Societal impact in business education is both intentional and multidimensional, shaped by how schools align their missions, strategies, and activities to create meaningful change. To bring greater clarity and consistency to this work, AACSB has adapted the Stockholm Resilience Centre’s “wedding cake” model into a framework tailored specifically for the business school context.

In this adapted model, societal impact is organized across three interconnected domains: People, Economy, and Environment. Each domain was divided into key subdomains that reflect the specific ways business schools contribute to human well-being, inclusive and sustainable economic development, and the stewardship of natural systems. Together, these domains and subdomains provide a structured yet flexible framework for understanding, communicating, and advancing the diverse contributions business schools make to society.

Advancing human well-being, strengthening communities, and promoting fairness.

• Well-Being: Initiatives that improve quality of life by expanding access to essential resources, such as food, health, and education, while reducing poverty and supporting lifelong learning.
• Fairness and Justice: Efforts that promote equity, inclusion, ethical leadership, equal rights, and strong institutions, enabling individuals and communities to thrive.
• Community and Infrastructure: Actions that strengthen local communities through improved access to energy, infrastructure, and safe, inclusive spaces so people can live and work productively.

Impact Story: Edinburgh Napier University

Through applied research and partnership, the Centre for Military Research Education and Public Engagement at Edinburgh Napier University Business School supported the veteran assistance nonprofit BRAVEHOUND by providing the evidence needed to demonstrate the charity’s impact and secure long-term funding. By helping the organization measure and communicate its outcomes, the school enabled BRAVEHOUND to expand its work pairing veterans with assistance dogs that provide daily stability, connection, and purpose. For many veterans, these partnerships are life-changing; they support improved mental health, renew independence, and, in some cases, save lives.

Fostering inclusive growth, innovation, and responsible business practices.

• Equal Opportunity and Economic Inclusion: Programs that expand access to quality employment, entrepreneurship, and economic mobility, reducing disparities and enabling greater prosperity.
• Growth and Innovation: Advancing research, technology, and industry partnerships that drive innovation, modern infrastructure, and sustainable economic development.
• Sustainability: Encouraging responsible production, consumption, and business models that create long-term value for organizations and society.

Impact Story: Creighton University

At Creighton University’s Heider College of Business in Nebraska, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program demonstrates sustained, measurable societal impact by expanding community reach and transforming student learning. From 2019 to 2024, Creighton students prepared 2,343 federal tax returns, securing 2.39 million USD in federal refunds for low- and moderate-income individuals and families—funds that were reinvested directly into the Omaha economy.

Protecting natural systems and strengthening resilience for future generations.

• Climate Resilience: Initiatives that address climate risks, reduce environmental impact, and prepare communities and organizations to adapt to changing conditions.
• Ecosystem Integrity: Efforts that protect biodiversity and safeguard marine and terrestrial ecosystems essential to global stability and prosperity.
• Resource Availability: Promoting responsible stewardship of vital natural resources, including water and sanitation systems that support human and ecological health.

Impact Story: National Cheng Kung University

At the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, ECOCO AI-powered recycling machines turn environmental responsibility into an engaging, reward-based experience. Combining reverse-vending technology with a gamified mobile app, ECOCO machine placements—expanding from campuses and urban centers to rural areas and offshore islands nationwide—drive community participation in recycling materials like plastics, cans, and batteries. The initiative reflects how business school tools such as entrepreneurial strategy, behavioral design, and ESG frameworks translate into scalable, real-world impact.

Societal impact is best understood through people and their stories. The following impact stories show how schools translate their missions into meaningful action. Each example highlights how mission-aligned focus areas inspire concrete initiatives, which lead to measurable outcomes and lasting benefits for communities, organizations, and society. Together, these stories illustrate how education, research, and collaboration can drive real-world change.

Impact Story: IE Business School

Impact Story: Monash Business School, Monash University

Impact Story: University of California, Irvine

Impact Story: Universitas Prasetiya Mulya

Impact Story: GEM Alpine Business School

Impact Story: INCAE

Over the past five years, societal impact has evolved from an emerging priority to a defining feature of business education worldwide. Since 2020, more than 1,000 AACSB-accredited schools have contributed to nearly 12,000 initiatives, reflecting broad participation across the global network.

Beyond scale, this progress signals a deeper shift in how impact is understood and advanced. Schools are strengthening institutional commitment, expanding alignment with global priorities, and increasingly focusing on how impact is measured and demonstrated. Together, these trends highlight a transition from activity to accountability, where societal impact is becoming more intentional, coordinated, and outcomes-driven.

Societal Impact in Numbers

Number of Schools Contributing to Each Domain

The above chart shows that societal impact efforts are strongest in the People and Economy domains, with the Community & Infrastructure and Growth & Innovation subdomains emerging as the highest-priority areas. 

