The Engaged Business School

Bridging the gap between business and business schools: fulfilling potential or thwarted ambition. The Engaged Business School is a road map to unlocking the potential between business and business schools at a time when it really matters, responding to a global, economic and social recovery.

Innovative Business School Teaching showcases the latest pedagogic innovations that actively engage the millennial generation in learning within the business domain. In the context of the contemporary macro issues facing higher education, this book presents the latest teaching practices and tools used in higher education business teaching, clearly illustrating the practical ways in which business teachers can confront current pedagogic challenges. All of the contributors to this edited book have outstanding track records in teaching, having won national and international awards for teaching excellence, as well as publishing widely on pedagogy. Best practice teaching from multiple jurisdictions across a broad spectrum of business schools is represented. Each contributor shares their innovative teaching tools and techniques in a manner that emphasises how these tools can be adapted to other contexts, thus providing readers with an invaluable teaching resource.

Society and democracy are ever threatened by the fall of fact. Rigorous analysis of facts, the hard boundary between truth and opinion, and fidelity to reputable sources of factual information are all in alarming decline. A 2018 report published by the RAND Corporation labeled this problem "truth decay" and Andrew J. Hoffman lays the challenge of fixing it at the door of the academy. But, as he points out, academia is prevented from carrying this out due to its own existential crisis—a crisis of relevance. Scholarship rarely moves very far beyond the walls of the academy and is certainly not accessing the primarily civic spaces it needs to reach in order to mitigate truth corruption. In this brief but compelling book, Hoffman draws upon existing literature and personal experience to bring attention to the problem of academic insularity—where it comes from and where, if left to grow unchecked, it will go—and argues for the emergence of a more publicly and politically engaged scholar. This book is a call to make that path toward public engagement more acceptable and legitimate for those who do it; to enlarge the tent to be inclusive of multiple ways that one enacts the role of academic scholar in today's world.

In the mid-20th century, university-based business schools re-oriented themselves to increased alignment with the preferences of the university and decreased alignment with the preferences of business. This re-alignment has caused multiple observers to question the effectiveness of current-day business schools. For example, recent discussions have lamented that business schools are engaged in research that does not influence the practice of business. This book engages these debates, arguing that all judgments about the effectiveness of business schools are rooted in assumptions about what the purposes of the business school appropriately are and that many of those assumptions are unstated and not subjected to debate. The author weaves a unique blend of complexity theory, philosophy of science, and the nature of professions to articulate those goals and assess the effectiveness at meeting them. The book traces parallel discussions regarding the purpose of the university in the writings of Aristotle and Wilhelm von Humboldt and ties those discussions to current debates. This book will inform business faculty and administrators of the degree to which university-based business schools are balancing multiple purposes which include discovery of knowledge, creating knowledge that informs the practice of business, training professionals, and instilling ethical principles in its training of those professionals.

The Innovative Business School formulates a blueprint for the innovative business school of the next decade, with proposed areas of innovation which will train executives to transform the coming technological disruptions into an avenue for world economic development and prosperity. Offering a new model of business education, the book maps the way forward for business school innovators in exploring questions related to innovation and strategy needed on the part of academic and industry leaders and educators across demographic divides. The chapters cover an overall international and cross-cultural approach in examining the factors at play for business schools of the future and the challenges they face across a range of megatrends affecting today’s business environment. The authors impress the need for stakeholders to strategically engage others in the business and education ecosystems through commitment to experimentation, innovation, and sustainable business strategy. Identifying such opportunities for development of a new model for business schools is important to educators and policymakers in preparing to leverage and contribute to existing megatrends to create shared value for regional economies and in new directions. The Innovative Business School is written for business schools’ management and decision-makers, related stakeholders, universities, accreditation agencies, and postgraduate students.

Business schools are facing ever increasing internationalization: students are far less homogenous than before, faculty members come from different countries, and teaching is carried out in second (or even third) languages. As a result business schools and their teachers wrestle with new challenges as these changes accelerate. Teaching and Learning at Business Schools brings together contributions from business school managers and educators involved in the International Teachers Programme; a faculty development programme started by Harvard Business School more than 30 years ago and now run by a consortium of the London Business School, Manchester Business School, Kellogg, Stern School of Business, INSEAD, HEC Paris, IAE Aix-en-Provence, IMD, SDA Bocconi Milan and Stockholm School of Economics. The book tackles themes both within the classroom – teaching across different contexts and cultures - and outside the classroom - leading and developing business schools, designing and running programmes, developing faculty members. The authors provide direction, ideas and techniques for transforming business education that are accessible to everyone.

This book investigates key aspects of the development of engaged and entrepreneurial universities. Reflecting the complex and dynamic nature of changes in higher education institutions (HEIs), multi-level perspectives in the field are taken into account, namely the ecosystem, relationship, organisational and individual perspective. The book highlights the entrepreneurial and the social orientation of HEIs by focusing on both primary economically focused (entrepreneurial) universities and primary socially focused (engaged) universities. It challenges the understanding of the role universities and its individual stakeholders play today. The book explores a multitude of facets and perspectives on the topic and addresses both what we already know and what knowledge still needs to be acquired.

Are business schools on the wrong track? For many years, business schools enjoyed rising enrollments, positive media attention, and growing prestige in the business world. However, due to the disruption of Covid-19, many previously ignored issues relating to MBA programs resurfaced. As a result, MBA programs now face lower enrollments and intense criticism for being deficient in preparing future business leaders and ignoring essential topics like ethics, sustainability, and diversity and inclusion. The Future of Business Schools discusses these issues in the context of three critical areas: complexity, sustainability, and destiny