The aim of research has to be to distill foundational knowledge toward best practices, the most innovative of which can and should inform progress. Among the core guiding principles for research in business and management has been the value placed on pluralism in its theories, grounded in different assumptions as a social science about how humans behave. This value, when viewed through multiple perspectives, can be called multidisciplinary collaboration, and includes alternative models of business and its role in society. Business school deans, journal editors, sponsors and funders, accreditation agencies, and certainly corporate stakeholders, all value multiple research contributions — both basic and applied.

We can only be responsible when we’re expertly conscious of the wide-ranging effects of our work. What we who lead business schools need to do better is to improve the visibility and prove the relevance of masterful, ongoing research through creative publishing and related methods of dissemination. Our work as leaders in business education is forever rippling through communities and systems.

Multidisciplinary research has always been a Cornell strength, and this true range and diversity of expertise and attitudes, still growing in our college, is certain to grow in value as we continue to develop as educators of responsible business leaders. It will be our combined strengths and commitments that will move us forward as a society and as a force for good. We see this more every day.

This is why our newest development is such a timely and meaningful event. The Paul Rubacha Department of Real Estate—established with the generosity of alumnus Paul Rubacha ’72, MBA ’73 and jointly led by our SC Johnson College of Business and Cornell’s College of Art, Architecture, and Planning—will build on the existing Baker Program in Real Estate. This new department weaves responsible design, development, operations, and financing to continue the Cornell way of breaking down traditional barriers to create opportunities for our students and the industries requiring their forward-thinking expertise. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for this new initiative.

Creating new rewards for use-inspired research

If these statements about guiding principles look familiar, it is because they are a distillation of the seven principles of responsible science that were outlined in a 2017 position paper, “A Vision of Responsible Research in Business and Management: Striving for Useful and Credible Knowledge,” by a new organization, the Responsible Research in Business and Management Network. In full disclosure, I am an original signatory to the RRBM position paper and currently serve as an elected member of its working board. The position paper paints a picture of a future—Vision 2030—in which business schools and scholars worldwide will have successfully transformed their research toward responsible science, producing useful, credible knowledge that addresses problems important to business and how business links to society. If I have piqued your interest, go read the position paper. The vision is based on a core belief that business is a force for good in society if it is informed by responsible research.

I see a lot of commonality between this vision and the one our very own Cornell SC Johnson College of Business set out for itself in 2016.

In additional to defining a set of seven principles to guide responsible research in business and management, there is an impetus at RRBM for changing the current business research ecosystem toward one that emphasizes business and societal relevance. Changing the incentives and culture around publications is going to be essential for promoting credible and impactful research.

Why are these issues top of mind for me this month?

This was all the subject of the 2022 Responsible Research Summit: Rewarding Responsible Research hosted at the Wharton School in June. After a couple of years of virtual gatherings, we were back in person and in full force. This year’s agenda featured eleven deans from universities across North America, Europe, and Asia, the heads of AACSB and the UN Global Compact’s Principles for Responsible Management Education, and other distinguished corporate speakers, faculty members, and journal editors. Two sessions I thoroughly enjoyed were by the two co-founders of B Lab, the nonprofit network transforming the global economy to advance B Corp, which provides ratings of companies based on their social impact, and by Sally Susman, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Executive VP of Pfizer Foundation, who described Pfizer’s coordinated support for disaster and humanitarian relief and recovery efforts around the world over the past few years. Andrew Jack, Global Education Editor at Financial Times, joined us to lead a segment on exemplary impact research by business school professors. He featured a few leading authors of articles receiving the first FT Responsible Business Education Awards. Our own Professor Chris Marquis was shortlisted for the award for his book, Better Business, on the B Corp movement and how it is changing capitalism in the world today.

I moderated a panel of fellow deans, called the Deans Perspective on Social Impact, with Susan Christoffersen, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and Bill Boulding, dean of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. This session seemed to energize the attendees; the focus was on what incentives deans can change to encourage their faculty to conduct more impactful research, and what tools, resources, and institutions deans can invest in to make it easier for those faculty who are already willing to conduct more impactful research. My favorite part of the Q&A was when we were asked how we, as leaders, define and communicate the impactfulness and relevance of research to our current/prospective donors, alumni, students, and other external stakeholders. Some asked us whether our research centers and institutes that depend on external funding deliver more credible and impactful research. I am not sure we answered all of these questions in a satisfactory way. The attendees of the RRBM Summit are eager to make change and make it fast. I get it—even as we recognize the institutional constraints that make it hard.

