The complexities of business school alignment with the emerging globalisation of business education

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate key implications of globalisation for business schools, and to put structural alignment of academic structures with the Bologna Declaration in a broader strategic alignment with the needs of a knowledge-driven society and a socially sustainable development.Design methodology approach - The analysis uses systems theory for analysing dynamic change in society and a synthesis of its influences on business education, as we see the Bologna Process is neither conceived nor implemented with sufficient care for holism in the European effort to become an innovative society.Findings - Business schools should extend their transformation effort beyond the Bologna Process and align their strategic model of operation with societal needs by integrating social requirements into their strategic framework.Research limitations implications - Research focuses on key external developments in business education at a transnational level. Future research should focus on the exploration of the business school response to social change in a local context.Practical implications - A requisitely holistic picture of contextual change offers business school leaders deeper understanding of external implications for aligning schools with societal needs.Social implications - Emerging social challenges in Europe are taken as the starting point for realigning a strategic model of business school operation with societal needs and the business world with the aim to improve schools' accountability and their evolvement into socially engaged actors with innovative approaches.Originality value - The paper presents a systemic and requisitely holistic view of social change for aligning the business school model of operation with the broader needs of a knowledge-driven society that stretches beyond the formal academic structures unification in the Bologna Process.