Academic leadership in a warming world: How can business school academics influence climate change action?

This Leading Questions article explores how academics in business schools can contribute to mobilising action on climate change. Given the pressing nature of this issue and the magnitude of the ongoing crisis, inaction merely perpetuates an economic system that fuels increasing greenhouse gas emissions, leading to an uninhabitable planet. Given the urgency of actions, what responsibilities do scholars have in their research and teaching? By addressing the question, ‘What am I supposed to do?’, the article presents four potential roles for academics—the Provocateur, the Catalyst, the Dissident, and the Rebellion—all aimed at raising awareness of this critical challenge and fostering collective climate activism on campus and within civil society. These activities do not centre on individual responsibilities for environmental issues; rather, they represent academic leadership in mobilizing collective responses aimed at challenging the structural injustices of fossil fuel-dependent corporate capitalism.