Int. J. Management Concepts and Philosophy, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2010 13 Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Provocation: Business schools and economic crisis – The emperor’s new clothes: learning from crises? Silke Machold* University of Wolverhampton Business School, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, UK E-mail: S.Machold@wlv.ac.uk Morten Huse Department of Innovation and Economic Organisation, Norwegian School of Management, Handelshøyskolen BI, 0442 Oslo, Norway E-mail: morten.huse@bi.no Abstract: This paper argues that the lessons of previous crises have not been learned. Attempts to encourage the discussion and mainstreaming of business ethics in management education too often led to the emergence of incongruous parallel curriculum structures and a one-sided instrumentalist approach to learning about corporate social responsibility. When it comes to understanding governance of organisations, dominant agency theory and a focus on board composition also neglect a discussion of substantive issues. A proper agenda of responsibility will need a rethinking of underlying behavioural assumptions as well as simplistic governance prescriptions if both businesses and management educators are to avoid more crises and go beyond a shallow CSR agenda. Keywords: business schools; economic crisis; management teaching; corporate scandals; business ethics; instrumental CSR; agency theory; governance codes. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Machold, S. and Huse, M. (2010) ‘Provocation: Business schools and economic crisis – The emperor’s new clothes: learning from crises?’, Int. J. Management Concepts and Philosophy, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.13–20. Biographical notes: Silke Machold is a Reader in Governance and Ethics. She is the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics. Her previous publications include papers in the Journal of Business Ethics and Corporate Governance: International Journal of Business and Society. Her research interest is in board behaviours and she is part of a European network, led by Professor Huse, in this area. Morten Huse is a Professor of Organization and Management, Norwegian School of Management. He has held visiting positions and fellowships at several other universities. His special interest is in boards of directors with focus on value creation, strategic and entrepreneurial management and the human side of corporate governance. He is the author of Boards, Governance and Value Creation: The Human Side of Corporate Governance, 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. He is the President-elect of the European Academy of Management and will serve a two-year term from May 2010.