For the global business school community, the twenty-first century inaugurated a season of introspection. As global sustainability concerns grew in prominence, critical debate about the purpose of business and its role in society could not be left without an educational response. At the same time, however, it raised the question of whether business schools were at all ready to equip their students for leadership in a world faced by crucial economic, social, and environmental challenges. The answer is not self-evidently positive. Various authors grapple with questions on the purpose of business schools and their relationship with business and society. This empirical study examines the influence of EQUIS accreditation standards on business school practices in the areas of institutional strategies, programmes, faculty, research, and development, as well as in responsible management education at large. Although accreditation is not the only factor that determines what business schools believe, do, and become, it is an important shaper of the direction in which they will find their way forward in the face of twenty-first–century management education imperatives. This has especially become the case since the inclusion of ethics, responsibility, and sustainability (ERS) in the revised EQUIS standards. The analysis is drawn from a qualitative multi-case study where the author outlined a theoretical framework by developing an understanding of the organisational responses to EQUIS standards, using interviews and document review as the primary source of information. The case study included private, public, stand-alone, and university-embedded business schools. The findings show that business schools engage in a variety of ERS activities in their research and education portfolio. However, different stakeholder expectations pressure business schools to become more ethical, responsible, and sustainable, which leads to a decoupling of the schools’ “ERS talk” from their “ERS actions”. The decoupling can be seen as the consequence of a school’s translation, editing, and imitation activities in order to appear committed to society’s demands. Despite budget constraints and limited autonomy, public business schools seem to be more engaged in ERS education and research as compared to private institutions. Also, a multidisciplinary environment further supports ERS development as compared to stand-alone business schools. The research proposes core changes and developments that business schools may take into consideration to provide a systematic response to EQUIS ERS standards and criteria.

The research was triggered by widespread criticisms from its constituencies about the relevance of MBAs, allegedly instigated by its dual academic and utilitarian purposes in developing functionally and ethically competent managers. Using Malaysia as the research focus, the perceptions of three MBA stakeholders (i.e. business schools/management educators, industries and students) were explored on the adequacy of MBA provisions by its public universities in preparing professionally and ethically competent managers. Their opinions were gauged on several subjective terms, each carrying the dual academic-utilitarian connotations, i.e. the roles of MBAs, the roles of its providers, the definitions of relevance, the definitions of managers and the necessary competencies, and their concerns over the social responsibility of managers and their education. The research employed mainly qualitative approaches. Primary data was gathered through semi-structured interviews, a focus group discussion and e-mails from the three stakeholders. The management educators and students were derived from three selected business schools. The secondary data involved analysis of the MBA websites and prospectuses provided by all the 10 public universities in Malaysia. In total, the research derived data consisting of 28 interviews, 1 focus group, 81 surveys, 3 email questionnaires, and 10 document analyses. The findings suggested that the perceptions of all three stakeholders reflected an imbalanced MBA that was biased towards utilitarian objectives as opposed to social objectives. The findings showed that religion / spirituality and the development of ME in Malaysia had a considerable impact in influencing the perspectives of the respondents. The research contributes to the discipline by demonstrating how a non-western, religious, developing country viewed the research issues dominated by Western literature.

