Challenges of AACSB international accreditation for business schools in the United States and Europe

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB International) is committed to its role in setting worldwide standards to enhance the quality of management education. The organization is expanding its brand presence in Europe, where business schools are beginning to seek AACSB International accreditation. In the United States, an increase in the number of business schools seeking AACSB International accreditation is also occurring. Business school leaders not only see the transcendent importance of AACSB International accreditation; they also realize the challenges that are involved in the accreditation process. The focus of our discussion is on the challenges confronted by business schools in both the United States and Europe. We compare and contrast the challenges on both continents. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Internationalization of MBA Program in Asia-Pacific

Abstract

With the global village becoming a reality, efforts at the internationalization of business education have ceased to be merely fashionable. The internationalization of business education has become an increasing relevant and important goal for business schools. Most of the efforts have been focused at the internationalization of MBA programs as this is the level of business education targeted at the training of middle management personnel, for whom the creation of a global mindset and the exposure to the international realm of business would have the most immediate effect. With the Asia-Pacific becoming a major arena of international trade and business in what has been called the Pacific century, the internationalization of MBA programs in Asia is of great interest as most of the efforts at internationalization of MBA programs have taken place in developed countries, with much of the literature being about the North America and European experience. Little is known about the MBA programs offered in Asia and their internationalization. This paper provides some insights on the internationalization efforts at the Nanyang Business School (NBS), Singapore. The experience at the NBS is unique because its efforts at internationalization have coincided with government policy initiatives in encouraging Singapore businesses to extend their operations into countries of the region. The paper provides some lessons from the experiences at regionalizing the MBA programs in China, India and the transitional economies of Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Apart from the admission of international participants to its programs and the changes to its Business Study Missions, new initiatives have been introduced in the form of the MBA in International Business. The paper also explores other future initiatives for the internationalization of MBA programs in Asia-Pacific.     

Business School Partnerships for Globalization

International partnerships are an essential tool to enable business schools to internationalize their activities. They can lead to improved research, better more internationally relevant teaching, provide staff with an international perspective, and help prepare students for careers in global business. Using case studies of four of Durham University Business School's main partnerships, the article identifies the motivations for forming partnerships, examines some of the practical management issues associated with partnership working in higher education, and details the many benefits that can be derived from such arrangements.     

Designing an International Business Curriculum

ABSTRACT

Recently, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) called for more interaction between business schools and the business community. This is in partial response to the growing perception of U.S. businesses that business schools are out of touch with the needs of the business community. The authors of this paper document a market driven approach to international business curriculum development-one which includes the business community from the onset. To provide a high-quality international business education, the collegiate schools of business can no longer afford to remain aloof from their customers. The conceptual framework used here broadens curriculum design norms. Academic leaders interested in internationalizing the education of professionals in all academic disciplines will find this paper useful.     

Mission Based Strategies for Internationalizing U.S. Business Schools

Two decades of discussion have resulted in a consensus regarding the need to internationalize business schools in the United States. However. there has been less agreement regarding particular strategies to accomplish the goal of internationalization. This paper outlines important strategies for internationalization which are appropriate to the schools' mission. In addition, this paper describes, through examples and discussion, the federally funded Centers for International Business Education and Research which are envisioned as a national resource for internationalizing U.S. business schools and promoting the teaching and research in the field of international business.     

The Unholy Alliance of Business and Science

This paper will build on a recent article appearing in the Harvard Business Review that blamed the alleged crisis in management education on the scientific model that has been adopted as the sole means of gaining knowledge about human behavior and organizations. The solution, they argue, is for business schools to realize that business management is not a scientific discipline but a profession, and deal with the things a professional education requires. We will expand on this article and discuss its implications by looking at the scientific model from a philosophical perspective and dealing with the issue of whether management is a profession. Our discussion of these issues has implications for our understanding of business in society and the design of the business school curriculum. Rogene A. Buchholz is the Legendre-Soule Chair in Business Ethics Emeritus in the College of Business Administration at Loyola University of New Orleans. He has published over seventy-five articles and is the author of ten books in the areas of business and public policy, business ethics, and the environment. He is on the editorial board of several journals and served as chair of the Social Issues in Management Division of the Academy of Management. Sandra B. Rosenthal is Provost Eminent Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University of New Orleans. She has published approximately 200 articles and 11 books on various dimensions of American pragmatism and its relevance for other areas of philosophy, and in both books and articles has applied pragmatism to a wide range of business ethics issues. She is a member of the editorial board of several journals, and has served as president of numerous philosophical societies.     

