Are Spanish business schools playing the role they should in bringing sustainability to the corporate world?

Abstract

Over the last decade, the importance that Society has attributed to sustainability has grown exponentially – to the point of becoming one of its main concerns. The scientific community, albeit with differing opinions regarding the foreseeable evolution of possible scenarios, unanimously agrees that a rapid, joint, global and coordinated response must be acted upon in order to reverse the current situation. The research work that is presented here focusses specifically on identifying the necessary changes to be implemented both in universities and business schools (BSs), in order to significantly contribute to moving society towards a more sustainable scenario. Although this research work was on the Spanish market, it seems that most of the conclusions could be applicable to other countries. A combination of techniques, both quantitative (questionnaires and data analysis of reports, webs, etc.) and qualitative (focus groups, interviews, etc) has been applied to obtain important conclusions, among which the following should be highlighted: specific education programmes should be introduced for business schools and university lecturers; key programmes such as MBAs should include a number of sustainability-specific subjects, and these moves should be implemented as a mid- to long-term strategy policy.