On subjects from climate change to knife crime and racism in recruitment to kidney transplants, business school professors are conducting research geared towards making a positive impact on society.
Despite criticism that much of their activity focuses on abstract, abstruse and overly academic topics with little resonance beyond the higher education sector, a survey by the Financial Times shows a rich and varied range of research by faculty on topics with strong social value.
Bill Glick, professor of management at Houston’s Rice University, maintains, however, that such examples remain too rare. Much business school research, and public funding for it, is “underperforming”, he claims.