Book Reviews

The rise of graduate business schools occurred during a period of enormous growth, followed by dramatic decline in the fortunes of American business. Because so many M.B.A.-educated executives had difficulty managing their companies' response to dramatic changes in markets and technology, this study examines how business education has influenced managerial attitude and practices. Columbia and Harvard Business Schools were examined to see how, as well, their educational approaches provided managers with the skills, information and confidence to make both entrepreneurial and operational decisions. Both schools effectively prepared their graduates for operational decisions, but did not successfully provide their managers with the skills and knowledge to facilitate entrepreneurial decisions. Moreover, the study also found that American business was not actively engaged in the direction of graduate business education. Thus, the reliance of American business upon graduate business schools may have had consequences for America's business.     

Achieving Synergy from Synergogy

In face of growing public disaffection with American business and American business schools, business faculty need techniques to improve student learning and performance. Unfortunately, most of the new teaching techniques designed to improve student learning are detrimental to student-teacher relationships. This study applied two Synergogy teaching methodologies to an International Business course, and the results were improved student performance as well as improved student evaluations of teacher performance.     

Market entry into Africa: Acquisitions and international joint ventures. Studies of foreign firms' market entry strategies,challenges, and performance in Africa

While the interest in investing in Africa is rising, the know‐how of business on the continent is very limited. There have been only recently few special issues focusing on sub‐Saharan Africa in the top international business journals: “Sub‐Saharan Africa at a key inflection point” (Thunderbird International Business Review 2009); “Contemporary developments in the management of human resources in Africa” (Journal of World Business 2011); “Contemporary challenges and opportunities of doing business in Africa” (Journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change 2016); “Critical perspectives on international business in Africa (Critical Perspectives on International Business 2016); “Strategic Management in Africa (Global Strategy Journal, 2017); and “The internationalization of African firms (Thunderbird International Business Review 2016). The aim of this special issue is to advance understanding of international business in Africa and specifically focus on how foreign firms enter African markets via acquisitions and international joint ventures and extend knowledge of these market entry strategies and performance in Africa for research and for foreign firms intending to, or currently doing business in Africa. This guest editorial provides a summary of the five articles and one book review in this special issue categorized into three broad thematic issues: International joint ventures and acquisitions as market entry strategies in Africa; cross‐border investments of African firms; and theoretical underpinnings.     

Living (not learning) ethics

Much has been written recently about both the urgency and efficacy of teaching business ethics. The results of our survey of AACSB member schools confirm prior reports of similar surveys: The teaching of business ethics is indiscriminate, unorganized, and undisciplined in most North American schools of business. If universities are to be taken seriously in their efforts to create more ethical awareness and better moral decision-making skills among their graduates, they must provide a rigorous and well-developed system in which students can live ethics instead of merely learn ethics. A system must be devised to allow students to discover and refine their own values rather than simply learning ethical theories from an intellectual point of view.After reviewing the literature on business ethics in undergraduate curricula, we make a series of recommendations to deliver experiential ethical education for business students. The recommendations include student and faculty written codes of ethics, emphasis on ethical theory within the existing required legal environment course, applied ethics in the functional area capstones using alternative learning, a discussion of employee (and employer) rights and responsibilities during the curriculum capstone course, and a public service requirement for graduation. These recommendations may be implemented without substantive additional cost or programming requirements.Joseph Solberg is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests are centered on the legal and ethical environments of business and the pedagogy of business ethics. He is a member of the American and Midwest Academies and Legal Studies in Business.Kelly Strong is an Assistant Professor of Management at Illinois State University. His teaching and research interests include business ethics, business and society, and strategic issues management. He has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics and other scholarly outlets in the areas of ethics education, business and society, and ethical decision making.Charles McGuire, Jr. is Professor of Business Law and Chair of the Finance, Insurance and Law Department at Illinois State University. His interests are in the areas of business law and the legal environment of business as well as government regulation. He has published text-books and supplements on the legal environment of business in addition to scholarly works in the American Business Law Journal, among others.     