abstract: Employee-owned businesses, benefit corporations, social enterprises, and other sustainability entrepreneurship innovations are responding to challenges such as climate change, economic inequalities, and unethical business behavior. Academic programs to date, however, often fall short in sufficiently equipping students with competencies in sustainability entrepreneurship – from a coherent set of learning objectives, through effective and engaging pedagogies, to rigorous assessment of learning outcomes. This dissertation contributes to bridging these gaps. The first study proposes a process-oriented and literature-based framework of sustainability entrepreneurship competencies. It offers a general vision for students, faculty, and entrepreneurs, as well as for the design of curricula, courses, and assessments. The second study presents an exploration into the nature of sustainability entrepreneurship courses, with a focus on teaching and learning processes. Using pioneering courses at Arizona State University, the study analyzes and compares the links between learning objectives, pedagogies, and learning outcomes. Based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews with course instructors, the study identifies cognitive apprenticeship from input processing to experimentation, constructive alignment from learning objectives to assessments, and curriculum-level coordination across courses as key success factors of sustainability entrepreneurship education. The result of this study can inform instructors and researchers in applying and further substantiating effective educational models for future entrepreneurs. The third study addresses the key question of competence assessment: what are reliable tools for assessing students’ competence in sustainability entrepreneurship? This study developed and tested a novel tool for assessing students’ competence in sustainability entrepreneurship through in-vivo simulated professional situations. The tool was in different settings and evaluated against a set of criteria derived from the literature. To inform educators in business and management programs, this study discusses and concludes under which conditions this assessment tool seems most effective, as well as improvement for future applications of the tool. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2020

Background: Business schools are one of society’s most influential institutions as they contribute to transforming and influencing the way the business world works. Hence, business schools bear responsibility for the creation of future, socially aware, graduates. Accordingly, the business industry expects business schools to educate future managers enhancing sustainability and ethical standards. Although it is argued that graduates in business schools get taught many professional skills and abilities to gain economic success, ethical and sustainable practices are often neglected. The schools are getting criticism for providing education distant and irrelevant to industry demands. Purpose: This study aims to create a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of responsible management education (RME) in business schools. The research can hopefully provide valuable insights, both practically and academically, for both the investigated school and other business schools while also providing a richer and more holistic view of the subject.   Method: This single-case study uses an exploratory and abductive research approach. Empirical data have been collected through semi-structured interviews with participants from Jönköping International Business School. Data has also been collected through document analysis. To understand and analyze the findings, thematic analysis has been used.   Findings: The findings show that RME has been implemented in various ways, both because the school itself believes it is highly important, but also because of the pressures stemming from various stakeholders and other institutional forces. Progress is found to have been made, yet the effects of that progress were not acknowledged significantly by either students or document analysis which might be due to a lack of a common definition of both RME and sustainability amongst staff and faculty. For the school to remain attractive, it is found important to continue its work towards RME and put equal emphasis on teaching financial, social, and environmental responsibilities.

O senso de urgência para a preservação do planeta e a gestão responsável das organizações, ocupa uma posição de destaque no início do século XXI, na agenda de corporações, escolas de negócios, governos e organizações sem fins lucrativos. O Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) surgiu em 2007, como uma resposta à demanda de organizações participantes do Pacto Global da ONU (UN Global Compact), para a formação de líderes responsáveis e compromissados com o desenvolvimento sustentável. Atualmente a iniciativa PRME tem uma estrutura composta por aproximadamente 700 escolas de negócios, distribuídas em 85 países. Apesar de ser uma rede com mais de 10 anos de existência, com alcance global, nenhuma pesquisa até então investigou o PRME sob o enfoque das redes interorganizacionais e suas variáveis determinantes de efetividade. