The role of management educators in implementing responsible management education: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines the role of individual management educators in implementing Responsible Management Education (RME). It addresses a critical gap in the literature, which has disproportionately focused on institutional adoption and programme-level commitments rather than the agency, practices, and development of academics who translate these principles into reality.

Methodology: Following PRISMA guidelines, this systematic literature review identified 42 peer-reviewed articles from Google Scholar (2000–2025). The data were analyzed using the inductive Gioia methodology to capture educators' actions and mapped against the UN’s seven Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).

Findings: The review synthesizes individual academic action into four interconnected, mutually reinforcing themes: curriculum revisions, enhanced external engagement, embodiment of pedagogical changes, and academic development in teaching, learning, and researching (TLR). Crucially, academic development serves as the foundational connective thread, empowering educators with the research capability, credibility, and peer support required to drive the other three dimensions.

Implications: For academics, the study demonstrates that RME is enacted through everyday choices in classroom pedagogy and collaborative research. For business school leadership, it highlights that institutional change requires actively supporting educators through protected time, mentoring, and revised workload and promotion incentives that reward responsible scholarship.

Originality: By shifting the unit of analysis from the institution to the individual academic, this paper addresses why top-level PRME commitments often decouple into symbolic rhetoric. It contributes to a dynamic conceptual framework that models the individual educator as the central change agent orchestrating curriculum revision, pedagogical innovation, external collaboration, and scholarship.

Limitations and directions for future research: This review primarily draws literature from Google Scholar and provides an interpretive thematic synthesis. Future research should empirically validate the framework through surveys and interviews across diverse geographic and developing-economy contexts, while further exploring the under-researched PRME Practice principle.

Keywords: Responsible Management Education; PRME; Business Academics; Business Schools; Higher Education