Research Issues
Introducing business school research and positive impact
The first inaugural EFMD annual research volume, ‘Perspectives on the impact, mission and purpose of the business school’, was launched as a special issue of Global Focus magazine in November 2022 and was subsequently published in book form in 2023 by Routledge (Cornuel et al., 2023).
Read MoreThe evolution of EFMD’s Excellence in Practice Awards: A 15-year journey of supporting impactful growth
Papers on Positive and Societal Impact from an EFMD Perspective: The Timeline 2007 marked the beginning of the Excellence in Practice journey, which at the beginning had a single winner determined during a workshop held at EFMD’S Annual Conference.
Read MoreManagement research with purpose
Concepts of the Purposeful Business School: Like corporations, business schools have struggled with their sense of purpose. Critics accuse business schools of lacking engagement with practice (Rynes et al., 2001), promoting bad management theory (Ghoshal, 2005), and failing to cultivate an ethos of professionalism in management (Khurana, 2007). Little wonder that leading gurus openly proclaim that management scholarship is troubled (Mintzberg, 2004) and that business schools have lost their way (Bennis and O’Toole, 2005).
Read MoreImpact-driven research: The case of Hult
Pioneering a Different Approach: Business and management research receives only a small fraction of total academic research funding globally, with most resources going to areas like sciences, engineering, and health (Starkey et al., 2010). Within universities, funding for business and management research often comes from the business school’s own budget rather than university-wide research funds.
Read MoreDeveloping a responsible research strategy at Saïd Business School
Research Ecosystems, Partnerships and Collective Know-How: The notions of ‘purpose’ and ‘social responsibility’ in business have been gaining increased traction in recent years, in turn raising questions about what business schools should be teaching and researching.
Read MoreThe role of business schools in creating national entrepreneurial ecosystems: The case of Egypt and the AUC School of Business
Complex Societal Impact Projects Requiring Tri-Sector Collaboration and Cooperation: In today’s time and age, economies worldwide, especially in emerging markets-need an effective and innovative entrepreneurial ecosystem that is government-enabled, private-sector-led, innovation-driven, youth-empowered, and future-oriented (Kamel, 2016). Over the last few decades, the acceleration of digital transformation and the gradual move from high-tech to deep-tech through artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, and big data, coupled with an evolving entrepreneurial mindset, has dominated various societies in developed and emerging economies, given the potential opportunities created and the growing global population of digital natives (Schroeder, 2017).
Read MoreMaking Wales an anti-racist nation: A ‘Public Value Mission’ in action
Complex Societal Impact Projects Requiring Tri-Sector Collaboration and Cooperation: A common criticism of business and management schools across the world is that they are not sufficiently invested in solving wider societal problems and concerns. A recent example that may be cited by critics to illustrate this is the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, business and management academies were generally slow in joining the debates both on the impacts of the virus and the transformation of post-pandemic societies to account for the failures of embedded structures, systems and processes.
Read MoreResearch impact at an unusual academic institution: IMD’S journey
Concepts of the Purposeful Business School: Is 2030 here already? The influential position paper from the Responsible Research for Business and Management (RRBM) community features a projected future state for research impact within the field of business schools with the end date of the year 2030 (Co-founders of RRBM, 2017). The scenario draws upon a series of principles that demand implementation by diverse stakeholders operating within the business school ecosystem. But what if this future state is already unfolding in the present?
Read MoreManaging to make impactful business and management researchers in the Anthropocene
Research Ecosystems, Partnerships and Collective Know-How: We are in the Anthropocene – an age of climate emergency, where “climate action failure and extreme weather … [are] the top two global risks” (Hurlbert, 2021). We have failed in our social contract to provide security from disaster and offer the potential transformative change needed to protect our people and planet. The education and research that business and management schools offer require an urgent response to this climate emergency.
Read MoreLeaving the theory cave: Forays into innovation policy and practice in Wales
Complex Societal Impact Projects Requiring Tri-Sector Collaboration and Cooperation: The field of management studies routinely finds itself in debates regarding the rigour and relevance of its research (for a brief overview, see Thomas, 2022). These debates have become more prominent and, some might argue, more urgent, as we contemplate wider social and environmental crises and the contribution, or lack thereof, made by the management research community in seeking to respond to these.
Read MoreThe female leader: Experiences from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, South Africa
Complex Societal Impact Projects Requiring Tri-Sector Collaboration and Cooperation: Visible and measurable progress in advancing the status and standing of females in business school leadership is crucial to role-modelling effective gender representation. As the higher education eco-system from which leaders in society, business and politics are shaped and informed, walking the talk on the advancement of female leaders must be evident not only in our classrooms but in our organisational practices – anything less is gender-washing.
