Implementing sustainability as the new normal: Responsible management education – From a private business school's perspective

Abstract

Globally, societies face enormous social, economic and environmental challenges, such as scarcity of resources, demographic developments, climate change, inequality, etc. The degree of success in coping with these complex issues and fostering sustainable development depends largely on educational standards in society. This paper aims at investigating the relationship between sustainable development goals (SDGs) and education in business schools. Therefore, a case study of a business school in Germany is analysed based on its educational activities (curricula, co-curricula and outside university) in the field of sustainable management education. The methods employed for the analysis are action research and keyword search. The contribution of this work is firstly to outline the implementation practice of sustainable management education in a business school and secondly to propose a conceptual model of how business schools can contribute to SDGs. The findings offer valuable insights for other business schools into how to integrate sustainability into their management education. On the policy level the proposed influence of business schools on SDGs is beneficial for educational institutions such as PRME.