Shaping Trust and Impact: Business Schools, Responsibility, and Societal Impact: Reflecting on the Path Towards Integrated Research and Education

This article argues that business schools can rebuild trust and societal relevance by strategically integrating responsible research, education, and leadership. Drawing on insights from a 2025 PRME Global Forum session led by RRBM, it shows how responsible research, grounded in methodological rigour and societal relevance, naturally strengthens responsible management education. Rather than treating impact as an output, afterthought, or branding exercise, the article advocates process-oriented, context-sensitive strategies aligned with PRME principles and the UN SDGs. Through collaboration with accreditation bodies and initiatives such as RRBM, business schools can reinforce their value proposition in serving the common good.

Key takeaways
* Impact goes hand in hand with scientific integrity: Meaningful societal impact emerges from credible research that informs responsible education, not from superficial metrics or marketing-driven narratives.
* Strategic unity matters: Aligning research, teaching, and leadership within a clear, context-aware institutional strategy strengthens public trust and enhances business schools’ legitimacy and value proposition.
* Collaboration enables change: Coordinated efforts among initiatives such as RRBM, PRME, accreditation bodies, and their global frameworks are essential to achieving meaningful and lasting research impact.

CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE: This work advances management and higher education scholarship by redefining societal impact in business schools as an outcome embedded in responsible research rather than a metric-driven or reputational exercise. It develops an integrative framework linking research integrity, responsible management education, and institutional strategy within the architecture of PRME and the UN SDGs. By positioning responsible research as the primary driver of educational and leadership impact, it bridges fragmented debates on impact, accreditation, and legitimacy, extending stakeholder and responsible research theory to demonstrate how methodological rigour and societal relevance underpin institutional trust and long-term public value.

ORIGINALITY: The article offers an original reconceptualisation of how business schools rebuild societal trust by embedding responsible research at the core of institutional strategy. It shifts impact from a downstream output to a systemically embedded process shaped by rigour, stakeholder engagement, and strategic alignment. Drawing on insights from the 2025 PRME Global Forum led by the Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) network, it uniquely integrates responsible research, responsible management education, and accreditation logics within a unified SDG-aligned framework. This challenges prevailing metric-centric models of impact and advances a theoretically grounded alternative centred on credibility and societal value creation.

SIGNIFICANCE: The work contributes to global debates on the legitimacy of business schools amid declining public trust in higher education and corporate leadership. By articulating a coherent strategy that aligns research, teaching, and governance with societal objectives, it informs reform discussions within PRME, RRBM, and accreditation communities. Its alignment with international frameworks such as PRME and the UN SDGs enhances its cross-institutional relevance, supporting business schools in strengthening their public value proposition through strategically embedded, credible impact.

RIGOUR: The article is grounded in established scholarship on responsible research, stakeholder theory, and responsible management education. It integrates theoretical frameworks with insights from global policy forums, accreditation standards, and contemporary debates on research integrity and relevance. By foregrounding methodological rigour as a precondition for societal impact, it demonstrates conceptual coherence, analytical robustness, and practical applicability.

LINK TO IMPACT: This research informs ongoing international dialogue within RRBM, PRME, and accreditation bodies on aligning research excellence with societal needs. Through dissemination in Global Focus (EFMD’s business magazine) and engagement in PRME and RRBM global forums, it contributes to institutional strategy discussions on embedding responsible research within governance, teaching, and leadership practices. The work supports the development of SDG-aligned impact frameworks and strengthens intellectual foundations for reforms aimed at enhancing trust, legitimacy, and long-term public value in business education.