Assessing sustainability competencies in Latin American MBA programs: alignment with SDGs 4 and 17

Purpose This study aims to examine how Latin American business schools formally integrate sustainability competencies into their postgraduate business programs, drawing on the framework proposed by Wiek et al. (2011) and considering alignment with the sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals). Design/methodology/approach A qualitative comparative research design was adopted. Data were collected through systematic documentary analysis of publicly available curricular materials, including program descriptions, course syllabi where available and principles for responsible management education (PRME) sharing information on progress (SIP) reports. The sample comprised ten Latin American business schools selected based on international visibility criteria, such as PRME membership, inclusion in sustainability rankings (QS sustainability, UI GreenMetric) and international accreditations. A coding matrix based on the five sustainability competencies proposed by Wiek et al. (2011) was applied using an ordinal scale to assess the documented presence and depth of curricular integration. Findings The results indicate uneven and selective integration of sustainability competencies across institutions. Strategic, interpersonal and systems-thinking competencies are more consistently articulated within curricular documents, whereas anticipatory and normative competencies are less explicitly integrated. Business schools with stronger international positioning tend to present more extensive documented integration across multiple competencies; however, a persistent gap remains between institutional sustainability discourse and program-level curricular articulation. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to publicly available documentary evidence and does not capture enacted teaching practices or stakeholder perspectives. Future research could complement this approach through longitudinal designs, stakeholder-based data and quantitative validation techniques such as structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), as well as by expanding the scope to public institutions and additional regions of the Global South. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on sustainable higher education by offering a replicable documentary-based framework for assessing the curricular integration of sustainability competencies. By focusing on formal curricular artifacts, it helps bridge the gap between institutional commitments and educational practice, providing insights relevant to curriculum governance and SDG-aligned management education in Latin America.