Abstract This paper revisits a 2004 foresight exercise on the future of management education and research (MER) and compares its scenarios with developments observed over the past two decades. While no single scenario fully materialized, key dynamics emerged through combinations of “Europe stands up,” “M&As,” and “reactive adaptation,” alongside the unexpected rise of private‐sector actors. Building on this retrospective analysis, the paper explores forward‐looking drivers using generative AI to capture prevailing discourse on MER futures. Combining insights from the revisited foresight exercise and from prevailing discourses synthesized through generative AI, five structural drivers emerge: sustainability, artificial intelligence, private‐sector entry, geopolitics, and ideology. The analysis highlights how AI reshapes knowledge production and teaching, private actors may reconfigure value chains, and geopolitical tensions challenge internationalization. Ideology underpins these transformations. The paper concludes that MER is entering a multipolar, contested environment, requiring business schools to rethink strategies across regions while reassessing performance criteria and their societal role.
Dameron et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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