This empirical study delves into the influence of ethics, responsibility, and sustainability (ERS) criteria, introduced by EQUIS Accreditation in 2013, on business schools' strategies and practices. Utilizing a blend of primary and secondary data, we construct case studies of four business schools in Nordic countries implementing ERS criteria. Through qualitative analysis of 96 interviews and 194 documents, conducted across six years (2016 – 2021), we establish the different ways business schools each approached ERS with symbolic more than substantive change, finding three dominant tactics of decoupling: (a) strategic manipulation or ‘faking it’, (b) partial implementation and (c) narrow interpretation. We make a theoretical contribution to decoupling literature identifying the persistence of decoupled organizational states, such that it is the decoupling in itself - and the systematic evasion of change – that appears to be the taken-for-granted institutionalised behaviour. Finally, we expand the discussion on the diffusion of ERS as expectations intensify; our research points to an emergent complicity between the different actors and unpacks an explanation for limitations noted in the ERS progress to date.
