Sustainability of Indian management education institutions: Perspectives from leaders in academia
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 5 March 2020
Issue publication date: 22 April 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore perspectives of academicians in leadership positions in Indian business schools on the sustainability of management education institutions in India.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 respondents including directors, deans and vice-chancellors of private and public sector institutions offering management programmes across India. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis.
Findings
All the respondents strongly supported the need for building sustainable management education institutions. Different factors affecting sustainability of institutions that emerged from the interviews included focus on local context and inter-disciplinarity, visionary leadership and culture, country specific curriculum and pedagogy, sustained industry-academia collaboration, faculty orientation, training, retention and growth. On the basis of the factors identified, a directional proposition with the perspective of blue ocean strategy is proposed.
Originality/value
There is a vast scope for exploring issues, challenges and strategies for building sustainable management education institutions. Literature in this field in the Indian context is very limited. This paper is one of the few attempts to study perspectives and experiences of leaders in Indian business schools on the sustainability of their institutions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the respondents for giving their valuable time for the interviews. The author would also like to thank Dr KS Reddy, School of Management, Xi’an Polytechnic University for going through the draft of this paper and making many useful suggestions, and the editors and reviewers of the journal for their suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.
Citation
Mahajan, R. (2020), "Sustainability of Indian management education institutions: Perspectives from leaders in academia", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 613-626. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2019-0093
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited