Effects of Education and Intervention on Business Students’ Ethical Cognition: A Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Study

In this study, we present evidence on the changes inethical cognition of business students over afour-year period. We use the Principled Score(P-score) of the Defining Issues Test to measure thischange. Specifically, we first compare the P-scores ofstudents at the entry to, halfway through, and shortlyafter graduation from a business school to analyze theeffect size of education on ethical cognition.Secondly, for a sample of students in an electivebusiness ethics course, we compare P-scores at thebeginning, and at the end of the semester to analyzethe effect size of specific intervention course onethical cognition.Prior studies in liberal arts fields have reportedhigh effect sizes from four-year college education onethical cognition, while a few studies have reportedonly moderate gains for business students. Consistentwith the liberal arts studies, our results indicatestatistically significant gains, and high effect sizesfor business students as well. Similarly, priorstudies have reported moderate gains in the P-scorefrom intervention courses in various fields. Ourresults indicate only low to moderate effect sizes forbusiness students. Importantly, while the gain waslow, and statistically insignificant for femalestudents, it was moderate, and highly significant formale students. Implications for education and researchare discussed.     

Designing a financial literacy course for a liberal arts curriculum

The broad objectives of liberal education include the instilling of a sense of responsible citizenship along with knowledge that creates a better society. Although financial literacy is required at both the individual and public levels for an improved societal outcome to ensue, it is rare to find a finance‐related course within the general education curriculum of most universities. Liberal arts administrators and faculty are reluctant to include finance‐related courses because they are not perceived to be sufficiently broad in scope. The argument is accurate for a typical personal finance course. However, the purpose of this article is to show that it is possible to construct a financial literacy course with design features that make it acceptable for inclusion in the general education curriculum of a liberal arts university. First, the objectives of liberal education are highlighted, as enumerated by three independent organizations [American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE), Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Annapolis Group]. Next, the assessment standards of the AALE are utilized to develop the pedagogical features of the course design. A liberal arts focus can be achieved by including topical readings, in‐class discussions or debates and a research paper that highlights the societal impacts of financial decisions. Finally, it is illustrated how the design features allow the course to fulfil the assessment standards of liberal arts objectives including effective reasoning, broad and deep learning and the inclination to inquire.     

Are Women Held to a Higher Moral Standard Than Men? Gender Bias Among University Students

This study examines gender bias in ethical decision-making, defined as a difference in the evaluation of the morality of an action depending on the gender of the person performing the action. Results indicate that college student respondents exhibited some degree of gender bias, and that it was especially noticeable among the male respondents. Bias was somewhat more pronounced among liberal arts majors than other business majors, and non- existent among accounting majors. Implications for early-career professional training and business ethics research are discussed.     

Closing the Learning Loop: A Review of Assignments in International Business Education

The continuing rapid globalization has significantly changed the nature of business and management, leading to increased pressure from a wide range of stakeholders to globalize business schools and to internationalize business curricula. This comes with a corresponding imperative to rigorously evaluate the impact of an international business education at institutional, program, and course levels. This study focuses on the types of assignments employed and approaches to assignment design in international business courses. A total of 92 studies in the scholarly literature on international business and international management are reviewed from 1970 to 2014. The study finds significant opportunities to expand and enrich research on assignment design, so as to better equip international business educators to validly and reliably measure learning outcomes.     

Frequency,Recall and Usefulness of Undergraduate Ethics Education

Prior research on the effectiveness of ethics education has yielded mixed results. In this sample of 686 employed adults, we found the majority felt there was little or no emphasis on ethics in their undergraduate program, and they felt poorly prepared to deal with ethical dilemmas at work. Among business, sciences, and liberal arts majors, those who majored in the sciences reported the lowest level of preparation for dealing with ethics issues. Management and law classes were the ones most frequently recalled by respondents as emphasizing ethics. Respondents made suggestions for improving undergraduate ethics preparation.     

Internationalising the Business Student

SUMMARY

This paper reviews approaches to internationalising business education and describes an alternative approach to designing an international business degree program. The paper goes on to describe two competing paradigms of international business education. The paper recommends that rather than develop strategies to internationalise the business curriculum, course designers attempt instead to internationalise the business student.     

Useful Web Sites for International Business Communication Education

Abstract

The World Wide Web presents many opportunities for improving the instructional quality of international business communication related classes by providing access to a large variety of information sources. These sources can be used as supplements to traditional texts, as the basis for specific program assignments, or even as the main focus of a course. An especially useful aspect of these sites is that they can improve information recency and depth when compared with sole reliance on traditional texts. Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of available Web pages can make it difficult to find appropriate sites for a given international business communication topic. To assist educators in locating such relevant sites, we offer summaries and addresses for pages in some of the major areas of international business communication. These selections were chosen both for their relevance to international business communication training and evaluation by Cornell's suggested quality criteria. The article concludes with a discussion of potential applications, problems, and implications for web based international business communication instruction.     

St. Vincent de Paul and Business Ethics

St. Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) is well known for his contribution to charitable and social works. Even though he left no detailed examination of his business practices, by examining his life and his commitment to the poor, it is possible to frame a Vincentian theology of business ethics. Such an understanding would include educating students in the social teaching of the Catholic Church, a preferential option for the poor, good organization, sound business theory, economizing, and a foundation in the liberal arts.     

A Case Study in Project-Based Learning: An International Partnership

As our world becomes more integrated, international business students should develop skills that match corporations' needs. Moreover, students need hands-on, problem-solving, team-based, critical-thinking skills that companies demand. Students need international business experience but many of them lack the funds or support to study or intern abroad. This article explains how one program developed a project-based course that addressed these skills by partnering with a local consulate office. It lays the framework for using a project-based course, explains the course's development, outlines the necessary and important skills addressed, and provides an agenda for other schools considering such a course.     

