The Dynamics of Theory and Value Performativity at Business Schools: Performative Valorization Work for Finance Education

Abstract

Theories taught in business schools are performative in the sense that they shape future practitioners’ identities and practices, often leading them to prioritize self‐interests and profit maximization to the detriment of social and environmental welfare. Moving beyond the mere recognition of theory performativity, researchers have called for ‘positive performativity’—that is, interventions that leverage theory to enact more desirable realities. Such interventions, however, are driven by values. Recognizing that values themselves are performed, this paper theorizes the dynamic relationships between theory performativity and value performativity. We conceptualize ‘performative valorization work’ as a set of microprocesses coenabling the performativity of theory through values and the performativity of values through theory. We integrate these microprocesses into a positive performativity model that shows how performative valorization work contributes to theory and values de/realization at business schools. We illustrate our model with a case of realignment of a finance programme with ecological values at a business school—a shift that produced performative effects on the ecosystems of researchers, students and practitioners. By theorizing how theory and value performativity interact, we advance the analysis of positive performativity and clarify how theory and values interact in pedagogical transformations.