Management relevance in a business school setting: A research note on an empirical investigation

•The MBA curriculum does not address the nature of wicked problems.•The MBA curriculum does not fully address the needs of business.•The curriculum does not provide the intellectual and interdisciplinary frameworks needed to compete in a global context.

In this research note, we address wicked problems within the context of business schools. Our aim is to understand if business schools fully reflect the needs of business. To achieve this, we assess the mission, vision, and stated strategies of the top 200 global business schools to determine if the MBA curriculum addresses wicked problems. From our findings, we demonstrate that the MBA curriculum does not address the nature of wicked problems or provide the intellectual and interdisciplinary frameworks to educate managers on serious competitive issues in a global context. In addition to challenging many premises of the MBA curriculum, we outline several areas of opportunities to assist business schools in adapting to the evolving needs of business and organizational problem-solving.