Design Thinking in management education: a strategic approach to digital transformation and pandemic challenges

Organizations are faced with a highly complex, unstable, dynamic, and unpredictable social and economic context, characterized by a digital transformation that is even more strongly accelerated by the disruptive dynamics of the pandemic. Design thinking training can support and strengthen soft skills for the management of organizational functions in such a context, at both individual and organizational levels. In order to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the need to include design thinking in higher education training programs, we conduct an indepth explorative analysis of the presence of design thinking within training courses provided by the 30 best European business schools. The study offers an analysis of design thinking adoption and reveals its widespread presence across different types of courses and managerial competences. The results suggest the importance of introducing design thinking in managementeducation to help companies face the challenges of digital transformation.