Changing the Business Model of Business Schools
Article
- Business schools are challenged to produce more timely and practical research, ensure career readiness for a variety of professional roles, and generate broad economic impact.
- Through significant shifts in learning and teaching, research and innovation, and enterprise and knowledge exchange, business schools can better align their models to today’s stakeholder needs.
- A transformational, rather than transactional, approach to a business model focuses on collaborative and adaptive methods to teaching and knowledge creation.
Is our business school on the right track? Have we figured out the best business model for our business school? Are we creating real business and societal impact with our teaching, research, and knowledge exchange? At the Teesside University International Business School (TUIBS) in the U.K., these questions have permeated recent discussions among leadership at all levels of the school.
For a number of years now, members of the business sector, academia, and broader society have questioned the relevance and effectiveness of business schools. The need to ensure academic rigor and the need to provide timely and practical business solutions are often at odds in these critiques, as the structures that help ensure academic excellence are notoriously slow when compared to the pace of business.
Add to this tension the post-pandemic environment and the dynamically evolving age of artificial intelligence, with the advent of disruptive tools like ChatGPT, and the relevance question is only heightened. Business schools further need to challenge the status quo of leadership agendas that are often disconnected from the stakeholders who are meant to benefit from organizations’ purposes.
At TUIBS, we have tried to address the rising demands from business and society by transforming our business model, specifically in terms of learning and teaching, research and innovation, and enterprise and knowledge exchange.
The following table illustrates the contrast between our school’s transactional (our traditional) and transformational (our reinvented) approach to a business model, through the lens of these three key areas.
| TABLE 1. TRANSACTIONAL VS. TRANSFORMATIONAL BUSINESS MODEL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learning and Teaching | Research and Innovation | Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange | |||
| Transactional Business Model | Theory-led instruction that emphasizes skills development | Discipline-based research that focuses largely on generating new knowledge and publishing in academic journals | Surface-level engagement with industry, government, and communities to improve businesses | ||
| Transformational Business Model | Experiential, collaborative, and adaptive learning that emphasizes lifelong learning | Transdisciplinary research that addresses complex societal problems and engages with stakeholders in co-creation | Active engagement with industry, government, and communities to drive innovation, growth, and societal impact | ||
Learning and Teaching: Metrics and Challenges
At a fundamental level, the role of business schools starts in the sphere of learning and teaching. Business schools shape the worldview of the next generation of leaders while polishing and refining the thinking of business executives.
More than ever, business schools also have a critical role to play in addressing sustainability challenges of businesses and wider society. One way to do this is by incorporating sustainability principles into the curriculum through courses, business scenarios, and projects.
Business schools also have a critical role to play in addressing sustainability challenges of businesses and wider society.
Business schools also need to consider sustainability through the lens of student mobility: Is international study sustainable from a resource perspective in its traditional format? This is just one of a range of dichotomies that schools need to tackle in their learning and teaching activities, including investing in campus development versus digital spaces, enabling student productivity while embracing experimentation and failure, and choosing to embrace AI or avoid it entirely through redesign.
We have envisaged our learning and teaching business model in terms of focus, methods, content, and metrics, as follows:
| TABLE 2. LEARNING AND TEACHING BUSINESS MODEL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Methods | Content | Metrics | ||
| Personalized and adaptive learning that promotes reskilling and upskilling | Digital and hybrid learning technologies with simulations and gamification | Emphasis on leadership and innovation with a mission-critical focus on sustainability | Outcomes-based assessment that measures student learning and career readiness | ||
Business schools need to quickly respond to the external forces that are shaping learning and teaching models, and many will need to make difficult decisions to adapt their practices.
A couple of key challenges we are working on in learning and teaching include:
- Taking advantage of AI to radically transform the delivery and assessment structure of business school offerings. For example, ChatGPT could be integrated into the student portal to provide personalized recommendations based on a student's academic performance and interests.
- Staying current and relevant in the fast-changing business landscape by preparing learners for multiple career paths and transitions. For example, we aim to build learners’ career readiness with a broad range of skills and knowledge that can be applied to heterogenous industries. This calls for a sharp focus on growth mindset and an appreciation for open innovation—where learners take inspiration from solutions available in other industries to solve challenges in their own.
