Role Of Business Schools Research Articles

Winterizing the Egyptian spring: why might business schools fail to develop responsible leaders?

PurposeThis paper aims to theoretically answer the question: why might business schools in Egypt fail to develop responsible leaders?Design/methodology/approachThe author starts by discussing modernization theory (Lipset, 1959) – which highlights the idea that the more educated people there are in a given society/nation, the more calls for democracy, social citizenship and social justice will be launched – to address the strong association between the quality of business learning and the development of responsible leadership norms. Moving forward by focusing on the theory of education (Dewey, 1916) and institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983), the author finds the main conditions needed to develop responsible leadership norms among business school students.FindingsThe author identified the following three necessary conditions: implementing responsible management education, sustaining management learning and ensuring that a purposive hidden curriculum is well-planned in business schools. The author sees these as the main priorities for developing responsible leadership skills among business school students in Egypt and similar post revolution countries.Originality/valueThis paper contributes by filling a gap in responsible leadership, public administration and higher education literature, in which conceptual studies on the role of business schools in post-revolution periods and conflict zones has been limited until now.

Responding to crisis: World War 2, COVID‐19, and the business school

The COVID‐19 crisis will continue to have an immense impact on society, especially on the economic livelihood of ordinary people worldwide. Given the role of business schools in training managers to lead organizations and people across industry, the COVID‐19 crisis highlights a new opportunity to reflect on the purpose of the business school, which stakeholders it serves, and how it might evolve toward broader consideration and effective anticipation/response to pressing societal issues. Thus, we set out in this study to investigate these questions by examining the role that Harvard Business School played during World War 2, a crisis that also had an unprecedented impact on society. Based on this examination, we highlight the importance of flexibility and organizational innovation in times of crisis. We also discuss how the business school might expand its focus and its audience to consider broader societal issues, allowing it to better prepare students to serve society in the future, where the next crisis might be right around the corner.

Enlightenment, Critical Theory, and the Role of Business Schools in the Anthropocene

Purpose: This article analyses relations between the Dialectic of Enlightenment, critical theory, and the Anthropocene, and poses the question: How do the Dialectic of Enlightenment and critical theory relate to the Anthropocene? Moreover, what is the role of business schools and critical management studies in the context of the Anthropocene? Theoretical framework: The Dialectic of Enlightenment questioned why advancements in rationality and technology failed to lead humanity to emancipation. Moreover, advancements in rationality and technology have led to the Anthropocene: a new geological age marked by the human capacity to modify the climate and ecosystems of Planet Earth. This debate, which is related to fields such as sustainability, organisations, and management, can be held in business schools. Method/design/approach: To discuss this theme, we compose a theoretical essay. Results and conclusion: The shock of the Anthropocene has provoked the need to think differently about social and environmental issues and to declare humanity as being responsible for nature. However, this response can neither be naïve nor generalised; it cannot place the responsibility for the Anthropocene on every human being equally. That would also reduce the significance of the human struggle to both acknowledge and solve the current climate and nature issues. We propose five dimensions where business schools could advance to foster critical thinking in the Anthropocene: curriculum, institutional practices, academic staff, the educational system, and subjectivity. Research implications: Critical management studies (CMS) and business schools are two important players that can use the Anthropocene-induced perspective shift to think differently about social and environmental issues. Originality/value: We show that CMS can use the Anthropocene shock to reinforce itself and gain greater legitimacy to critically analyse modern methods of organising the human society. Business schools also need to review their current practices for educating future managers who need to be aware of their environmental impact both as human beings and as professionals.

Seven principles to ensure future-ready accounting graduates – a model for future research and practice

