From crisis to co–creation: rethinking management education in the age of Industry 5.0

Purpose This paper aims to examine how Industry 5.0 can provide a new normative framework for rethinking the purpose, pedagogy and public role of business schools. It argues that Industry 5.0 should not be understood only as a technological or industrial shift, but as an educational opportunity to reconsider what business schools are for, what kinds of graduates they should develop and how they might contribute to more humane, inclusive and sustainable forms of organizing. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops a conceptual argument by bringing together critiques of management education with the emerging Industry 5.0 literature on human-centricity, sustainability and resilience. Findings This paper argues that some dominant features of management education remain shaped by logics of efficiency, standardization, technical competence and market responsiveness that are more compatible with Industry 4.0 than Industry 5.0. Industry 5.0 offers a different basis for legitimacy, centered on human-centricity, sustainability and resilience. On this basis, the paper conceptualizes business schools as socio-technical systems within a human–technological–educational nexus and identifies co-creation as the pedagogy most aligned with this orientation. Practical implications The argument invites business schools to redesign curricula, governance, stakeholder engagement and assessment around collaborative problem-solving, ethical reflection, technological responsibility and societal impact. Originality/value This paper contributes by moving Industry 5.0 from an industrial and technological paradigm into management education theory. It shows how Industry 5.0 can reframe business schools not as knowledge factories but as laboratories of co-creation capable of shaping more just, resilient and sustainable futures.