East Asian business schools and challenges to introducing sustainability and SDG curricula

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and a shifting geopolitical landscape present us with strategic, ethical and planetary dilemmas that demand more reflective action on behalf of actors at every level. The identified challenges of the not-so-distant future require a fundamental transformation of how companies do business, and the role of business schools in shaping the business practices of the future. But because businesses need to work in an existing network structure with stickiness of old norms and values, the balance between radical change and thriving in established structures is sometimes tricky to achieve. Such a conflict is even more accentuated in the East Asian context, where stability in power structures has been a dominating norm. This paper describes some major challenges and the directions that need to be undertaken by East Asian business schools. We offer the view that norms and values in the local context, which are reproduced through business schools, must be brought to light and questioned in a reflexive spirit, in order to pave the way for more progressive transformation.