Purpose The business environment is changing and education at university business schools does not appear to keep pace. This paper aims to identify principles to guide educators in preparing accounting students for automation and artificial intelligence and sets an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach The seven principles are derived from an extensive literature review and the analysis of qualitative data from focus groups, thought leader discussions, interviews and workshops. Findings The derived seven Cs model includes: critical, conceptual thinking and the spirit of enquiry; complicate, grapple and fail; create, innovate and experience; concise communication; collaboration; consciousness, respectfulness and ethical fibre; and curiosity, lifelong learning and specialized generalists. An inclusive list of future research topics related to the seven Cs model is provided to aid researchers’ agendas. Research limitations/implications Although every attempt was made to base this study purely on expert opinions, as reflected in journal articles, conference papers, interviews and focus groups, it is impossible to prevent author biases from slipping into the interpretation and reflection involved in creating the model. Readers will also find some overlap in terms of the accounting business competencies development model’s seven Cs, due to the inter-related nature of the concepts and because the various definitions of concepts have some habits of the mind and social competencies in common. Practical implications The seven principles will help business schools and higher education policymakers guide future education developments with a focus on new competencies and reframed skills, as opposed to new knowledge. The model ensures that scholars and graduates have insight into the essential knowledge, attributes and skills that apply to the diverse nature of accounting vocations and can adapt to unanticipated changes. Social implications This new model can be used by business schools to ensure that graduates can fully contribute to a society impacted by automation and artificial intelligence by entering the workplace with the requisite skills. It also responds to critics’ fears about the role of business schools in preparing graduates for the future of work. Originality/value The paper contributes in two ways. First, rather than focussing on particular issues or the shortcomings of current education, it identifies broad-based principles from a literature review, interviews, focus groups and workshops. Second, it sets an agenda for future research.

Global Citizenship and Business Education, Part 2: The Role of Business Schools

Over the last decade we have seen increased demands for full stakeholder models in global decision-making and greater emphasis by accrediting agencies that business schools show their commitment to societal ends. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought these issues to the fore. We trace early developments in how business schools dealt with these demands and analyze the data from the Aspen Institute’s survey of business schools’ commitment to global citizenship programs. We then review more recent efforts and report on several institutional and collaborative efforts to promote a global citizenship agenda among business schools and their curricula.

Cultures and Economies Apart – Similar Business Ethics Education Needed

We investigate the areas in which cultural differences influence managers’ views of business ethics, the role of business schools in preparing students to address ethical issues, and cooperation between schools and industry. Responses from 82 Chinese and 98 Icelandic managers reveal close agreement on such issues as the need for business ethics education, the role of employers in ethics training, and the benefit of cooperation between schools and businesses. Managers diverge on the tactics suggested to achieve these aims, indicating areas where cultural differences may be affecting their attitudes. Our choice of China and Iceland highlights vividly contrasting cultures. As such, it can serve as a building block for further study into the specific areas where culture affects both managers’ support for business ethics education in schools and corporate tactics for enhancing that education through training. Given business schools’ global competition for students, knowing how to attain these cultural differences is likely to be crucial for student and institutional development.

Business schools and the Spanish business elite since the mid-twentieth century

ABSTRACT Literature has emphasized the key role of business schools in spreading US management in Europe after the Second World War but has not found how to quantify its impact on the business systems. With such purpose, this article examines the relations between the pioneer Spanish business schools and the national corporate elite. By combining an institutional approach and social networks analysis, it shows the incidence of business schools on the board of directors of the largest Spanish firms during the second half of the 20th century, and explains their role as centers for business elite reproduction.

Rethinking the role of business school in creating corporate managers

Distinguished from the traditional forms of business, namely proprietorship and partnership, a corporation emerged as a new type of business organization in the middle of the nineteenth century in American society, which accepted it only on the understanding that the corporate managers should be professionally well trained and socially beneficial (Khurana, 2010). In order to prepare these new professionals, the business schools came into being in America and elsewhere (Khurana, 2010). However, corporate scandals and financial crises of the late 20th and early 21st centuries posed a valid question about the originally expected role of corporate managers and, in turn, their educators, the business schools. This paper is an attempt to review the post-scandal notion of a corporation and the role of the managers propounded by Canals (2009) and others like Wilson (2004), Mesure (2008), and Koch (2010). It is a qualitative research that finds inadequacies with the existing scholarships and so re-conceptualizes corporation from a holistic perspective. Within that framework, it proposes that the business schools adopt a number of measures to prepare the corporate managers who would efficiently serve the interests of the shareholders and, at the same time, of other stakeholders equally including the society as a whole.

Time to Use ANDs Instead of ORs? The Role of Business Schools in Advertising Education

This brief essay argues for an interdisciplinary approach and discusses the benefits, issues, and constraints of business education as part of the endeavor to teach the next generation of advertisers.

