Research paper series

A number of recent studies have examined the prominence of ethics, environment, sustainability and related concepts within business school programmes, and the MBA in particular. Broadly, this research has indicated that both business schools and their students are receptive to the introduction of units addressing the wider social role of business and management and that the prevalence of modules that deal with these issues is growing (e.g. Christensen et al., 2007). However, there remains relatively little comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the extent and character of embedding of sustainability within business schools and very little evidence of the underlying motivations, processes, and rationales associated with doing do. In light of these gaps in our knowledge, in this chapter we report the outcome of a major new piece of empirical research into the embedding of sustainability into the pedagogic activities, research agendas, and operations of business schools in the UK. We draw upon telephone interview data with over 120 senior managers, generally Deans and Associate Deans responsible for MBA programmes, in 80 UK business schools.