Societal Impact Initiatives by Macro Region

Institutional Integration of Societal Impact

Over the past five years, societal impact has become embedded within the core identity and operations of AACSB-accredited schools. Institutions are increasingly integrating impact across curriculum, scholarship, and engagement with stakeholders, supported by formal governance structures and dedicated resources.

This institutionalization extends beyond the school itself. Many of the efforts are also influencing public policy and decision-making through research, advisory roles, and collaboration with government and industry.

863 schools report initiatives influencing public policy or government decision-making

Together, these patterns signal a clear shift from individual initiatives to sustained, institutionwide commitment, positioning societal impact as a core capability of business education.

Evolving Approaches to Measuring Societal Impact

As societal impact efforts mature, institutions are increasingly focused on how progress is defined and measured. Across AACSB-accredited schools, progress is most commonly described through the expansion of existing initiatives, increased scale and reach, and the strengthening of partnerships with external stakeholders. Many schools also point to the development of more formal measurement approaches, such as introducing KPIs, dashboards, and structured evaluation frameworks as an important step forward.

63.7% of schools assess or evaluate the effectiveness of their societal impact initiatives using defined metrics or KPIs, while others demonstrate qualitative approaches.

At the same time, the data highlights opportunities to strengthen how impact is assessed and communicated. While schools frequently report activities and outputs, fewer provide clear evidence of outcomes or long-term impact. Measurement is often fragmented across individual initiatives rather than integrated at the institutional level, and definitions of impact vary widely. In many cases, reporting relies on qualitative descriptions without consistent supporting metrics or clear links between activities and results.

Together, these patterns reflect a natural evolutionary maturation, from documenting activity to demonstrating measurable, sustained impact. As schools continue to refine their approaches, impact measurement is becoming more consistent, outcomes-focused, and aligned with institutional strategy.

Observed Strengths and Limitations in Measuring Societal Impact

The following examples illustrate how schools are moving beyond activity tracking to more structured, multidimensional approaches for measuring societal impact. While each institution takes a different approach, they share a common emphasis on combining quantitative metrics with evidence of outcomes, external validation, and clear linkages between activities and impact. Together, they illustrate emerging best practices in building more robust, credible, and transparent impact measurement systems.

• Lund University: In Sweden, the Lund University School of Economics and Management evaluates effectiveness through a chain of evidence including research volume, policy uptake, advisory roles, documented changes in organizational practice, and traceable educational effects. Future plans include a consistent documentation logic: what we did, who was involved, how broad the reach was, what changed, and what evidence supports that conclusion. This may include quantitative indicators as well as qualitative evidence such as partner feedback, policy uptake, advisory roles, follow-up collaborations, changes in organisational practice, or traceable educational effects. The aim is to strengthen consistency and transparency across cases, while recognizing that societal impact cannot always be captured by a single metric.
• IMD: IMD in Switzerland uses double materiality assessments to identify and prioritize significant impacts, risks, and opportunities; EcoVadis ratings for external assessment of sustainability performance and guidance toward sustainability improvements using the Business School Impact System (BSIS) to measure economic, social, and local impact contribution; carbon footprint audits aligned with the GHG Protocol and gender pay gap analysis to monitor and promote equity, using Swiss Confederation methodologies.

A ‘Theory of Change’ Foundation for Measuring Impact

One in three schools use structured models, such as Theory of Change, to translate societal impact from a broad aspiration into a disciplined, measurable, and mission-driven practice. The Theory of Change framework, exemplified in the AACSB Global Standards for Business Education™, is a particularly fitting framework for business schools seeking a logical, consistent method for measuring societal impact.

With the Theory of Change framework, schools strategically identify where and how they plan to make an impact, using their unique business knowledge, skills, and abilities. They then allocate resources, conduct activities, and eventually generate outputs, outcomes, and impact. This impact is measured against the metrics established at the beginning of the project.

Activities are initiatives the school undertakes that lead to outputs (typically short-term results: one to two years); as those outputs accumulate over time, they potentially lead to outcomes (typically medium-term results—two to four years), which then grow into broader impact (five years and beyond). Truly impactful initiatives have the ability to transform lives over time. The below example shows how a school applied this framework.

Relationship Between Activities, Outputs, Outcomes, Impact, and Transformation

Theory of Change Exemplified

Goa Institute of Management: Institutionalized Societal Impact Model

Across AACSB’s accredited schools, societal impact is shaped by both shared thematic priorities and regional context. Common areas such as education, economic development, and partnerships define how institutions approach impact, while differences in emphasis and execution reflect diverse regional needs and strategies. This section highlights the key themes that underpin societal impact efforts globally, alongside regional variations in focus, approach, and engagement, illustrating how business schools translate common goals into locally relevant and globally significant impact.

