Relevant & Responsible Research to Counter Competition
Andreas Kaplan

Management research often faces questions and criticism about its practical impact and purpose. A recent Financial Times article stated that professors are increasingly studying “abstract, abstruse, and overly academic topics with little resonance beyond the higher education sector” and summarized the status quo of research at business schools as “underperforming.” Management researchers would mainly write…

Read more

Meeting the Moment with Responsible Research

This is a Web Story for the 2022 Responsible Research Summit. The Summit was held from 6-7 June in Philadelphia, USA. It was hosted by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and sponsored by Wharton and INSEAD in collaboration with Responsible Research in Business & Management. The Summit aims to reward responsible research…

Read more

Rewarding Responsible Research

The Wharton School and INSEAD are proud to co-host the fourth annual Responsible Research Summit. It will be held on Wharton’s Philadelphia campus from 6-7 June 2022.   The Summit aims to provide insights into how to encourage more business school researchers to address issues that have an impact and improve social well-being—what are some of…

Read more

New book takes global approach to “accounting” for COVID-19
Diane-Laure Arjalies

Conceived by a group of accounting scholars spanning three continents, Breaking Boundaries: (Counter) accounts during a pandemic – Letters for future generations is a book offering a lasting record of collective and individual experiences during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a variety of multimedia and artistic presentations this multi-lingual work offers a…

Read more

The responsibility turn: building responsible doctoral programmes for a responsible future
Eva Cools

Eva Cools, DBA Manager & Research Manager of Vlerick Business School and co-chair of the 2021 EFMD Doctoral Programmes Conference (DPC), shares her reflections from the conference. Recently I had the honour to co-chair the 2021 EFMD Doctoral Programmes Conference (DPC), together with Christine Unterhitzenbergerfrom the University of Leeds. Although we already chose the conference…

Read more

Bring Context Back In for Impact
Srilata Zaheer

When I was hired by the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management 29 years ago, my first assignment was to teach a course called “Business, Government, and the Macroeconomy.” It highlighted business’ and governments’ necessary interdependence and partnership, and the role of institutions in strengthening business and society.  It reinforced my belief that scholars…

Read more

The 21st Century University: Societal and Sustainable
Andreas Kaplan

The societal aspects of education provide some of its main benefits, its purpose being to contribute to society’s welfare. Universities should accordingly produce responsible and accountable leaders in their respective domains through education. However, higher education’s quest for revenue and reputation has led universities to sideline or even neglect this stated societal purpose. While it…

Read more

Toward Better Measures of the Societal Impact of Research: Our Biggest Challenge
Bill Glick & Jerry Davis

When the Financial Times quietly posted a survey seeking input into the composition of its coveted list of scholarly journals in business, it set off a frenzy. Journal editors and other interested parties launched campaigns seeking to stuff the virtual ballot box, and thousands of “voters” obliged.   This response was not surprising. Inclusion in…

Read more

Despite What You’ve Heard, Americans Support Wearing Masks and other Efforts to Reduce Exposure to COVID-19
Deserai A. Crow, Lindsay Neuberger, Danielle Blanch Hartigan, Rob DeLeo & Tom Birkland

Recently released survey data reveals stark differences between the behaviors and beliefs of residents across U.S. states, but also shows that Americans are generally compliant and supportive of actions their local and state governments are taking to slow transmission of the virus and reduce risks. The findings of this survey are not only useful to…

Read more

“Disabled” by COVID19?
Anica Zeyen & Oana Branzei

“We are all disabled now”[i] is a phrase and headline that most of us will have heard during the current pandemic. Many non-disabled social media influencers, radio hosts, TV presenters and members of the general public now consider themselves, and many like them, “disabled” as the daily struggle with self-isolation and social distancing makes work…

Read more

What Business Professors Are Saying about COVID-19
Tima Bansal

Business professors from 53 schools around the world identify 6 priorities for companies in the COVID-19 era The day before our university closed down, my MBA students debated the price that the company that discovers the COVID-19 vaccine should charge. None of us expected the university to shut down indefinitely the next day. Two months…

Read more

Sustainable Finance in Corona Times
Timo Busch & Sabine Döbeli

While we see exciting developments in sustainable finance – e.g., the increasing amounts of sustainable investments – the world is currently facing an unprecedented crisis. At the time of writing, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causing the Covid-19-pandemic has resulted in global gridlock with untold health, economic and social effects. The real economy…

Read more

Why Business Schools should develop a large modelling & simulation community before the next pandemic
Kathy Kotiadis, Antuela A. Tako, Christine S.M. Currie & Bhakti Stephan Onggo

Business schools could play a crucial role in helping governments prepare for the next pandemic by developing the next generation of the modelling and simulation community. Simulation modelling is an area of teaching and research found in many elite business schools. COVID-19 looks set to be the worst infectious disease pandemic of a generation in…

Read more

North meets South: A call for inclusive global research
Smaranda Boroș, Anita Bosch & Yuliya Shymko