Read MoreEFMD and societal impact
Papers on Positive and Societal Impact from an EFMD Perspective: Since its foundation over 50 years ago, EFMD has maintained a firm belief in socially responsible management education directed towards the creation of positive, meaningful societal impact.
Read MoreResearch and positive impact: Henley Business School in the African context
Concepts of the Purposeful Business School: Business does not exist in a vacuum; it is intrinsically linked to the success or failure of the society in which it operates. On a continent like Africa, where social, environmental and historical challenges abound, issues such as inequality, poverty and inclusive growth continue to dominate the context. Yet, African academia continues to follow the line drawn by Western business education models rather than carving out an African model of management education that addresses the specific economic and social development needs of the continent as a whole.
Read MoreResponsible, rigorous, and impactful research through engagement
Research Ecosystems, Partnerships and Collective Know-How: The call for business higher education to be more impactful is growing louder and more articulate. The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) were launched in 2007, the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) movement formalised in 2016, and the AACSB standards on societal impact for business school accreditation were updated in 2020.
Read MoreEmpowering vulnerable populations through transformative approaches and research
Complex Societal Impact Projects Requiring Tri-Sector Collaboration and Cooperation: Two years ago, HEC Montréal launched the result of numerous consultations that led to updating its mission: to building on our excellence in teaching and research. HEC Montréal is a French-language institution open to the world and solidly rooted in Quebec society, training management leaders who make a responsible contribution to the success of organisations and to sustainable social development. HEC Montréal’s renewed mission echoes the willingness of faculty members to rethink business practices to make them more sustainable and more inclusive. The SEED project is a case study within HEC Montréal’s research ecosystem led by our Social Impact Hub, IDEOS, that illustrates how rethinking research methods and collaborations across sectors and across cultures can amplify opportunities for the economic empowerment of vulnerable populations.
Read MorePerspectives on the impact, mission and purpose of the business school
The business school has been an important success story in the evolution of the modern university. Yet it is increasingly valued in that context “much more for its managerial expertise, cash generation ability and financial strength than its intellectual vigour and scholarship. Indeed … its legitimacy as a serious academic discipline is critically questioned by scholars in science, arts and the humanities”
Read MorePositive impact: An important role for business school leadership in a changing, precarious world
Business schools should have a purposeful mission to create value and positive, meaningful societal impacts for their ecosystem partners.
Read MoreBusiness schools should be schools of management: An evolutionary perspective
What is management actually all about and why do practising managers need “schools of management” rather than “business schools”?
Read MoreThe search for meaning: BSIS and its role in promoting business schools’ societal impact
BSIS is not only a tool for measuring impact but also a way to generate value based on the research carried out by faculty for business school stakeholders, that is to say, companies, governments, and society.
Read MoreWhat topics should business school research focus on?
Without a substantial infusion of science-based new knowledge, business school curricula and business education will continue to fail in meeting the needs of the changed and changing world.
Read MoreHow management academics have locked themselves in an iron cage
The most serious aspect of the current research and publication system is that it has become mostly self-serving and self-sustaining rather than responding adequately to the needs of external stakeholders – management, government and society.
Read MoreOpen up the business school! From rigour and relevance to purpose, responsibility and quality
Purpose. Responsibility. Quality. Each of these raises further questions: about how they can be developed into business school-wide deliberations and conversations.
Read MoreBuilding back better: Purpose-driven business schools
As business schools display inertia while corporations change to pursue purpose, a rift is emerging between the interests of participants in the business school industry.
Read MoreGross national wellbeing: The future of work
The real challenge for senior management in the private and public sectors will be to create wellbeing cultures which retain and support their staff during these difficult times.
Read MoreCo-creating relevant knowledge through regional virtual collaboration: The Latin America Scholars Community case
As business has become increasingly global in nature during the 21st century, business schools’ international collaborations have gained more importance since schools look for greater relevance and a bigger positive impact on society.
Read MoreThe competition fetish in business schools: Challenges and responses
Business schools appear to be trapped in a modern-day magical belief that competition will provide the solution to all problems. Competition is expected to enhance quality in research and teaching and lead to real-world impact.
Read MoreContextualising change with social network analysis
Social network analysis (SNA) has shed light on underlying forces that affect consensus building, community decision-making, belief systems and the diffusion and adoption of innovations.
Read MoreSingapore Management University (SMU): Tracking the strategy evolution of a start-up university
Singapore Management University (SMU) exists in an ecosystem for higher education that is quite unlike what one might find in other parts of the world.
Read MoreStriving for meaningful impact in and through management education: The IMD perspective
IMD’s Jean-Francois Manzoni explains why he profoundly believes in IMD’s distinctive purpose and modus operandi and in the impact they have on the world.
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