Striving to be and market a “responsible” business school

In recent years, Business Schools have been found wanting for a variety of reasons and yet the Business School model has been enduringly successful. In this chapter, we reflect on how and whether it might be possible to create a new Business School purpose that moves us away from the problems of the past and that enables us to do things differently. We write this chapter as three colleagues who worked in a Business School that had made a commitment to progressing responsible business, reflecting upon our own experiences, what the School had achieved, and the challenges, tensions and ambiguities we encountered in progressing and marketing this agenda. Our account focuses mainly on the pre-Covid period and foregrounds the responsible business strategy development years. Our chapter considers the current position of Business Schools in the UK and some of the drivers for change. The chapter then discusses our case study, Birmingham Business School, presenting a critique from the different perspectives of the three authors. We reflect upon what others may learn from our experiences and address the question of whether a ‘responsible’ Business School is possible. We conclude with cautious optimism for the future, arguing that we have a responsibility to continue striving to achieve this agenda within Business Schools.