The Covid-19 pandemic is not just a health, economic, and humanitarian crisis, it is laying bare some undeniable truths in societies worldwide: It emphasises the extent of inequalities, both between and within societies. In the dynamics between nations, these inequalities revolve around the reliance on international funding bodies for humanitarian aid — and what happens…

Read more

Let’s also flatten the climate curve!
Christopher Wickert

Amidst the current Corona-crisis one chart gained massive popularity in social media. It is called “flatten the curve”, and relates the number of infections to the capacity of public healthcare systems to treat COVID-19 patients in a given period of time. Raising awareness about this simple but scientifically-grounded curve was critical for people to understand…

Read more

The Return of the State
Mette Morsing

Society chooses its dead (Sartre, 1976)[1]   A pandemic could be the context where the world sets aside differences and globally agree on how to best navigate our societies through the crisis. A pandemic does not distinguish between geographies, gender, ethnicity, or religion. Global solidarity, collaboration across old boarders, and a collective flexible humanitarian response…

Read more

Lifting the Mask of Materiality
Robert Sroufe

The Pandemic Calls for Integrated Solutions During this pandemic some businesses are doing better than others with how they are responding to and managing their social and financial performance. Ashim Paun, Co-Head for ESG Research at HSBC stated that “when crises like COVID-19 manifest, particularly with social and environmental causes and implications, investors can see…

Read more

Covid, Culture, and Political-Economic Systems
Jonathan Doh

As we struggle with how best to combat COVID-19 in many parts of the world, stark differences have emerged in both the strategies and relative success rates of individual countries in stopping the spread of the novel coronavirus. Remarkably, China and South Korea have successfully arrested the expansion of the virus, while others, including the…

Read more

Covid19 and International Business: A Viewpoint
Ilan Alon

While the world might recover from the Wuhan, China-based 2020 novel coronavirus, it is likely that the virus will leave the world governance system in a different state.  Globalization as we knew it is over and a new world order will emerge, with dramatic consequences to our field. Globalization involves the movement of people, information,…

Read more

What can the COVID-19 crisis teach us about the importance of geographical communities to enable human connection?
Wendy Smith & Natalie Slawinski

Currently, over 30% of the world’s population faces stay-at-home measures in an effort to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. While necessary to tackle this global pandemic, extended physical distancing is causing another global crisis as people face mounting social isolation, disconnection, loneliness, and depression. To make up for the loss of physical human connections,…

Read more

The coronavirus crisis: A catalyst for entrepreneurship
Klaus Meyer, Karsten Lund Pedersen & Thomas Ritter

Throughout human history, crises have been pivotal in developing our societies. Pandemics have helped advance health-care systems, wars have fuelled technological innovations and the global financial crisis helped advance tech companies like Uber and Airbnb. The present coronavirus pandemic will arguably not be an exception; entrepreneurs can be expected to rise to the challenge. Businesses play a key role…

Read more

Let Values Drive Your Board
Cynthia E. Clark

The corporate governance of firms and the role of the board of directors are at a crossroads. On the one hand, it has never been more vital to the workings of a business. On the other, it has never been more challenging. As boards grapple with new regulations about transparency and accountability, sustainability concerns, executive…

Read more

What Does “Flattening the Curve” Mean? Will It Also Flatten the Global Economy?
Farok J. Contractor

The Excruciating Choice Governments face an “excruciating choice” between “flattening the (coronavirus) curve” by imposing quarantines and lockdowns and the huge, unprecedented economic impact on the world economy that is already in recession. The Health and Human Services Department of the US Federal Government is planning for the possibility of an 18-month medical and economic…

Read more

Will a Global Pandemic and Recession Hit the Reset Button for Corporate Governance and Business/Stakeholder Relationships?
Jill Brown

Will a global pandemic and recession push businesses to hit the reset button in their business/stakeholder relationships? Will upper echelons (finally) walk the talk that they set out to accomplish, as represented in the 2019 Business Roundtable’s (BRT) Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation signed by 181 CEOs who committed to lead their companies…

Read more

Are companies Coronawashing? Ten pieces of evidence
Vera Ferrón Vílchez

In the current global crisis, companies are carrying out solidarity initiatives: donating masks and medical supplies, putting their operational capacity at the service of health authorities, or financially contributing to research on the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus and its associated disease, COVID-19. As a consequence of these initiatives, several companies have an active presence in mass media,…

Read more

COVID-19: A Wake Up Call for Collaborative Action Towards a More Sustainable Nigeria
Paul Appiah-Konadu & Oreva Atanya.

