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In an era of polycrisis, we argue that responsible leaders need to unlearn common thinking patterns imprinted by old (management) paradigms in order to find new solutions to the grand challenges of our time. To be able to overcome the “crisis of the imagination” and spur narratives about more sustainable futures, leaders need to update and restructure their skill sets and invest in developing anticipatory and futures (thinking) skills, as well as futures literacy as a competence. To achieve this on the student level, we also need to rethink business and management education at the university level by challenging the ways we teach, i.e., teaching pedagogics, as well as the content and story we want to tell about the future of management. Thus, with this chapter, we aim to rethink pedagogical methods and tools by introducing educators to potential pathways for equipping students with adequate skills to be able to “use-the-future”. As the process of unlearning is difficult, we argue that we need to venture out of the business discipline and push the barriers of the business and management curriculum so as to be able to further unleash creativity and imagination. To achieve this aim, we propose the integration of methods and approaches from art-related disciplines, such as theater, visual arts, or design, into the business curriculum.

Organisational responses to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals depend on the competency and mindset of business leaders to lead responsibly. This study is informed and underpinned by the Principles of Responsible Management Education. This study aims to examine how embedding the “sustainability mindset principles” within a university programme can contribute to responsible management education and, by extension, leadership development.

An illustrative case study using 84 students was applied, including undergraduate, postgraduate and executive Master of Business Administration students. An exploratory, qualitative design was followed, primarily adopting focus groups.

Evidenced learning gains in connecting sustainability knowledge with personal beliefs and behaviours, provide a compelling basis for educational and business practitioners to focus on the sustainability mindset principles (SMPs). Mapping of mindset against leading global competency frameworks provides important theoretical insight. Learning is illustrated through multiple dimensions (i.e. cognitive, behavioural and affective) to inform leadership development approaches.

The mapping of sustainability competency frameworks against the SMP, alongside qualitative research insights, provides a compelling basis for further research into the learning gains from embedding the mindset principles. The situated nature of the study and the lack of longitudinal measurement of what students take forward into their lives and workplaces is a limiting factor to be considered.

This study evidences the value of “whole-person” learning for responsible management, which can helpfully inform the design of both educational and workplace leadership development programmes.

This study is original in the pedagogic examination of the learning dimensions of the SMPs in a Business and Management programme. It also offers new insights in terms of the implications for leadership development.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has challenged leadership in hospitals worldwide. The experiences of leadership during the pandemic changed leadership significantly. This study aims to describe nurse leaders’ perceptions of what future leadership in hospital settings in the post-pandemic era needs to be like.

A qualitative descriptive study was used. A total of 20 nurse leaders from the Finnish central hospital were interviewed from June to October 2021. The data were analysed using inductive content analysis.

The analysis revealed five main categories describing nurse leaders’ perceptions of future leadership in hospital settings in the post-pandemic era: digitalisation and hybrid working culture, development of sustainable working conditions, moving smoothly to the post-pandemic era, dissolution of traditional regimes of organisation and flexibility in leadership.

In the post-pandemic era, the constantly changing demands and challenges currently facing healthcare systems have significantly increased the complexity of hospital organisations. This requires critical evaluation and change to traditional leadership. Enhancing flexibility and authenticity in leadership, strengthening competencies, implementing a wide range of digital resources and increasing the appeal of the nursing profession to build the next generation of nurses – all of these are needed to provide sustainability in future healthcare.

The results identify the critical points of leadership that need to be developed for future challenges and for maintaining a sufficient supply of qualified professionals. Acting on this information will enhance flexibility in organisations and lead to acceleration of changes and the development of new kinds of leadership in the future

Promoting healthy dietary habits is a concern for public health due to the association between unhealthy diets and nutrient-related diseases. This paper aims to examine the relationship between individuals’ temporal dietary behaviour and perceptions of the effect of dietary habits on physical health and how these perceptions influence two important aspects of eating behaviour, i.e. daily consumption of healthy food and self-reported extra payment for healthy food options.

Cross-sectional data on 457 young Chinese adults within the age category of 18–30 years were collected through a survey. Two subscales (immediate and future) were obtained from the consideration-of-future-consequences (CFC)-12 scale through a factor analysis. A seemingly unrelated regression was estimated to determine whether CFC impacts behaviour through an awareness of the consequences of one’s dietary habits.

Individuals who are more focused on immediate gratification were more likely to perceive their current dietary habit have a negative effect on their physical health (p < 0.001). In contrast, those who prioritise the future benefits were less likely to perceive negative health effects from their dietary habits (p < 0.001). However, the perception of negative consequences of dietary habit on physical health did not motivate healthier eating daily (p < 0.001) nor allocating more money towards eating healthy (p < 0.001).

Understanding the relationship between time perspective and dietary habits could help identify potential risk factors for poor dietary choices and promote healthier eating habits.

The paper uses insights from behavioural economics to identify the behavioural triggers that lead to a healthier dietary habit.

Integrating sustainability into university curricula brings diverse challenges and conflicts as separate units vie for ownership of courses and topics. This case study presents a six dimensions sustainability framework developed at The Ohio State University to organize curricula under an inclusive strategy.

An interdisciplinary group of faculty focused on sustainability education engaged in a three-phased process including review of sustainability definitions from diverse disciplines; analysis of key aspects of the definitions in conjunction with course descriptions and learning outcomes; and identification of commonalities across the key aspects. This yielded six foundational dimensions of sustainability which serve as a means to assess curricular contributions across University units and topics. The six dimensions framework has been used in practice in multiple contexts.