Cross-faculty proximity and academic entrepreneurship: the role of business schools

Over the past decades, entrepreneurial activity has started to be considered a third mission of higher education institutions. Our study examines the extent to which entrepreneurship at universities is driven by spatial proximity between university faculties. To this end, we use a new dataset that links information on business idea generation by faculties of German universities between 2007 and 2014 with comprehensive data on structural characteristics of these universities and faculties (e.g., number of academic staff, students, industry funding). Our analysis shows that the emergence of entrepreneurial ideas in natural sciences is positively affected by proximity to business schools. This pattern suggests the presence of knowledge flows between these two types of university faculties as an important source of science-based and technology-oriented business ideas. We do not find such a relationship between proximity to business schools and other faculties.

The Role of Business Schools in Marketing Education

Business schools play a key role in training marketing professionals. However, there is a strong divide between the expectations held by marketing professionals and those held in academia. This article considers this phenomenon from a theoretical point of view and explores its causes. The author argues that business schools are able to play a key role in bridging theory and practice in marketing. The article closes by offering several suggestions for how business schools might increase the relevance of marketing research while reducing the gap between marketing theory and practice. In particular, the article suggests the adoption of an inductive approach to research and offers a set of policies that business schools can implement in order to close this gap.

Middle-class Meritocracy and Neoliberal Technologies of the Self at an Indian Business School

We examine the intersection of Indian middle-class discourse of merit with neoliberal technologies of the self among MBA students at an Indian business school. This middle- class discourse of merit propelled by familial expectations, invokes hard work, educational achievement and global aspirations. Neoliberal technologies of the self manifest as rationality, responsibilization and enterprising selves. These technologies of the self intersect with and animate discourse of merit to produce a hollowing-out of individuals and cultures of hyper-masculinity and ethical somnolence. In doing so, we contribute to critical management education by illustrating how discourse of merit is deployed to justify and normalize moral indifference and aggression among the soon-to- be professional managerial class. We also contribute to understanding the discursive registers by which Indian middle and upper classes shore up privilege and the role of business schools in the reproduction of widening social inequalities.

Role of Business Schools in SR education and Perceptual Transformation Among Prospective Employees

Role of Business Schools in SR education and Perceptual Transformation Among Prospective Employees

Acceptance of the Importance of CSR to Organizational Effectiveness: Impact of Cognitive Processes

“Doing well by doing good” is of increasing interest in the world of business and to the researchers who study that world. Attention has turned to the role of business schools in producing socially responsible business people. Critics argue that business schools produce amoral and unethical business people, and accreditors and schools are responding by incorporating greater levels of ethics and social responsibility training. This study investigates the moderating effects of students’ cognitive moral development and personal moral philosophies on the change in attitudes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) students experience after taking a required, standalone CSR course. In a pre/post survey of graduate and undergraduate students taking a required CSR course, this study found that students at the Conventional level of cognitive moral development experienced a more positive change in attitudes to CSR than students at other levels. This relationship is further moderated by idealism (high idealism makes the relationship more positive) and unaffected by relativism. In post hoc analyses, we found that the CSR course also has the effect of increasing students’ idealism and reducing their relativism.

Business School Education and Entrepreneurial Human Capital

This paper is the first to study the role of business school education in the creation and success of venture capital (VC) backed startup firms. Using a large new dataset of the educational backgrounds of entrepreneurial founders and executives and detailed data on business school rankings, we find that (i) almost a quarter of VC-backed startups over 1990-2010 are launched by founders with formal business education and two-thirds of startups have an executive with a business school degree, (ii) VC-backed startups experience better exit outcomes when their executive teams include MBA graduates, and (iii) startups are significantly more likely to retain a founder with an MBA as a post-IPO CEO. Consistent with a networking mechanism, 29% of VC-backed startups have at least two executives from the same business school, and 13% of startups have at least one executive and one VC director from the same business school. Such startups with connected executives are significantly more likely to successfully exit through an IPO or an acquisition. Overall, our findings provide evidence on the role of business schools in promoting the formation of professional networks and the acquisition of skills important for launching a successful startup.

Strategic capacities in US universities – the role of business schools as institutional builders

The global expansion of the higher education and professional faculties like business schools offers a case study in the strategic capabilities of universities and professional schools like business to build academic strength, reputation, and legitimacy. The expansion of business schools reflects novel strategies like ecosystems collaboration and network advantages, presenting new challenges for quality, relevance, and competitive threats from the consulting industry, corporate universities, MOOCs, and highly-specialized business schools. The paper concludes with recommendations for business education.

