{"id":96232,"date":"2024-10-03T13:03:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T17:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=96232"},"modified":"2024-10-03T18:02:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T22:02:05","slug":"opinion-andrew-gaudes-discusses-how-business-schools-measure-societal-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2024\/10\/opinion-andrew-gaudes-discusses-how-business-schools-measure-societal-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Andrew Gaudes discusses how business schools measure societal impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

This piece, written by Andrew Gaudes, Professor in Entrepreneurship and former Dean of Brock’s Goodman School of Business, originally appeared in The Conversation<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Back in 1970, the economist\u00a0Milton Friedman\u00a0famously argued that businesses have a single responsibility: to increase profit. For decades, the so-called \u201cFriedman doctrine\u201d amounted to dogma in certain circles, including at many business schools.<\/p>\n

A lot has changed since those days. Governments and other education funders are increasingly demanding that universities prioritize social goals, like those set out in the United Nations\u2019\u00a02030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, business schools are dealing with new market pressures, including\u00a0global rankings\u00a0that are now taking societal impact into account, and students, professors and accrediting bodies that increasingly value social responsibility.<\/p>\n

But just what is \u201csocietal impact,\u201d and can it be measured? As a\u00a0professor of entrepreneurship\u00a0and the former dean of a business school that went through the process of determining impact, my interest in these questions is more than just theoretical.<\/p>\n

A new standard of impact<\/h2>\n

In 2020, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, or AACSB \u2014 the organization that accredits\u00a0more than 600\u00a0business schools in the U.S. \u2014 made a big decision: It revised its accreditation standards to include\u00a0engagement and societal impact.<\/p>\n

Societal impact, as defined by AACSB, refers to \u201chow a school makes a positive impact on the betterment of society, as identified in the school\u2019s mission and strategic plan.\u201d While AACSB-accredited schools are now required to \u201cdemonstrate positive societal impact,\u201d the organization offers schools wide discretion on how they work toward meeting the standard.<\/p>\n

While the overall response has been positive, business schools have been seeking additional insight that will help them\u00a0identify and measure their societal impact. After all, universities benefit their communities in many ways. If you wanted to track a business school\u2019s impact, where should you even begin?<\/p>\n

Tools for assessing impact<\/h2>\n

Based on my personal experience, it\u2019s good for a business school to start by looking at its strategic plan.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because\u00a0determining impact is a complex process\u00a0that requires analyzing massive amounts of data. Because it can be so sprawling, determining and measuring impact is\u00a0best approached in alignment with the strategic intent of the organization.<\/p>\n

A school\u2019s strategic plan can serve as a strong basis for identifying areas of impact that align with the school\u2019s aspirations. It also sends a message to accreditors and all stakeholders that the areas of impact are close to the core of its operations.<\/p>\n

The next step for many schools, including my university, is to adopt an impact framework. An impact framework is a tool that organizations use to identify initiatives and measure progress toward goals. Research shows that impact frameworks can be effective at keeping organizations\u00a0locked into a purposeful journey, offering guardrails to prevent people from losing sight of their objectives.<\/p>\n

One such framework bespoke to business schools is offered by the European Foundation for Management Development, which is a global accrediting organization based in Brussels. Alongside its accreditation activities, the foundation offers the service known as the\u00a0Business School Impact System, which has been initiated at more than 90 business schools worldwide.<\/p>\n

The Business School Impact System is likely the longest-established system of its sort, since it was launched in 2012. At that time there was no other resource available \u2013 unless a school acquired the services of a consulting firm to undertake an impact analysis at great expense. The\u00a0Business School Impact System framework\u00a0looks at 120 indicators across seven dimensions of impact.<\/p>\n

Other organizations, such as the U.N.-sponsored\u00a0Principles for Responsible Education, offer further guidance.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in it for business schools<\/h2>\n

Assessing impact offers\u00a0many benefits for business schools. For example, it can boost a program\u2019s reputation, attracting prospective students, employers and faculty. It can also offer\u00a0compelling evidence for fundraising campaigns\u00a0and grant applications. Additionally, insights from impact assessments can inform curriculum development, making programs relevant to contemporary social challenges.<\/p>\n

Finally, societal impact assessments can\u00a0foster stronger partnerships with community organizations and industry, encouraging universities to prioritize real-world learning opportunities for students and enabling them to contribute directly to society through collaborative projects and research initiatives.<\/p>\n

Business schools have long played a crucial role in shaping society \u2014 it was true in Milton Friedman\u2019s era, and it\u2019s still true now. What\u2019s new is that business schools are trying to measure their impact. I think this is a welcome change.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Gaudes, Professor in Entrepreneurship and former Dean of Brock’s Goodman School of Business, recently wrote a piece for The Conversation about the ways in which business schools make a positive impact on society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,6],"tags":[594],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96233,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96232\/revisions\/96233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}