Strategically Assessing International Business Course-Specific Learning Aims

Abstract

During the past 30 years, there have been calls for universities and business schools to internationalize curriculum, students and faculty. As most U.S. business schools have added international components to their respective programs, the assessment of these programs was subsequently recommended from accreditation and competitive perspectives. To sustain competitiveness, business schools must expand their program assessment activities and rigorously conduct assessment at the course level as well. We propose a model of international business course assessment that links learning aims to delivery methods and reviews two separate approaches based on that model.     

基于粤港澳大湾区人才需求的国际商务专业课程教学改革研究 ——以国际商务概论为例

国际商务概论作为学生进入国际商务专业学习的第一门专业课,同时也是国际商务专业课的先修课程与基础课程,对于国际商务专业的重要性不言而喻,但国际商务概论存在着教材内容更新慢等不足,从优化师资团队、丰富教学内容、加强校企合作等三个方面提出了相应的改革方案。     

Organizational Learning and Market Orientation in International Marketing Education

SUMMARY

This study develops and tests a series of relationships between organizational learning and market orientation as it pertains to international marketing education. The focus is on the activities and relationships between the students, faculty, and staff in the international marketing/business program at three schools in the north, midwest, and south United States. Based on a sample of 193 undergraduate and graduate international marketing students, the results suggest that organizational learning (class and major area-based learning)-team orientation, systems orientation, learning orientation, and memory orientation-positively influences market orientation learning outcomes (i.e., intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness). The major implication of the study is that the education provided to the students in an international marketing course (i.e., upper-division university course) can be enhanced by focusing on organizational learning tools as a means to increase the shared knowledge level among the Students.     

The Impact of Community Service Learning Upon the Worldviews of Business Majors Versus Non-Business Majors at an American University

The SERVE Program at Ignatius University seeks to foster the ethical development of its participants by combining academic study of philosophy and theology with a year-long community service project. This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program upon Ignatius University students majoring in business in comparison to students pursuing majors in the liberal arts, education, and nursing. Findings from this study offer insight into the response of business students to ethical content in comparison to students pursuing degrees in other disciplines. Such findings hold significant implications for business school faculty and administrators committed to the civic and ethical development of individuals pursuing careers in business and private industry.     

The Chinese business system and its authoriliberal economic model

China's position as one of the most powerful nations in the world is undisputed. However, in an evolving landscape, China's utilization of a path-dependent business system may hinder the ability of the country's institutions to undergo necessary change, which will have important implications for international business literature. Through business system theory, empirical evidence, and a mixed methods approach, we discuss China's business system explaining how the system may impair sustainable growth and the transformation required by a less dependent industrial society. Our research suggests that the Chinese business system is still very arrested due to its recent past, and the Chinese Communist Party has only partial interest in improving some of the most important bases for the development of modern enterprises, even if fostering a somewhat liberal economic approach. Since similar political (authoritarian) and economic (liberal) approaches are found elsewhere, we theorize on what we called an authoriliberal economic approach.     

International Business Education in an International City

Internationalizing the business administration curriculum has been an ongoing concern for educators. The experience in the United States appears to have encountered certain hurdles and international business education has not yet gone into full swing. On the other hand, for those countries which depend heavily on international business, the subject is generally regarded as important. Four different groups of students in Hong Kong were surveyed. The results show slight differences in their particular area of interest. The area and course rankings, in general, are similar to the findings of studies in North America. Hong Kong students are more interested in risk assessment topics. Based on the findings, various teaching strategies can be formulated. Students' attention can be drawn to relevant global developments and teaching materials can be updated accordingly. Emphasis within each course can also be adjusted each term in view of students' needs. Thus, in order to successfully internationalize a business program, both students,and instructors should be well-versed in global politics, in changes in economic situations and in major events happening in the world.     

Internationalizing the Business Curriculum

There is little disagreement as to the importance of the global dimension in business education, but many business schools have found it difficult to integrate it into their curricula. Current attempts involve either requiring a separate international business course or modifying existing core courses to include international modules. In this paper the authors argue that it is both more practical and educationally sound to integrate international examples into courses to reinforce concepts presented in a domestic context. The paper concludes with several such examples successfully used by the authors in Finance courses over the past few years.     

Integrating Knowledge and Developing Critical Thinking in a Capstone International Business Course: A Never-Ending Work in Progress

More and more is heard from scholars, accrediting institutions, and the business world about the importance of developing critical thinking and written communication skills in college graduates. This is perhaps especially true, in a business school, for international business graduates who lack a traditional functional major. Often, the development of these skills is thought best accomplished through courses that integrate knowledge, take a problem-based approach, and include a signature work for each student. In this article, we discuss one institution’s international business capstone course, illustrating how it adheres to these ideals. From the standpoint of informal assessment, we discuss how student results from the course are used to tweak feeder courses to the capstone. We also discuss the more formal assessment of the course learning objectives, which we are just beginning.     

Paying for undergraduate business education: Recent trends in tuition,income, institution choice,and debt

In 1999–2000, business students borrowed substantially less to pay for their educations than nonbusiness students. By 2011–2012 this difference had disappeared. The authors describe changes in tuition, grants, incomes, and choice of institution type (public, private not-for-profit, or private for-profit) to help explain this observation. They find that an important determinant of whether a student will take debt and how much that student will take is the type of institution the student attended. The authors also find that business students were less likely to borrow than liberal arts and humanities majors in the earlier period, but not in the later period.