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.     

Educational Implications of a Review of International Components in Human Resource Management Texts

Although much attention has been paid to the need to include international coverage in the business school curricula, limited discussion has been focused on what basic international content should be provided to students in order to assure their adequate preparation. In this study, an examination of the international content of recent HRM texts is used as a point of departure for a discussion of questions relevant to the development of minimal standards against which one might measure the effectiveness of international business education.     

Students’ Perception of International Business Curriculum: An Explorative Study—Case of Lebanon

Economic development depends on business education for a thriving and secure society. A skilled workforce that can create, innovate, and increase business opportunities fosters an environment of prosperity that provides jobs and enhances the quality of life among its citizens. This article examines the environment, content, and delivery of business education in Lebanon. It analyzes curriculum content and the students' perceptions of the value and applicability of the curriculum. It also explores the shift in emphasis toward an international perspective in curricula and its importance for the academicians as well as practitioners to understand the methods, techniques, and activities that are being used to prepare the future business workforce. This study presents ideas and perspectives about how business and international curricula in Lebanon are perceived. Data for this article were collected in Lebanon and reflects the students' perspective on its international business curriculum.     

Student Perceptions of Internationalization,Multiculturalism, and Diversity in the Business School

Over the last five decades, business schools all over the world have adapted their strategies for introducing the theoretical and pedagogical consequences of globalization. Educational institutions have gone to great lengths to internationalize their curricula to stay current with the most recent trends in the globalizing economy. As this evolution takes place, the issues of multiculturalism and diversity are increasingly included in the internationalization dialogue. In this article we use qualitative focus groups to examine how U.S. business students experience the relationships among internationalization, multiculturalism, and diversity. Next, we consider the role of international business faculty in addressing this issue. We conclude by offering recommendations for successfully integrating these perspectives into a coherent curriculum.     

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.     

Business ethics: A classroom priority?

“Schools of business are being blamed for much of the unethical behavior in business today” (Harcourt, 1990: p. 17); “Ethics can and should be integrated into coursework throughout students' college careers” (Spencer and Lehman, 1990: p. 7); “... business schools have been charged with inadequate attention to ethics” (Bishop, 1992: p. 291); “The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) encourages schools of business to incorporate business ethics throughout the curricula” (Davidet al., 1990: p. 26). These quotations indicate the concern for providing ethics education in today's business curriculums. In 1976, the AACSB urged business educators to include ethics in their course curricula, however, over 15 years later there is still concern as to whether the coverage of this topic in the business curriculum is adequate. A review of the literature indicates that professors are beginning to integrate this topic into its curriculum. But what are the techniques that work? And is the topic of ethics truly being integrated into the entire business curricula? This research assesses the integration of ethics into the business curricula today. Graduating seniors in the college of business of several universities were questioned to determine: (1) the courses in which the issue of ethics was addressed; (2) how much time was devoted to the issue by the professors; and (3) the methods employed to address the issue, and students' perceptions of their effectiveness.     

Cross-Border Influences in the International Business Curriculum

International business education has as much value as a component of a liberal arts program as it has in a professional business program. At Bucknell University, resource constraints have demanded that an international business course serve a wide variety of students. This article describes the structure and content of such a course and the role it plays in both business and liberal arts curricula. This expanded concept of international business has implications for larger institutions as well as requiring that new research directions be pursued.     

Introducing International Business Experience Through Virtual Teamwork

SUMMARY

The role of computer-mediated or virtual teamwork is increasing in modern organizations and the pressures of our increasingly global economy are unrelenting. Forces of technology and internationalization pose significant implications for business and management education. This paper describes the use of international virtual teamwork in the introductory management course at our university. The project is introduced along with the logistical and technological support required for their implementation. Student evaluations and faculty considerations are shared. The conclusion is offered that such projects can often be developed at minimum cost using available technologies and the international contacts of faculty. A call is made for giving more attention to international virtual teamwork opportunities in our business and management curricula.     

Attitudes Toward Consumer and Business Ethics Among Canadian and New Zealand Business Students: An Assessment of 28 Scenarios

Recent initiatives in business curricula have included emphases on global business and ethics. This paper combines these issues by comparing the ethical predisposition of business students in New Zealand with their Canadian counterparts. A sample of 360 students indicated that students in both countries generally hold high expectations for the behaviour of both business and consumers. Of the 28 scenarios evaluated, five exhibited significant differences between the two groups. In four cases, students from New Zealand expressed less tolerance for the questionable business practices, and in the other one the situation was reversed. Despite the relative congruence of attitudes exhibited by the students of the two countries, the fact that differences do exist is testimony to the increased risk inherent to international business.     

The International Dimension of Legal Environment of Business in Undergraduate Business School Curricula

The international dimension of business courses in colleges and universities has come a long way from the days when the existence of international business itself as an identifiable discipline in the undergraduate curricula was very much in doubt. The EWA Reoort. one of the earlier studies which orooosed to close the 'international' information gap in the American ;n&ersity education, concluded ". . . there is not now a formal body of knowledge, outside international economics sufficient to justice host of equal courses with "international" used mainly as an adjective." Payerweather, one of the pioneers of the internationalization of Amerlcan education argued, "Clearly, international business is not another functional field to be added alongside accountrng, finance, marketing" Those who viewed "international business as a distinctive field of study" were in the minority in the 1960s. To the uninitiated it still spells haziness and cannot readily be conceptualized as clearly as economics, accounting, mathematics, or law.     

Exporting an Inherently Harmful Product: The Marketing of Virginia Slims Cigarettes in the United States,Japan, and Korea

In recent years, and in close connection with a number of well-known financial malpractice cases, public debate on business ethics has intensified worldwide, and particularly in ethics-unfriendly environments, such as Spain, with many recent fraud and corruption scandals. In the context of growing consensus on the need of balancing social prosperity and business profits, concern is increasing for introducing business (and particularly accounting) ethics in higher education curricula. The purpose is to improve ethical behaviour of future business people, and of accounting professionals in particular. In this study, from a sample of 551 business students at a Spanish university, the importance of accounting ethics is investigated. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we attempt to examine students’ overall perceptions of business ethics in unfriendly environments and, specifically, their views on the importance and goals of accounting ethics education. Second, we intend to investigate whether potential differences in such perceptions depend on previous business ethics courses taken, gender, and age of students. Our results show that those students who have previously taken an ethics course are especially prone to considering that accounting education should include ethical considerations, and show greater interest in further introducing this subject in their curricula. These facts should encourage universities offering business degrees in ethics-unfriendly environments to extend the implementation of ethics courses in their curricula. Besides, significant differences in students’ perceptions on the importance of accounting ethics are found depending on their gender and age. In line with previous research findings, female and older students show more ethical inclinations than, respectively, male and younger students. Thus, ethics-unfriendly environments can be treated as contexts where general trends on students’ ethical attitudes are also clearly visible. This fact, together with the evidenced impact of ethics courses on students’ ethical inclinations, places ethics-unfriendly environments as crucial research settings for further inquiring into the nuances that help explain students’ attitudes towards accounting ethics and the role of ethics courses in business degree curricula.     

Curriculum Internationalization at AACSB Schools: Immersive Experiences,Student Placement,and Assessment

This article presents results from a survey of AACSB-accredited business schools’ progress in internationalizing their curricula in view of a recent AACSB report. We present data on the use of immersive experiences, degree of success in student placement in internationally oriented careers, and assessment of internationalization efforts. The results indicate growth of internationalization activities at virtually all schools as expected, but these efforts may not always match AACSB recommendations. For instance, AACSB criticized business programs for not coordinating internationalization activities in a strategic manner to improve courses and develop skills needed by international managers. Our survey finds that many schools do not attempt to tie their international experiences to specific courses, but they report the experiences are used to build skills students need. Most institutions also do not examine job placement as a measure of curriculum internationalization success. We find that many schools do not assess the outcomes of their internationalization efforts in a way that can demonstrate whether or not recent AACSB suggestions are being met.     