Trends in the market for entrepreneurship faculty, 1989–1998

The last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number and status of entrepreneurship programs in schools of business and management. The popularity of entrepreneurship courses has increased dramatically among both graduate and undergraduate students. Alumni and external constituencies of schools of business have generally been supportive of the development of entrepreneurship programs, and in fact in many instances it has been the demands of these constituencies that have led to the creation or expansion of entrepreneurship programs within these schools. The growth in entrepreneurship programs has been fostered by an increase in the popularity of entrepreneurship, an increase in the status accorded entrepreneurs, as well as an increase in the recognition by the business press of the importance of entrepreneurship in the larger economy. Despite the increase in popularity within the field, there has also been considerable resistance from within the faculties of many institutions to the expansion of entrepreneurship programs. Faculty outside the field have been, and many remain, very skeptical about the validity of entrepreneurship as an academic field, the quality and rigor of entrepreneurship research and the need to hire academic faculty to teach and research in the field. The last decade has seen the confluence of these opposing forces.This disparity has created the question of whether the external forces supporting entrepreneurship are overcoming the inertia inherent in academic institutions and succeeding in institutionalizing the study of entrepreneurship within schools of business and management. This study hopes to shed some light on which of these forces is winning by addressing the question of whether the field of entrepreneurship is moving toward or has been institutionalized as part of the curriculum and research within schools of business and management. It also examines the institutionalization of the field by analyzing the change in the number and level of entrepreneurship positions, the quality of the recruiting institutions as well as the number, level and training of entrepreneurship candidates during the years 1989–1998. Data was obtained from the Academy of Management Placement Roster and The Chronicle of Higher Education for the years 1989–1998. Previous entrepreneurship education researchers have examined the number of endowed chairs and professorships, conferences, journals, programs and various centers for entrepreneurial education, however sparse research, if any, has been performed on the trends and characteristics of candidates and positions in the field of entrepreneurship.The results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand for and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. Between 1989/90 and 1997/98 the number of entrepreneurship positions increased 253% while the number of candidates increased by 94%. During this period the number of positions that list entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased ten-fold from 5 to 50 and the number of candidates that list entrepreneurship as their primary field has increased four-fold from 5 to 20. During the same period the number of secondary and tertiary positions have increased 116% and 78%, respectively, and the number of secondary and tertiary candidates have increased by 67% and 53%. The percentage of entrepreneurship positions listing entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased from 19% in 89/90 to 54% in 1997/98. Overall, the growth in the number of primary entrepreneurship positions is very encouraging.In the end, the results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. The field has clearly made significant progress toward being institutionalized. However, it is still too soon to conclude that the commitment to entrepreneurship by schools of business and management is irreversible. One clear indication of the tenuous status is that, unlike strategy and international business, there has been no mandate from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business that entrepreneurship be incorporated into the curriculum of all accredited schools. Entrepreneurship remains an elective subject in most schools and therefore depends on student interest. The field has made great strides during the 1990s, but a couple of hurdles remain.     

Foreign market entry mode of service firms: The case of U.S. MBA programs

While international expansion has become an important strategic imperative on the part of knowledge intensive service firms such as U.S. business schools, little empirical support is available on how these business schools enter foreign markets. If U.S. based business education programs are expected to prosper in light of the potential onslaught of international competition, expansion to overseas markets will be one of the most sought after options available. A poor choice in market entry strategy, or the lack of international market entry, can result in a negative impact on the educational institution. This research focuses on developing, measuring, and empirically testing a framework of key factors influencing international market entry mode choice of U.S. business schools by using primary data from faculty and administrators of U.S. Master of Business Administration (MBA) schools.     

