Transition to a hybrid teaching model as a step forward toward responsible management education?

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how the COVID-19 health crisis could help business schools move towards more responsible management education (RME). Business schools have been extensively blamed in previous crises for not educating their students in a responsible way. The COVID-19 pandemic could be the pivotal opportunity for business schools to regain legitimacy and a wake-up call to accelerate their journey towards RME. The authors aim to outline an illustration of the transition to a hybrid teaching model and how such educational reconfiguration might lead to more sustainable and RME, also beyond COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is proposed to analyse and decrypt the challenges and opportunities of a hybrid approach, its implications for the transformation of business schools and RME. This study also includes a state-of-the-art literature review, a specific investigation of the case of ESCP, the European cross-border multi-campus business school, and in-depth interviews with stakeholders impacted by the crisis. Findings: The health crisis demonstrated the unprecedented capability of higher education to embrace rapid and profound change. Furthermore, the pandemic served as a wake-up call in that it may even have caused the progress of business schools, previously somewhat reluctant, towards more socially responsible and sustainable thinking. Thus, the schools have used the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to regain legitimacy and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Practical implications: The paper pulls together a multitude of suggestions for higher education in general and business schools in particular. Originality/value: Combining two of higher education’s main challenges, namely, digitalisation and sustainability and applying the principles for responsible management education framework to map and analyse the pandemic’s implications, this paper provides a new, compelling and inspiring resource for business schools on their path to a more responsible management approach and education.