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Abstract

Today’s biggest challenges – from climate change to inequality and political instability – cannot be solved by business-as-usual leadership. We need leaders who dare to question the rules, redefine success, and work for goals larger than personal wealth or status. In short, we need rebels with a cause.

The dissertation explores how such purpose-driven leaders are formed, and how (business) schools can help cultivate them. Based on interviews with social entrepreneurs, it uncovers how individuals move from defining success in purely personal terms to embracing a mission that serves society at large – and how this shift often fuels the creation of ventures that challenge injustice.

It also examines how business schools, when reimagined as spaces where students explore their values and identities, can nurture leadership rooted in purpose and social impact. Finally, it examines how we could use specific interventions in educational programs, for example coaching, that can spark life-changing moments of clarity, helping people reorient their careers toward meaningful contributions.

The research offers a new framework for understanding how leaders develop identities grounded in purpose, reflexivity, and service to others. Its message is clear: leadership education must go beyond training people to thrive within existing systems. Instead, it should empower them to imagine and build more just, sustainable, and humane futures.