Thematic Insights Across the Global Network

Within AACSB’s global network, several consistent patterns emerge in how societal impact is defined and delivered.

Societal Impact Is Inherently Multifaceted

AACSB-accredited schools engage in an average of 2.6 domains, or societal impact focus areas, with 99.5 percent working in multiple areas, reflecting the interconnected nature of today’s global challenges.

Three core areas consistently define institutional activity:

• Expanding access to education and capacity building
• Supporting economic development and entrepreneurship
• Engaging through partnerships with communities, industry, and government

Institutional priorities align closely with workforce development, education, and economic inclusion, consistent with the patterns outlined in the previous section on “Measuring What Matters.” In contrast, environmental priorities show greater variation across institutions, indicating a less even emphasis globally.

Partnerships underpin nearly all societal impact efforts, serving as the primary mechanism through which schools extend their influence and co-create solutions.

Together, these patterns highlight a model of impact that is collaborative and grounded in the core strengths of business education.

Across all regions, societal impact activity is strongly concentrated in the People and Economy domains, with near-universal representation in both areas. The primary point of differentiation is in the Environment domain, where EMEA shows the highest level of engagement at 86.31 percent, followed by Asia Pacific at 72.95 percent, and the Americas at 49.08 percent, demonstrating relatively lower representation.

Regional differences are also evident in how schools conceptualize and communicate societal impact:

• Schools in the Americas emphasize doing (activities and engagement)
• Schools in Asia Pacific emphasize designing and scaling (strategy and systems)
• Schools in EMEA emphasize defining purpose (values and global responsibility)

Strengthening Standard 9

As AACSB moves toward adoption of the Global Standards, Standard 9: Societal Impact and Engagement reflects a continued evolution in how business schools define and demonstrate their value to society. Building on the foundation established in the 2020 standards, the revised standard provides greater clarity, flexibility, and alignment with the diverse missions of AACSB-accredited schools worldwide.

A central enhancement to Standard 9 is the increased emphasis on strategic alignment. Schools will be expected to clearly articulate how their societal impact and engagement activities are intentionally connected to their missions and strategic priorities. This new emphasis reflects a shift from viewing impact as a collection of activities or “good deeds” disconnected from business school strategy, skills, and expertise to positioning it as a coordinated and purpose-driven element of the school’s overall strategy.

In response to member feedback, the 2026 version of Standard 9 introduces greater flexibility in defining and demonstrating impact. AACSB recognizes that societal needs, institutional missions, and regional contexts vary significantly across its global membership. The revised standard allows schools to define societal impact in ways that are authentic to their contexts while still expecting that such efforts are substantive, mission-driven, and clearly articulated.

At the same time, the standard provides clearer expectations regarding evidence and continuous improvement. Schools will be expected to demonstrate not only what they are doing but also how they assess the effectiveness of their efforts and use that insight to enhance their impact over time. This change reinforces a continuous improvement mindset while avoiding overly prescriptive measurement requirements.

Finally, Standard 9 more explicitly affirms that societal impact is integral to quality business education. It connects directly to how schools prepare graduates, inform responsible business practices, and contribute to addressing complex challenges facing organizations and communities. In doing so, the standard underscores AACSB’s commitment to ensuring that accredited schools remain relevant, responsive, and forward-looking.

As schools prepare for the transition to the Global Standards, Standard 9 offers an opportunity to more clearly define their distinctive contributions and to strengthen the intentionality, coherence, and visibility of their societal impact efforts.

Emerging Direction: From Intent to Action

Across AACSB-accredited schools, forward-looking intent around societal impact is nearly universal. Analysis of accreditation reports shows that 98.9 percent of institutions articulate future plans, targets, or commitments related to societal impact measurement or program expansion, signaling a clear shift from establishing impact foundations to scaling and strengthening them over time.

These future-focused priorities reflect several consistent directions. Many schools are focused on expanding existing initiatives, building on proven models to increase reach, scale successful programs, and extend impact into new contexts. At the same time, institutions are strengthening measurement and evaluation practices, with growing emphasis on defining key performance indicators, implementing more structured tracking systems, and developing dashboards or frameworks to better assess outcomes over time.

Schools are also deepening external engagement through expanded partnerships with industry, government, and nonprofit organizations, recognizing collaboration as a critical pathway to amplifying impact. In parallel, there is continued movement toward embedding societal impact more fully into institutional strategy and operations, including curriculum design, research agendas, and engagement with stakeholders.

Together, these trends indicate a maturing approach to societal impact—one that moves beyond individual initiatives toward more integrated, measurable, and system-level contributions aligned with each school’s mission.