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é verificar se o PRME é uma rede interorganizacional efetiva no nível da rede inteira, identificando as relações lógicas das suas características. Uma primeira análise qualitativa de conteúdo investiga documentos institucionais do PRME em busca da comprovação de sua efetividade, posteriormente, são analisados os relatórios de progresso individuais de membros exemplares, chamados PRME Champions, para a avaliação das variáveis que contribuem positivamente para a efetividade no nível da rede. Seis proposições são extraídas da revisão da literatura para serem discutidas empiricamente. As contribuições desta pesquisa são o fornecimento de subsídios teórico-empíricos sobre governança aos stakeholders de redes em busca de efetividade, em especial ao PRME, e a ampliação da compreensão no campo teórico sobre redes interorganizacionais. A pesquisa demonstra efeitos positivos do modo de governança, da estrutura, do funcionamento e do contexto sobre a efetividade no nível da rede inteira. Os dados apresentaram como determinantes da efetividade da rede os seguintes aspectos: existência de controle por organizações externas, organização, sistema de reuniões, agenda escrita, a transparência na comunicação à comunidade externa, o relacionamento dos gestores da rede com agentes externos, a liderança ativa, a liderança em rede, a estabilidade do ambiente, a presença de cultura cívica e o senso de colaboração e cooperação. A existência de comitê de direção, planejamento conjunto da rede, regras formalizadas e a negociação das direções da rede com stakeholders, exercem efeito moderado sobre a efetividade da rede. / The sense of urgency for the preservation of the planet and responsible management of organizations occupies a prominent position in the early 21st century, on the agenda of corporations, business schools, governments, and non-profit organizations. The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) emerged in 2007 as a response to the demand of participating UN Global Compact organizations for the education of responsible and committed leaders in sustainable development. Currently, the PRME initiative has a structure composed of about 700 business schools, distributed in 85 countries. Despite being a network with more than 10 years of existence, with global reach, none research investigated the PRME under the approach of interorganizational networks and their determinants of effectiveness. The general aim of this research is to verify if the PRME is an effective interorganizational network at the whole network level, identifying the logical relations of its characteristics. A first qualitative content analysis investigates PRME institutional documents to prove its effectiveness, and then the individual progress reports of exemplary members, called the PRME Champions, are analyzed for the evaluation of variables that contribute to the effectiveness at the network level. Six propositions are drawn from the literature review to be discussed empirically. The contributions of this research are the provision of theoretical and empirical subsidies on governance to network stakeholders in search of effectiveness, the PRME in particular, and expansion of understanding in the theoretical field on interorganizational networks. Research shows positive effects of governance, structure, functioning, and context on effectiveness at the whole network level. The data presented as determinants of the network effectiveness the following aspects: the existence of external control, meeting organization, written agenda, transparency in communication to the external community, active leadership, network leadership, the relationship of network managers with external agents, the presence of civic culture, and the sense of collaboration and cooperation. The existence of a steering committee, joint planning of the network, formalized rules, and the negotiation of network directions with stakeholders, has a moderate effect on the network effectiveness.

O senso de urgência para a preservação do planeta e a gestão responsável das organizações, ocupa uma posição de destaque no início do século XXI, na agenda de corporações, escolas de negócios, governos e organizações sem fins lucrativos. O Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) surgiu em 2007, como uma resposta à demanda de organizações participantes do Pacto Global da ONU (UN Global Compact), para a formação de líderes responsáveis e compromissados com o desenvolvimento sustentável. Atualmente a iniciativa PRME tem uma estrutura composta por aproximadamente 700 escolas de negócios, distribuídas em 85 países. Apesar de ser uma rede com mais de 10 anos de existência, com alcance global, nenhuma pesquisa até então investigou o PRME sob o enfoque das redes interorganizacionais e suas variáveis determinantes de efetividade. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa é verificar se o PRME é uma rede interorganizacional efetiva no nível da rede inteira, identificando as relações lógicas das suas características. Uma primeira análise qualitativa de conteúdo investiga documentos institucionais do PRME em busca da comprovação de sua efetividade, posteriormente, são analisados os relatórios de progresso individuais de membros exemplares, chamados PRME Champions, para a avaliação das variáveis que contribuem positivamente para a efetividade no nível da rede. Seis proposições são extraídas da revisão da literatura para serem discutidas empiricamente. As contribuições desta pesquisa são o fornecimento de subsídios teórico-empíricos sobre governança aos stakeholders de redes em busca de efetividade, em especial ao PRME, e a ampliação da compreensão no campo teórico sobre redes interorganizacionais. A pesquisa demonstra efeitos positivos do modo de governança, da estrutura, do funcionamento e do contexto sobre a efetividade no nível da rede inteira. Os dados apresentaram como determinantes da efetividade da rede os seguintes aspectos: