Embedding societal impact into education, research, and service: the case of business schools

Abstract The social impact (SI) of universities has become of key interest to policy makers, institutional leaders, and the academic community alike. Especially in the field of business schools, which face strong global competition and are exposed to corporate social responsibility pressures, there are increasing expectations for evidence of SI. Business schools are responding to these pressures through statements of commitment to SI in their missions and strategies. However, how they adapt their education, research, and service practices to foster SI, and the conditions that enable these practices to develop is a more nascent topic of research. Accordingly, this study has two objectives. First, it analyses how business schools adapt their organisational practices to strengthen their societal impact. Second, by drawing on institutional logics, it examines the factors that influence the implementation of SI practices. The data derive from an online survey completed by business schools that are part of the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) network. Results show that business schools strive to strengthen their social impact by adapting existing practices (e.g. courses and publication outputs on societal challenges) rather than adopting more novel forms of engagement with society (e.g. MOOCs, open science, research dissemination). The implementation of practices for SI is influenced by a market logic in the form of pressures from networks and growing student demand for sustainability education, and corporate logic through performance management tools for SI.