Ethics,education, and corporate leadership

The purpose of this study is to determine the relative frequency of course offerings on social issues and business ethics in American business schools. Specifically, a random sample of the curricula of 119 American business schools were analyzed in order to gauge the importance given to coursework on ethics and social issues. The findings indicated that the incidence of such courses was generally low in American business curricula, particularly at the graduate level. These findings are discussed in light of the current concern for more responsible corporate behavior. G. R. Bassiry is currently Associate Professor of Management at California State University in San Bernardino, California. Formerly he served as Vice President and Acting President of Farabi University. He has published numerous journal articles on corporate leadership, international business, ethics, cultural conflicts and corporate policy and is the author of Power vs. Profit by Arno Press of New York Times.     

Internationalizing the Assessment Criteria to Build Cross-Cultural Competency

ABSTRACT

International business programs, universities with international students, and educators who seek to internationalize their teaching need to make informed decisions about teaching, testing, and assessment criteria. The infusion of American business curricula throughout the world as well as the need to train American business students for leadership roles in global contexts calls for teaching and assessment practices which explore a plurality of cognitive, affective and behavioral pedagogical strategies. This article considers traditional education and assessment in China in light of American educational practices currently used for assessment in business training. It explores how an understanding of modern Confucianist values can shape assessment choices in both American and overseas programs as an example of developing cross-cultural awareness. The authors call for an assessment process in business education which draws from a plurality of methods adapted to teaching, learning and testing for global awareness.     

Emergence and Development of a University Curriculum for Corporate Environmental Responsibility

American firms are increasingly under demands, made by government and the public, to be more socially responsible with respect to environmental issues. As environmental and safety concerns have increased, a greater need for individuals with training in environmental responsibility has emerged. This need must be filled by educational institutions. The report concludes with a discussion of issues faced by business school curricula, in particular international business and marketing courses, to foster environmental concern among future graduates.     

Investigating Graduate Business Students' Perceptions of the Educational Value Provided by an International Travel Course Experience

Abstract

Researchers agree that students' critical thinking and decision making skills are enhanced through exposure to new cultures and global markets. Thus, one way of bringing about improvement in these areas is through international travel courses. The purpose of this study is threefold. One, to describe the process involved in the creation of a required for-credit international travel course; two, present the findings of a research study designed to investigate graduate business students' perceptions of the educational value provided by an international travel course; and three, describe the ongoing process of closing the assessment loop as it relates to the internationalization of MBA and MACC curricula. The results of this study are encouraging. In general, students perceived that the international travel course added value to their educational experience and enhanced their relationships with other students. Items receiving weaker support were concerned with “thinking skills”, such as multi-disciplinary integration and improved decision-making. These results have important implications for future improvements to the international travel course.     

The Environmental Imperative in International Business Education

The development of an environmental consciousness is critical to the development of international business curricula. Issues such as air pollution, water pollution, and the disposal of solid and hazardous waste are facing multinational companies around the globe. Moreover, corporations now face an enhanced set of predicaments ranging from ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect to the protection of animal rights both in the laboratory and in their natural habitat This paper addresses questions relating to the teaching of environmental material, content of the presentation, who should the presenter be, and how to overcome obstacles that such an innovative curriculum would fall.     

Content,Pedagogy, and Learning Outcomes in the International Marketing Course

Abstract

The early internationalization of business school curricula was in response to corporate needs and expectations, and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) fostered changes by instituting accreditation outcomes that focused upon international content in the curriculum. By the late 1990s, a course in international marketing was standard at most accredited college and universities, and faculty in these courses reported on various approaches to teaching the course. The main objective of the current study was to examine the course content, pedagogy, and learning outcomes of current international marketing courses. As such, a content analysis of international marketing syllabi from 89 colleges and universities was conducted. Findings from this indepth analysis offer insights regarding knowledge content coverage, pedagogical strategy, and learning outcomes assessment and provide an update on the current status of teaching international marketing in schools of business.