Being an engaged business school

Jennie Shorley

Chapter 13 in How to Scale Engagement and Impact in Universities, 2025, pp 142-152 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Business schools are in many ways unique in a university – an amalgamation of several different disciplines that gather academics from sociology, psychology, “hard” science, geography, computer science and others. Growing out of a need to educate those entering industry, the impetus to engage with the outside world would seem to be automatic. But business schools have also long been subject to the “Rigour vs. Relevance” debate with criticism of academics deliberately turning away from a business school's closeness to industry to “over theorise and under practice". This has been posited as a deliberate move towards the scientific paradigm, and a negative pull on the attention of business schools in the UK and the US. So can a business school develop both practice and academic research in harmony, creating a rigorous and engaged school? This chapter considers the key challenges and opportunities within this debate, including disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) challenges, identity, the impact agenda and engaged scholarship, as a possible solution.

Keywords: Business school; Engagement; Knowledge exchange; Engaged scholarship; Mission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035337422
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