I had another favorite session beyond my own. Our own award-winning Sachin Gupta sat on the RRBM Fireside Chat with the Editors: Perspectives on “How can journals encourage and use ‘use-inspired’ research in service of society?” Sachin is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) and he offered keen insights on the topic along with the lead editors of Cornell’s own Administrative Science Quarterly (USC Marshall’s Christine Beckman), Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MIT Sloan’s Georgia Perakis), and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing (Florida State’s Maura Scott). Well done by Sachin in representing Cornell and showcasing the innovative new social-impact initiatives at JMR.

Our own commitment to the Principles of Responsible Management Education

UN PRME executive director Mette Morsing served on the Steering Committee of the RRBM event. I have been pleased to interact with Mette more lately given my new board seat on UN PRME, as well as a panel at the June 2022 PRME Global Forum. In her introduction to that event, Mette reported the results of a PRME student poll as a call-to-action: “Business and leadership students want to understand more about climate change and the environment, and they want responsible management education to be more innovative and active, engaging.” Noted! You can watch that panel, Innovative Pedagogies for Faculty in Challenging Times, here.

It’s with great pride that I close this post with a note on our college’s official signatory status to the UN Principles of Management Education (PRME). We now belong to this growing global cohort of 800+ business schools and colleges devoted to embedding the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into every aspect of business education. It’s ambitious and necessary, and has already engaged inspiring partners. I’m particularly pleased to have been elected to the PRME Board, where we all intend to share expertise and best practices in the undertaking of the challenge of our time. Mette Morsing is a dedicated leader. “We’re seeing willingness from deans and students,” she said recently, “not just the single ethics professor. When rankings start paying attention, more will happen.” Mette also cautioned us, in no uncertain terms, that finance programs in business schools and colleges are being compelled to develop ways to teach the new skills, to “revise the ways we educate our students on this.” As a finance professor, I sat up and listened to these cautions to my own discipline.

With the push from the RRBM and UN PRME movements, it is hard to ignore that the world wants to see a change in academia, in the world of business education. We have accepted this charge with our own inaugural Sharing of Information on Progress and welcome the structure to keep our work on track.

And I couldn’t leave without mentioning:

The field of climate finance research is growing, and not a minute too soon. To this end, John Tobin-de la Puente and I have issued a call for research into financing nature. I used this new paper as the basis for my distinguished keynote address to the gathering of the Western Finance Association meetings in Portland, also in June. You can read it here.

The inaugural Cornell University ESG Investing Research Conference just happened in mid-July. Sponsored by the Parker Center for Investment Research, the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, and the Investing@Cornell and Business of Sustainability interdisciplinary themes, the conference featured worldwide finance scholars currently working on research in ESG investing, and linked them up with investment professionals managing ESG assets. There were great presentations by scholars from Harvard Business School, UC Boulder, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Federal Reserve Board, UVA’s Darden School and the London Business School, among others. There was a policy panel with leaders from Calvert Research & Management, NineDot Energy, and Moody’s, as well as investment panels with leaders from BlackRock, Fidelity, Clearbridge Investments, American Century, Avantis Investors, and Amundi Asset Management. The paper Is History Repeating Itself? The (Un)predictable Past of ESG Ratings presented by MIT Sloan’s Florian Berg (along with Frankfurt School of Finance & Management’s Kornelia Fabisik and Zacharias Sautner) won the Avantis Investors Best Paper Prize (as voted on by the 100+ attendees).

Finally, I’m pleased to join the editorial board of a brand new journal, Accountability in a Sustainable World Quarterly (ASWQ), sponsored by Center for Accounting Research and Education (CARE) at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Aiming to meet the “immediate need for dialogue among academics and practitioners about sustainability, accountability, data and measurement, related assurance, high quality information to inform (responsible) investment decisions, and accountability in setting of personal, corporate, and public sector goals.” ASWQ will be introduced this coming November.