Repurposing business schools: Exploring models of purpose governance for responsibility in management education

Abstract This essay discusses models of purpose governance to contribute to a fragmented literature, with some authors calling for repurposing business schools (BSs), whereas others consider purpose as too precarious to bring about substantial change. We reflect on our experience with a French BS that has become société à mission , a new legal structure for purpose‐driven companies that commit to incorporate specific governance practices to avoid mission drift. This pioneering example illustrates that purpose enactment requires coping with tensions between normative prescriptions faced by BSs and a more school‐based view of ‘good management education’. This leads us to outline two forms of purpose governance: in Mode I, ‘BS with purpose’, purpose is considered ‘an add on’—a new quality objective added to the existing ones without changing the logic of governance. In contrast, in Mode II—which emerges from our example—purpose acts as a transformative force affecting all objects of governmentality. It features purpose BSs as those with ‘purpose‐driven governmentality’. We argue that the radical transformation of BSs requires Mode II, discussing its potential to respond to criticisms against BSs and deal with normative constraints, difficult challenges, and ambivalent requirements. We conclude that the legal obligations of the French société à mission offer critical conditions for operating in the Mode II paradigm.