Sustainability and entrepreneurship: emerging opportunities for business and management education

Abstract

Purpose Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development defines 17 goals with 169 targets in economic, social and environmental fields to guarantee human rights. Universities and companies are two driving forces for achieving these Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, university research and, specifically, business and management studies should include this new economic-social panorama. Focusing on business and management education, this study aims to analyze who can help to implement the SDGs and how.

Design/methodology/approach A descriptive examination of the evolution of documents and journals on business and management education was performed. Next, a co-authorship analysis, studying the collaboration among researchers, was performed. Finally, a co-word analysis that identifies the main topics and relationships between them was developed.

Findings This study’s results suggest the necessity of expanding collaboration networks between countries and institutions. The analysis also reveals two emergent topics: entrepreneurship and sustainability. Then, three lines for teaching business and management according to the SDGs are proposed: two regarding university-firm relationships – job creation and entrepreneurship – and the third regarding universities effects on society – including sustainability principles and actions in higher education.

Originality/value The main contribution is to show the important role that universities, in general, and business and management education, in particular, play in achieving the SDGs. Universities must mobilize their managers, professors and students because implementing the SDGs is possible through coordinated and integrated participation.