COVID-19 has brought significant disruptions to the economic and social lives of Nigerians and people all over the world, with significantly adverse effects on vulnerable communities. Beyond the financial cost to individuals and government, the cost of human lives cannot be overemphasized. In the fight to curb the spread of the coronavirus, there has already…

Read more

Privacy In The Age Of A Pandemic.
Kirsten Martin

If we are going to end social distancing, we will need to find a way to know who has COVID-19 and where they are.  Temperature and symptom tracking, testing, and contact tracing are regularly mentioned as a part of long-term solutions.[1]  This is a lot of data about individuals that will be tracked and reported…

Read more

Pandemic bonds: The financial cure we need for COVID-19?
Dror Etzion, Bernard Forgues, & Emmanuel Kypraios

Countries around the world are taking unprecedented action to stem financial collapse due to COVID-19. Governments are acting as insurers of last resort, providing liquidity to both individuals and corporations in dire straits. In these perilous times, the insurance sector itself will also be paying out claims, whether it’s to people who have experienced damage to life…

Read more

What is Essential?
Sarah Birrell Ivory

What is Essential? This is a question my family and I have asked many times in recent weeks, as Covid-19 forces us to reconsider both the meaning of that word, and the values that drive different people’s answers. Collectively, as a society, asking this question has led to us facing some fairly uncomfortable truths about…

Read more

Why Don’t Businesses See This Coming?
Glen Dowell

As the Covid-19 threat started to hit home in the United States, I was just preparing to begin teaching my Strategies for Sustainability course.  I usually begin each class session with a broad question to prime the ensuing discussion; for that opening class I used two: (1) why do businesses need to address sustainability issues?…

Read more

Using Scenario Planning to Prepare for Pandemics
Nardia Haigh

As you may know, some of my work surrounds scenario planning. Primarily, that work surrounds strategizing for climate change, but scenario planning is a versatile strategic planning method for navigating uncertainty. Others in this forum have provided excellent suggestions about what to do now. My focus is to help organizations come out of COVID-19 with…

Read more

Resilience in Uncertain Times
Martina Linnenluecke

As many of you know, I research resilience, that is, the capacity of individuals, organisations and communities to recover from substantial adversity. In this essay, I offer some of my own experiences and observations, and hope that they can contribute to tackling major global challenges such as the Covid-19 health emergency and climate change. I…

Read more

Coronavirus And Global Supply Chain Disruption: A Wake-Up Call For Climate Policy?
Nives Dolsak and Aseem Prakash

Coronavirus has slowed down economic activity and temporarily reduced China’s carbon emissions. However, there is a deeper implication for climate policy: decarbonization depends on global supply chains for inputs required for electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines. In 2015, solar and wind contributed to about 7% of global electricity.  Their salience is projected to increase…

Read more

Learning to Carry the Cat by the Tail
What we know about business response to disasters and how that relates to the COVID-19 crisis
Jennifer Oetzel & Chang Hoon Oh

Is it possible for businesses to manage such a seemingly “unmanageable” problem as COVID-19? We have been researching multinational enterprises’ responses to natural disasters and political risks for two decades now and the answer is a qualified yes. A key finding of our research is that local knowledge (e.g, community or regional knowledge about available resources…

Read more

Finding My Way in Healthcare Research
Leonard Berry

In 2003, I published my first medical journal article, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for me. To explain, I need to revisit the 1980s when I teamed with my Texas A&M University colleagues A. Parasuraman and Valarie Zeithaml to conduct and publish the earliest research conceptualizing and measuring service quality. I…

Read more

The Crisis in Academic Research
Carole E. Scott

All over the world today in every academic discipline there is concern about a decline in the average quality of articles published in academic journals. Because today a larger share of college professors must publish or perish, there has been an increasing demand for journals to publish in. This has led to a proliferation of…

Read more

Joining Forces for Powerful Research
Terri Griffith

Business schools began in partnership with businesses. We maintain relationships with our business communities through formal relationships with advisory boards, career centers, and adjunct faculty. As we strive for responsible research in business and management, perhaps we can look to stronger/more prevalent formal business relationships related to our research. Perhaps we’ll soon see corporate names…

Read more

More Resistance Than Expected
Some Ph.D. Program Directors Refuse to See the Responsible Research Initiative as an Opportunity
Katrin Muff

I had the opportunity to present the initiative as a keynote speaker at the EFMD Doctoral Programme Conference recently and was surprised by the degree of intellectual resistance to the idea. I had chosen a purposefully interactive presentation format, inviting the audience of Ph.D. Directors to reflect on their role in crafting programs that generate…

Read more

Building Momentum!
Bill Glick

The train is just starting to roll and it is not too late to give another push and get everyone on board. The community for Responsible Research in Business and Management (cRRBM) built an excellent case for action and a compelling vision to change the dysfunctional eco-system supporting and rewarding research that fails to live…

Read more

Toward science-based professionalism
Georges Romme

The RRBM’s community call for action is an important one. The unintended, often negative, consequences of the academic system in and around business schools are well-known. In 2016, I published The Quest for Professionalism (awarded by RRBM as a good example of responsible research), which includes a comprehensive analysis of the stalemate in our discipline…

Read more

From worry to action!
Katrin Muff

The Responsible Research for Business and Management (RRBM) community has issued a call for action to all business and management scholars who are dissatisfied with the current research system. Finally there is a way to ensure you are heard! Many scholars have been writing about the unintended negative consequences of the academic system and its…

Read more