Responsible Global Business Graduates: Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Practice

Inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), the mission and vision of the International Business School Maastricht (IBSM) is to educate resilient business leaders with a global mind. Sustainability and internationalisation are core to this mission. At IBSM we found that our students and lecturers had difficulty in connecting the dots between these two educational initiatives and the various business disciplines. This paper describes the introduction of an innovative and radical pedagogy ‘Student in the Lead’ and how ethics, responsibility, and sustainability and international, intercultural, and global dimensions of learning are being positioned as a foundational lens for the core business disciplines of Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain Management, and Organisation and People. In addition, the paper reports on the first experiences of students and lecturers with Student in the Lead, which point towards their appreciation of the new pedagogy. Both students and coaches indicate they are still finding their way in what is expected of them and what the focus on the UNSDGs implies for them as International Business professionals. The paper concludes that the radical change trajectory is not only about developing new skills but also about sense making and transforming professional identities. The IBSM lecturers have to develop into reflective practioners who understand the fine line between coaching and their own positionality on the values underpinning ethical, responsible, and sustainable dimensions of business challenges and their international, global, and intercultural contexts and conditions. The IBSM experience also inspired the initiation of a new Eramus + Cooperation Partnership in Higher Education (2022–2025), titled “Innovating Business Education for Responsible Global Minds”.