Exploration of the role of business schools in the development of world-class research universities

The object of research is the activity of 25 leading business schools in the world, functioning in the structure of research universities and contributing to their comprehensive development. One of the most problematic places is the question of further studying and in-depth analysis of the role of business schools in shaping the competitive advantages of research universities in the global environment.In the course of the research, the rating indicators of QS Global MBA Rankings were used, which includes 232 world-class business schools. To analyze the best 25 business schools in the world, scientific methods were used: generalization, analysis, synthesis, graphical method, and a comparison method.It is determined that the spheres of influence of business schools on the development of research universities are focused on: obtaining a significant financial resource; updating of intellectual potential and maintenance of a high level of entrepreneurial activity of students. This is due to the fact that the ratio of higher education expenditures to research and development work in the EU and the world has tendencies of substantial underfunding.The differences in the TOP 25 business schools of research universities in the world are systematized, characterized by significantly different training costs and the timing of the full cycle of MBA programs.The main regularities, which consist in the revealed systemic character of the recruitment process in the business schools of research universities and the preparation of people with creative entrepreneurial thinking are identified. This has a number of features, in particular in:– differentiation of payment and offers of alternative sources;– application of the principle – training in the process of work;– focusing on the development of comprehensive competencies in leadership;– preparation for work in complex, unfavorable situations caused by instability, limited resources and time;– opportunities for additional training or practice in partner business schools in other countries or on other continents.Thanks to this, it is ensured that MBA students receive a key competence – an entrepreneurial type of thinking. Compared with similar known traditional models of development of research universities, this ensures the renewal of the scientific potential of research universities and provides opportunities for increasing competitiveness at the global level

Shareholder Primacy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Role of Business Schools

Shareholder Primacy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Role of Business Schools

The Role of Universities in the Provision of Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics Teaching in the Agricultural Sector

Few industries have as direct a link between economics and the environment as the agricultural industry (Diebel, 2008) and as such this paper analyses the CSR and ethics teaching in agricultural schools in four English speaking countries. The four countries have distinct policy and cultural differences with regards to areas such as environmental protection, animal welfare and the use of biotechnology. The study analyses the differences between agricultural schools by means of a content analysis of syllabuses for institutions in each of the countries. The analysis finds significant differences in the provision of CSR and ethics teaching as a result of geographical location of the institution although interestingly the analysis failed to yield expected difference in CSR and ethics teaching provision as a result of institutional ranking. Among the most interesting areas for future research as suggested by this review is the analysis of the antecedents of the public’s ethical standing with regard to the agricultural industry. Recent events have seen an increased focus on the role of business schools in the provision of corporate social responsibility (hereinafter CSR) and ethics teaching (Cornelius, Wallace, & Tassabehji, 2007). There has been comparatively little analysis of CSR and ethics teaching provision in other sectors. The subject is of considerable interest to businesses as research has shown that the CSR and ethics which a company displays affects its financial performance (Zairi & Peters 2002; Fombrun & Shanley, 1990). The public increasingly sees businesses as the cause of environmental degradation, (Porter & Kramer, 2011) consumers have as a result become increasingly eco-aware and ethically conscious with regard to their purchasing habits (Wilson, 200). This paper looks at implications for teaching sustainable agriculture.

Debate Over Rigor and Relevance in Scientific Study of Management

Purpose: This article provides a general review of the debate over rigor and relevance in academia, specifically in the scientific field of management. It seeks to contribute to the body of literature while emphasizing instances where the gap between rigor and relevance has been bridged, along with the role of business schools. Approach: This takes the approach of underscoring the most important works in the present literature regarding rigor and relevance, and then focusing on three points of emphasis: 1) role of business schools in the debate; 2) main points of contention; and 3) strongest examples of success in this field. Findings: The most important findings in this work indicate that the debate surrounding relevance and rigor still persists and may also be reaching a breaking point where the two sides of the debate cannot reconcile. Various proposed solutions to the debate are available but meaningful action has yet to be taken. Implications: The practical applications of this work are manifold. Scholars would have a clearer understanding of the environments in which their works are operating and practitioners would find academic works in management more accessible. Value: This work provides a description of both the points of contention in the rigor vs. relevance debate and the points of successful unification of the two.