Research and Innovation: Metrics and Challenges
In the race for scientific excellence, faculty are often encouraged and incentivized to publish more academic papers; however, as a consequence of these pursuits, efforts to solve real-world problems have been deprioritized.
Business schools should rethink the tangible business value that their scholarly work provides. At TUIBS, we have attempted to sharpen our research and innovation business model in terms of focus, methods, content, and metrics, as follows:
| TABLE 3. RESEARCH AND INNOVATION BUSINESS MODEL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Methods | Content | Metrics | ||
| Multidisciplinary research that not only addresses but anticipates emerging challenges and opportunities | Agile and innovative approaches to research, including data analytics and machine learning | Cutting-edge research that addresses complex global challenges, such as the future of work, digital disruption, and sustainability | Research outputs, outcomes, and the impact that serves the wider community, including industry and governments | ||
With rapid technological development affecting both education and the economy, the research and innovation agenda of business schools has often struggled to keep pace. At TUIBS, we are refocusing our activities on major trends like net-zero innovation, responsible leadership, and digital transformation.
Specific key challenges we are addressing in this space include:
- Using data-driven and evidence-based research that leverages predictive analytics to test hypotheses and decision-making. For instance, in marketing, predictive analytics is helping us make informed decisions about which promotions to offer to which customers.
- Producing problem-driven research that engages with stakeholders to generate actionable insights and solutions. For example, the problem of food waste in a specific community needs the engagement of stakeholders such as local government officials, food banks, and grocery stores to identify the cause and extent of food waste.
Enterprise and Knowledge Exchange: Metrics and Challenges
Demand for informed input to shape management education and business practice is increasing tremendously. To ensure that students are able to put their learning into practice, TUIBS provides opportunities for real-world learning through authentic and effective collaboration with enterprises.
A smooth and meaningful interaction of academics with non-academics leads to a win-win situation for both enterprises and enterprising business schools.
Our model of providing students with opportunities to work with international partners through summer schools and student exchanges has given our students great cross-cultural exposure while also increasing their employability prospects.
This is where a smooth and meaningful interaction of academics (including lecturers, researchers, and administrators) with non-academics (including managers, practitioners, coaches, and consultants) leads to a win-win situation for both enterprises and enterprising business schools. Accordingly, the focus, methods, content, and metrics for our enterprise and Knowle exchange business model are as follows:
| TABLE 4. ENTERPRISE AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE BUSINESS MODEL | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | Methods | Content | Metrics | ||
| Strong stakeholder partnerships that boost economic growth and lead to economic renewal | Entrepreneurship and innovation hubs, business incubators, and accelerators | Collaboration and knowledge sharing that supports commercialization, intellectual property, and technology transfer | Economic impact, including job creation and revenue generation | ||
The many uncertainties across the higher education sector mean that, for business schools like ours to prosper, we need to be almost separate entities with our own approaches that reduce or eliminate the administrative tasks that often create lag time.
Some key challenges that we are working on in terms of changing our enterprise and knowledge exchange business model include:
- Focusing on research commercialization and intellectual property by licensing technology and extending know-how to startups, spin-off companies, and established firms. For example, we are seeking out partnerships with established firms in the solar industry, which could then license the technology from the university or invest in the spin-off company.
- Disseminating knowledge that leads to policy recommendations and engages with media and practitioners. For instance, a study on the effects of minimum wage laws on employment rates can help us shape public discourse and give us an understanding of complex societal issues.
The Need for Profound Change
In the United Kingdom, as well as around the world, the number of business schools is growing. Business schools today represent the fastest-growing segment of the higher education industry. This, too, at a time when there is a confluence of adverse factors at play, including climate change, the rising cost of living, social unrest, political crises, and economic instability. The world needs business schools, but business schools need to ensure their value to stakeholders by transforming their business models.
By collaborating with industry partners and other disciplines on research projects; embracing technological innovations in teaching and assessment; and offering hands-on learning and consulting opportunities that benefit students, businesses, and communities, business schools can secure their relevance for the long term.
Article
Article
Article