy.

The paper pulls together insights from a diverse area of literature and develops practical conclusions.

The purpose of this paper is to address the lack of relevance of business school research and how the potential gap between research and practice may be related to the lack of interaction between faculty members and non-academic stakeholders (e.g. industry, professions, society).

The review of the extant literature in this area is combined with the experiences and discussions with business school leaders from around the world.

The problematization of the lack of relevance of business school research leads us to conclude that it is a case of reward folly; the authors hope for relevance to external stakeholders but the authors reward for relevance to academic stakeholders. Drawing on Stokes’ (1997) research taxonomy, the authors conclude that business-school research should combine internal and external validity, which would involve business school faculty performing rigorous and relevant research, and interacting with practitioners; that is, an “academic triathlon”.

Faculty members should conduct research and teaching activities as well as interact with industry, and act to disseminate their research findings among external stakeholders. Consequently this should have implications for both the academic structure at business schools and the resources available to faculty members. Proceeding in this way will result in the narrowing of the gap of understanding between faculty members and management, and ultimately, to bridge the gap between contemporary versions of the Agora and the Academe.

The authors provide a taxonomy of stakeholders of business school research and outline changes in the structure of business schools, resources provided to faculty members and impact on accreditation agencies.

The dominant variance theory approaches to researching business school reputations are based on a positivistic hypothetico‐deductive research methodology and do not adequately take into account either the different levels and types of contexts in which business schools operate or the diversity of stakeholder interests. The aim of this paper is to propose a more relevant contextualised framework for analysing the reputation of business schools that takes cognisance of the national business systems, industry/sector, university and relational contexts of the different stakeholders involved in socially constructing and enacting business school reputations. The authors also seek to explore the tensions between these often competing or unaligned agendas of stakeholders in business schools.

This is a conceptual paper that proposes a contextualised framework for analysing the reputation of business schools. It reviews the current state of theory on business schools’ reputations, analyses their weaknesses and potential research gaps, and proposes an alternative model to the dominant universalistic positivism in understanding business school reputations.

The authors conclude that the variance theory underpinning of current research does not take into account sufficiently either the diversity of stakeholder interests or the contexts in which business schools operate. Thus, the authors propose an alternative model to the dominant universalistic positivism in understanding business school reputations. This new model is based on four levels of context: national, industry, university and relational, and acknowledges that different stakeholders might have a dominant voice at each of these levels.

The authors attempt to fill a gap in the existing literature on business school reputations, and make a contribution to theory of reputation management.

The ambiguous response of business schools to responsible management education (RME) is part of a larger problem which is rooted in how science evolves. The purpose of this paper is to explain how the consolidation of causal-based research in management will produce much more effective theories and teaching materials. Therefore business schools will then have to seriously engage in strong RME practices to prevent scandals from happening and to consolidate management as a profession.

In total, two models are introduced and explained. First, a comprehensive methodology for theory building that controls for causality and delivers clear and actionable results. Second, a model that depicts the three stages of interactions between variables (relationship, contingency and causality).

New causal-based research methods are starting to emerge that explain when a particular event will occur and how to “cause” for it to happen.

Business schools are not responsible of the current economic crisis. But if they do not find a way to introduce RME practices before the advent of causal-based research their reputation might be severely damaged during the next one.

As many other business school innovations, the first group of business schools that pioneer causal-based research will not only deliver on the promise of RME but also introduce the new generation of successful, relevant and actionable new managerial practices.

This study aims to clarify how higher educational institutions (HEI now onwards) can engage in organizational learning process to implementing sustainability initiatives. Through the case study of business school in France, it shows how sustainability integration is a longitudinal process, influenced by contextual factors which facilitate and impede the learning process. It aims to contribute to the literature of sustainability in higher education by bringing in insights from organizational learning theory.

This research uses the case study method to analyze the sustainability integration over the specific period. To do so, data was compiled by analyzing internal documents, publicly available sustainability reports. Further data was also complimented by the interviews, which gave intra-organizational level insights.

The case highlights that organizational learning for sustainability is stimulated by deans, faculty and institute of sustainability. It provides insights about how designing and implementing sustainability initiatives within an HEI is not a fixed goal; on the contrary, it is an ongoing learning process. However, this learning is also prone to barriers due to the ambiguous nature of sustainability.

This research was conducted within a specific time, geographical and cultural context; hence, its result may lack generalization. Further comparative research is encouraged to explore similarity and differences within different HEI settings.

This research also gives potential insights for developing contextual awareness to prioritize, design and implement sustainability initiatives. Thus, it may be useful for the HEI administrators such as deans, sustainability managers and faculty members.

This case emphasizes that HEI like business schools need to expand their relevance via social responsibility. This could be done so by encouraging leadership to engage with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This research uses organizational learning theory to understand determinants of sustainability design and implementation at French HEI. In doing so, this research contributes macro-level process of sustainability integration of an HEI.

The purpose of this paper examines some of the controversies facing business schools in their future evolution and pays particular attention to their competitive positioning as centres of management research.

The paper combines and builds on current literature to provide an analytic overview of the environment and competitive challenges to management research in business schools.

The paper assesses the impacts of a globalized environment and ever‐changing competitive dynamics, for example in terms of the supply of high‐quality faculty, on the activity of management research in business schools. It points out that research impacts must be judged not only in terms of theoretical development but also managerial and policy impact. However, managerial impact is difficult to measure and the “voice of practice” must be carefully identified.

The paper identifies the current challenges for undertaking innovative research in business schools in light of their competitive environment. Three interrelated conjectures focusing particularly on managerial impact are raised which identify problems and limitations of current debates on management research in business schools.

This paper aims to report the efforts to reverse a dire research output trend at a Ghanaian Business School, following a similar effort at a business school in New Zealand in the 1990s. African universities are often challenged by resource constraints, ageing faculty and low compensation regimes. The consequences of these challenges are particularly felt in the area of the research output of faculty members in the business and management area. The problem of low research output has been written about by management scholars who lament the weak showing of African management faculty in reputable journals and top-notch conference presentations.

This is a qualitative and phenomenological study of an applied intervention. Using a combination of open-ended questionnaires as well as open forums attended by faculty members of the business school, views, perceptions and opinions on factors mitigating research and issues on research culture were collected and analysed. Descriptive analyses were used to collate the dominant views and frequency of mention of such views.

Using the descriptive accounts of faculty of the Business School, the research finds that a research-oriented culture expressed through factors such as leadership, institutional support, articulation or otherwise of relevant values have significant impacts on research output.

Based on the impacts reported here, this paper advances an intervention model to assist efforts towards improving the research culture and scholarly outputs in business schools in Africa. The paper also proposes a conceptual and research framework for examining and influencing the organisational and research culture of universities in Africa.

This paper is perhaps the only attempt to examine research culture in an African business school. It suggests that the research culture in a business school or faculty can be developed, reinvented or influenced and that research in African universities will not “just happen”, it has to be carefully planned for, nurtured and built into the fabric of university culture. This has significant implications for the growing effort to bring African scholarship in the management areas up to the point where it can more directly impact management thinking.