Revolutionizing societal impact in business school research: can the FT50 lead the change?

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether the Financial Times (FT) 50 journals, long considered the pinnacle of academic business scholarship, are evolving to address global societal challenges. It evaluates their alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and considers their potential role in transforming business school research into "a force for good." Design/methodology/approach This study applies the SDG impact intensity (SDGII) metric, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven scientometric framework, to assess FT 50 journal content from 2016 to 2019 and 2020 to 2023. Benchmarked against the SDG 50, a set of journals highly aligned with SDG content and outcomes, the analysis positions the FT 50 as a promising transformative catalyst within academia. Findings Results reveal a 39% improvement in SDGII scores for the FT 50, with 20% of journals demonstrating significant progress. Management Information Systems Quarterly exemplifies this trend, achieving a 425% increase in SDGII. However, the FT 50 continues to lag behind the SDG 50 which outperforms in both baseline and overall alignment. Most FT 50 journals showed little to no movement, underscoring systemic inertia, although a minority illustrate pathways for meaningful change. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to bibliometric content analysis of journal outputs which may not capture the full scope of societal impact. Future research should investigate qualitative editorial strategies, institutional incentives and cross-cultural journal ecosystems to better understand pathways for embedding societal relevance in journals. Practical implications The findings suggest that FT 50 editors, publishers, accrediting bodies and ranking agencies must recalibrate priorities and incentives to foster research that balances rigor with societal relevance. This could reshape academic culture from “publish or perish” to “publish and prosper,” enhancing the ability of business scholarship to address grand challenges. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to apply an AI-based SDG alignment metric to the FT 50 over two distinct periods and a benchmarked data set. Through comparative analysis with the SDG 50, it demonstrates both the systemic shortcomings and the potentially transformative potential of the FT 50 to catalyze business school research as a “force for good.”