The six dimensions framework provides a way to identify and foster diverse sustainability curricula efforts. It has enabled academic units to describe their disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on diverse sustainability topics and the University to advance a broad sustainability vision.

The six dimensions framework provides a novel “big tent” approach to integration of sustainability into higher education curricula. The framework provides guidance about what counts as sustainability while maintaining the breadth that widens participation.

Amid multiple crises and increasing volatility, sustainable development is a pressing concern. Higher Education for Sustainable Development, especially Responsible Management Education (RME), drives transformative change by fostering new perspectives on work, decision-making and leadership. Conferences serve as pivotal sustainability discussion platforms, yet many remain traditional and lack interactive student engagement. This hinders active involvement and collaborative problem-solving. The Global Goals Design Jam, a dynamic, nontraditional format explored in this study offers an alternative approach. By blending design thinking and playful learning and constructivist learning methods, the Global Goals Design Jam offers a space for collaborative and creative Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) solutions. At the ninth Responsible Management Education Research Conference (RMERC) in September 2022, students from various universities took part in a Global Goals Design Jam. The current prestudy postulates that participation in a Global Goals Design Jam is primarily associated with positive attributes related to emotions and a sense of coherence. The potential for empowering learners to navigate real-world complexities and contribute to sustainability is highlighted, establishing formats like the Global Goals Design Jam as a valuable addition to educational conferences with a sustainability focus. The results also highlight potentials and limitations of the format and provide insights into further research requirements.

This chapter delves into sustainability-related competences in innovation management for further education as part of the European lifelong learning initiative. Despite extensive research in primary and secondary education, adult education often remains overlooked. Competence-based learning is a favored approach to integrating knowledge, skills, and attitudes across various domains. Through thematic analysis and deductive coding, the study examines 72 innovation management-related further education programs conducted in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, between June and December 2022. The findings unequivocally demonstrate the inclusion of sustainability competences in innovation-related further education. Notably, Strategic Competence emerges as the most prevalent, while Normative Competence appears least frequently. This research significantly advances the convergence of further education in innovation management, responsible management education, and competence-based learning, emphasizing the importance of sustainability competences in adult learning contexts. By shedding light on this underexplored domain, the study prompts further exploration and development of sustainable educational practices for lifelong learning.

Based on imprinting theory and episodic future thinking, this paper aims to study how CEOs’ attributes and experiences inform innovation in tourism and hospitality businesses. It also explores ways to quantify innovation in this sector.

The authors quantitatively analysed innovation in tourism and hospitality using extensive data from companies’ annual reports. They further adopted multivariate regression to test how CEOs’ experience affects enterprise innovation.

Results demonstrate that CEOs’ academic education and rich work experience can promote corporate innovation. The authors also identified a mediating role of the tone of narrative disclosure in annual reports between CEOs’ academic education and corporate innovation. The imprinting effects of career experience and educational experience appear both independent and interactive.

CEOs are more inclined to engage in corporate innovation when influenced by the combined imprinting effects of strategic management training and work experience. Additionally, leaders should consider how communication styles indirectly influence innovation activities.

This paper introduces an integrated perspective that blends imprinting theory and episodic future thinking to bridge knowledge gaps regarding the interaction of CEOs’ past experiences. This work enhances understanding of how CEOs’ imprinted experiences, together with their capacity for envisioning future scenarios, can drive corporate innovation.

In response to observed changes in the evolving needs of our community, and a call for proactive, strategic planning from campus administration, library and key learning commons partners gathered for a retreat in June 2023 to focus on rightsizing to answer six key questions: What is the right mix of collections to support the teaching, research and learning goals of the Seattle University community? What is the right variety of spaces to support the teaching, research and learning goals of the Seattle University community? What are the right mix of on ground and virtual services to support the teaching, research and learning goals of the Seattle University community? What technologies are needed to support the teaching, research and learning goals of the Seattle University community? What is the right staffing (model, levels+) to support the teaching, research and learning goals of the Seattle University community? What type of library and learning commons do we want to be in five years?

The article discusses and provides review of literature on concepts like rightsizing and appreciative inquiry/ strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results (SOAR) analysis. It will describe how note-taking, and qualitative analysis of feedback gathered during an in-person exercise can be used to identify actionable goals and activities as a follow-up to an in-person retreat.

To focus this conversation, an appreciative inquiry approach using a SOAR analysis was used, instead of a traditional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis, to utilize a constructivist approach to future thinking. This case study will explore rightsizing as it pertains to academic libraries, and the use of SOAR as a framework for capturing feedback and discussion.

As the article is a case study, it represents feedback collected specifically from one university library and learning commons. However, the questions asked, and the consolidated feedback are broad enough to be applicable to similar library systems.

The authors aim to demonstrate how appreciative inquiry and strength-based discussions using SOAR can lead to meaningful future-thinking conversations that might otherwise feel threatening. As rightsizing is often connected to downsizing, or conversations about reductions, using techniques like SWOT analysis which focus on weaknesses and threats can lead to anxiety and fear for participants. It can limit conversation, when members of a focus group or retreat feel unwilling to participate. By using constructivist approaches, it invites introspection and participation in a positive way, and focuses on forward thinking – and not just thinking of the present.

Rightsizing discussions are not particularly new or unique to libraries but are most seen in articles discussing collections. The scope of this project was to assess not only collections, but services, technology, staffing and spaces – in addition to our collections. Similarly, SOAR analyses are not the most common form of strategic analysis, and an appreciative inquiry approach to a rightsizing conversation in academic libraries is a relatively timely and new topic.

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.