existência de controle por organizações externas, organização, sistema de reuniões, agenda escrita, a transparência na comunicação à comunidade externa, o relacionamento dos gestores da rede com agentes externos, a liderança ativa, a liderança em rede, a estabilidade do ambiente, a presença de cultura cívica e o senso de colaboração e cooperação. A existência de comitê de direção, planejamento conjunto da rede, regras formalizadas e a negociação das direções da rede com stakeholders, exercem efeito moderado sobre a efetividade da rede. / The sense of urgency for the preservation of the planet and responsible management of organizations occupies a prominent position in the early 21st century, on the agenda of corporations, business schools, governments, and non-profit organizations. The Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) emerged in 2007 as a response to the demand of participating UN Global Compact organizations for the education of responsible and committed leaders in sustainable development. Currently, the PRME initiative has a structure composed of about 700 business schools, distributed in 85 countries. Despite being a network with more than 10 years of existence, with global reach, none research investigated the PRME under the approach of interorganizational networks and their determinants of effectiveness. The general aim of this research is to verify if the PRME is an effective interorganizational network at the whole network level, identifying the logical relations of its characteristics. A first qualitative content analysis investigates PRME institutional documents to prove its effectiveness, and then the individual progress reports of exemplary members, called the PRME Champions, are analyzed for the evaluation of variables that contribute to the effectiveness at the network level. Six propositions are drawn from the literature review to be discussed empirically. The contributions of this research are the provision of theoretical and empirical subsidies on governance to network stakeholders in search of effectiveness, the PRME in particular, and expansion of understanding in the theoretical field on interorganizational networks. Research shows positive effects of governance, structure, functioning, and context on effectiveness at the whole network level. The data presented as determinants of the network effectiveness the following aspects: the existence of external control, meeting organization, written agenda, transparency in communication to the external community, active leadership, network leadership, the relationship of network managers with external agents, the presence of civic culture, and the sense of collaboration and cooperation. The existence of a steering committee, joint planning of the network, formalized rules, and the negotiation of network directions with stakeholders, has a moderate effect on the network effectiveness.

Peu de recherches empiriques existent concernant l'éducation managériale. La littérature étudiée présente différentes recherches théoriques qui critiquent le modèle actuel des Business Schools et qui recommandent des changements, mais elle signale aussi le manque de recherches empiriques à ce sujet. Nos propres recherches confirment la rareté de telles recherches concernant notamment l'opinion des individus impliqués dans les Business Schools à propos de la pédagogie et à propos du comportement managérial de l'école elle-même. La revue de littérature révèle une absence de consensus concernant la définition du management responsable. Plus précisément, peu de données empiriques existent concernant l'action des individus qui tentent de contribuer au développement d'une stratégie responsable au sein de l'établissement. De même, il apparaît que les recherches empiriques manquent concernant les innovations pédagogiques existant dans les Business Schools pour encourager un management responsable. L'objectif de notre recherche est de comprendre les changements nécessaires et les innovations opérées dans les Business Schools pour tenir compte et intégrer les dimensions saillantes du management responsable afin d'encourager les futurs managers à se comporter de manière responsable. Cette recherche se structure autour de deux questions principales : • Pourquoi les Business Schools peuvent-elles – voire doivent-elles – contribuer à un management responsable ? • Comment les Business Schools tentent-elles et peuvent-elles contribuer à un management responsable au travers de leur comportement organisationnel propre ou de leur pédagogie ? Cette thèse est une recherche exploratoire. Afin de laisser la théorie émerger des résultats empiriques, cette thèse est inspirée de la théorie enracinée. Au total quatre études de cas européennes furent réalisées • Trois Business Schools : HEC Paris, Erasmus University-Rotterdam School of Management, Ashridge Business School, • Une école présentant un modèle alternatif : Schumacher College. 