The federal role in international business education

Rapid global change, driven especially by the telecommunications, computing, and biotechnology industries, are rapidly transforming the international economic, social, and cultural landscape. Affected are both urban and rural businesses that face intense competition at home and abroad. If the United States is to continue to main‐tain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace, educational institutions must prepare the next generation of leaders for a pluralistic world in which multi‐culturalism dominates and international business education is multidimensional. This article addresses the role that the U.S. federal government has played in prepar‐ing international business graduates. It examines the contributions of two federal grant programs: the Business and International Education program and the Centers for International Business program, both authorized under the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Assessing the application of cognitive moral development theory to business ethics

Cognitive moral development (CMD) theory has been accepted as a construct to help explain business ethics, social responsibility and other organizational phenomena. This article critically assesses CMD as a construct in business ethics by presenting the history and criticisms of CMD. The value of CMD is evaluated and problems with using CMD as one predictor of ethical decisions are addressed. Researchers are made aware of the major criticisms of CMD theory including disguised value judgments, invariance of stages, and gender bias in the initial scale development. Implications for business ethics research are discussed and opportunities for future research delineated.John Fraedrich is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Southern Illinois University of Carbondale. His areas of interest include ethical decision making and international marketing. He has published inJournal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal of Value Based Management, andJournal of International Consumer Marketing. Dr. Fraedrich is co-author of a textbookBusiness Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Second Edition.Debbie M. Thorne is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Tampa. Her areas of interest include business ethics, social network analysis, and cultural issues in organizations. She received a Ph.D. in 1993 and has published in theJournal of Teaching in International Business and numerous conference proceedings.O. C. Ferrell is Interim Dean and Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Business Ethics in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at Memphis State University. Dr. Ferrell was chairman of the American Marketing Association Ethics Committee that developed the current AMA Code of Ethics. He has published articles on business ethics in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, as well as others. He has co-authored ten textbooks includingBusiness Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Second Edition, and a tradebook,In Pursuit of Ethics.     

The impact of AACSB accreditation: A multiple case study of Canadian university business schools

Over the last two decades there has been a significant increase in the number of university business schools seeking accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International). Despite this remarkable growth there has been limited empirical research on this phenomenon. Using a qualitative multiple case study approach, this research explores the impact of accreditation on four Canadian university business schools. Participants reported seven main effects, with the most important being enhanced reputation, leverage for change, increased management efficiencies, and focus on research. These impacts were influenced by the context in which accreditation took place. Environmental uncertainty as a contextual dimension is discussed. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why CIBERs matter to the competitiveness of U.S. businesses in the 21 century

Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBERs)—located at 33 institutions of higher education across the U.S. and administered by the U.S. Department of Education under Title VI of the Higher Education Act—serve as regional and national resource centers for the business community, and as conduits for major initiatives to support and strengthen the international components of curricula in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. This article argues that CIBERs are well-positioned to not only address current needs, but also drive innovative thinking and leading-edge activities toward longer-term challenges. Herein, exemplary activities from CIBERs serve as examples to support this claim, and Indiana University's CIBER strategic trajectory for the 2010-2014 grant cycle is explored within the context of the current global situation.     

The perfect match: Factors that characterize the AACSB International initial accreditation host school and mentor relationship

Initial Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International accreditation involves a process of pairing mentor and host schools to provide guidance and feedback on the congruence of the host school with the accreditation standards. The mentor serves as the primary resource for assisting the host school in identifying gaps with the standards, and the development and implementation of an initial self-evaluation report to detail steps to meet the standards. Matching mentors and host schools to encourage an effective relationship over a 5-year period would seem to be critical to achieving initial accreditation. In the present study, eight factors related to matching the mentors and host schools were identified. Results revealed only two significant differences between host business schools and mentors, indicating that the process is working well. Based on the results, ways to sustain and enhance the mentor–host school relationship are discussed.     

Developing an Interdisciplinary Major in International Business

ABSTRACT

Since the change of the accreditation standards by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) requiring internationalization of the business school curriculum about twenty years ago, different models of internationalization have been developed and tried by different types of business schools across the nation. However, no single model has emerged as an ideal model suitable for all kinds of institutions, large or small, urban or rural. At small and rural universities, internationalization efforts pose some extra challenges because of the general lack of global exposure and practices among its faculty and students, lack of adequate resources, financial crunch and locally centered vision of its leadership. This paper describes how a small and rural university has successfully implemented its own model to internationalize its business programs in spite of all the financial and non-fiscal challenges. Such a model could be emulated by similar small and rural institutions across the country.