Promoting Engaged Scholarship for Sustainability Regionally: the Case of the PRME France-Benelux Chapter

Over the last twenty-five years, the concept of Engaged Scholarship has gained momentum in the academic world striving to value knowledge developed through academia while actively engaging and dialoguing with society. Yet, how business schools and faculties, and universities at large, can move beyond institutional boundaries to engage deeply with society on complex urgent problems, such as sustainability, remains less explored. To address this issue this study focuses on the role of boundary-spanning intermediary organizations for responsible education, namely the PRME France-Benelux Chapter. Relying on evidence from multiple internal Chapter documents and PRME global sources of information and exemplifying the three levels of engaged scholarship drawing on concrete engaged educational, research and service actions of the PRME France-Benelux Chapter, our research shows evidence of how the Chapter convenes and facilitates collaboration for sustainability at a regional level. We conclude that PRME Chapters, as well as other regional and national networks, have the potential to further foster substantial responsible management education among their signatory schools through creating space for conversations, knowledge and practice sharing, and capacity building on the urgent topic of sustainability and CSR.