47 questionnaires furent menés sur les terrains de recherche, 112 cartes cognitives furent créées par les participants visités et 28 journaux de bord issus d'un cours enseigné en extérieur furent codés et analysés. Les apports principaux peuvent être classés en quatre catégories : • Une définition du management responsable (selon des étudiants, des membres académiques et administratifs et selon des anciens étudiants des écoles visitées), • Une synthèse des changements suggérés au sein des Business Schools par les participants pour encourager un management responsable, • Une analyse des Masters visités incluant les innovations pédagogiques mises en place pour encourager un management responsable, • Une étude des différentes stratégies créées par les individus en charge d'un développement responsable du campus. En conclusion nous préconisons différents axes de recherche qui pourraient être développés ultérieurement en vue d'affiner le travail réalisé pour cette thèse et aussi afin de vérifier certains postulats et hypothèses issus des résultats. / Empirical studies about business education are scarce. The studied literature reveals different theoretical studies criticizing Business Schools and asking for changes but it shows as well a lack of empirical research. Our own research confirms the lack of such empirical studies, especially regarding the Business Schools' participants' meaning concerning the education and the strategy. Furthermore, the literature review suggests a lack of theoretical consensus on responsible management definition. Few studies are to be found about the individuals working towards responsible management at Business Schools. Theory shows that few empirical data exist concerning the pedagogical innovations created towards responsible management. Our research aims at understanding the Business Schools' needed changes and the existing innovations created to encourage future managers to act responsibly. This research is articulated around two main research questions : • Why should business schools contribute to responsible management ? • How should business schools contribute to responsible management (at a strategic and an educational level) ? This dissertation is an exploratory research. To allow the theory to emerge from the empirical results, this research is inspired from the Grounded Theory. In total four European case studies were conducted : • Three business schools : HEC Paris, Erasmus University-Rotterdam School of Management, Ashridge Business School, • A different model of education : Schumacher College. 47 interviews were conducted, the participants created 112 mind maps and 28 field journals issued from a course taught outdoors were coded and analysed. The main contributions can be classified into four categories : • A definition of responsible management (according to students, faculty members, staff and alumni's answers), • A summary of the changes suggested at business school to encourage responsible management, • An analysis of 4 innovative Masters visited including its pedagogical innovations towards responsible management, • A study of the different strategies created by individuals in charge of developing the campus in a responsible way. The conclusion brings some recommendations for further research to deepen the research and as well to answer several hypotheses issued from our results.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 State-Of-The-Art Practices Being Reported by the PRME Champions Group - A Reference to Advance Education for Sustainable Development_2018.pdf: 4587968 bytes, checksum: 9f93d7aab79b6eeafed4e925d67c24f9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-28 / This study aims to offer a diagnostic of the 'state-of-the-art' practices being reported throughout the Sharing Information Process (SIP) by the Champions Group, a group of schools that are signatories of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME, a United Nations Global Compact initiative), committed to spearheading transformational change toward more socially and environmentally responsible leadership. The study also suggests an analytical model - based on qualitative research and documentary analysis – to define the study sample, investigate data, identify patterns, organise and codify a large amount of information within all reports searched. The analytical model represents a framework in which the result is a collection of practices being reported, functioning as a useful guide and practical reference for higher educational institutions – signatory or otherwise – when promoting or advancing transformational change in their business model. The framework could also be valuable for Graduate Schools – or even Primary Schools to High Schools – considering the urgency of the 2030 Agenda, especially its 4.7 target, referred to as 'An education for sustainable development and global citizenship'. / Este estudo propõe um diagnóstico do que seria o estado da arte das práticas sendo reportadas através dos relatórios SIP (Sharing Information Process) pelo Champions Group, um grupo de escolas de negócios que são signatárias do Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME, uma iniciativa da Organização das Nações Unidas pelo Pacto Globa) e que se comprometeram a liderar mudanças transformacionais em direção a formação de lideranças mais responsáveis quanto a aspectos sociais e ambientais. O estudo também sugere um modelo analítico – baseado em pesquisa qualitativa a análise documental – para os processos de definição da amostra de pesquisa, de investigação de informações, identificação de padrões, organização e codificação de uma vasta quantidade de dados contidos no total de relatórios pesquisados. O modelo analítico representa um framework no qual o resultado corresponde a compilação das práticas reportadas, representando um guia útil e uma referência prática para instituições de ensino superior – signatárias ou não do PRME – quando estiverem promovendo ou avançando em mudanças transformacionais de seu modelo de negócio. O framework pode também ter valor para escolas de Graduação – ou mesmo para escolas de ensino fundamental e ensino médio – considerando a urgência destacada na Agenda 2030, especialmente na meta 4.7, que faz referência a 'uma educação para o desenvolvimento sustentável e para a cidadania global'.