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Were Business Schools to Blame for the Financial Crisis? What Should Business Schools Do to Help Prevent Similar Crises in the Future?

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Were business schools to blame for the financial crisis? What should business schools do to help prevent similar crises in the future?

The financial crisis in 2008 involved banks with the ability to generate a large sum of money in a short space of time, causing house prices to rise and the financial market to fluctuate. The debts created from loans awarded by the banks outweighed the income costs, which backfired upon the bank, causing a financial crisis (Positive Money (BSD), 2015). There were many reasons to blame for the pandemonium within the financial market during this period of time. This paper will examine whether business schools in particular, contributed to the financial crisis and will explore what business schools could do to prevent similar crises in the future. There have been negative spotlights upon graduates entering the banking world. Jonathan Slack, representative of 114 UK business schools stated that students with MBAs achieved higher positions within the corporate world, who are found to instigate high-risk taking (The Guardian, 2009). Graduates were seen to lack acknowledgement for factors such as value and ethics at this level of high risk taking and believe they can complete the work set without consideration of these factors (Podolny, 2009). Although much emphasis is upon graduates to produce profit and developing a business to success after graduating from a business school, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is just as equally important for many reasons. (The Guardian, 2009).

CSR enables individuals to consider factors other than profit within the business world. Whether that entails environmental protection, workforce rights or gender equality, this perspective would assume that imprecisions within the financial market alike to the crisis in 2008 could be prevented if CSR was considered. Bell (2015)

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