Escalation of the Study-Abroad Experience

Abstract

The authors discuss an innovative study-abroad program implemented by a large university in the Midwestern United States. In partnership with a French business school, a program was established incorporating project-based learning, a multi-national student population, and a three-month residency in France by U.S.-based students and faculty. Specific examples are discussed, and recommendations made, with respect to curricular issues, partner selection, technological issues, institutional support, contingency planning, and daily living. The results of an open-ended survey of student participants are also discussed.     

Factors Affecting the Design of Short-Term Study-Abroad Programs: An Exploratory Study of Two Business Schools

Study-abroad programs have played a significant role in globalization of business curricula over the years. Short-term study-abroad programs (STSAPs) are proliferating in business schools and provide a viable alternative of studying abroad to students who are unable to participate in programs of longer durations due to disruption in family, work, and education schedules. This exploratory study attempts to understand factors that are critical to students’ participation in STSAPs offered by business schools. This research focuses on a combination of factors that include STSAP components and attributes as well student specific characterisitics. Initial analysis indicates that STSAP cost, STSAP content, and organizational and personal issues, in that order, are considered important by business school students. Significant differences exist in the perceived importance of different factors used by students to choose to participate in STSAPs based on gender, age group, family income, program level (undergraduate versus graduate), and program type. Results of this research have implications for the design of STSAPs in business schools that are offering or considering offering such courses or programs.     

Developing a Global Mindset Through Short-Term Study Abroad

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a practical, effective method of teaching short-term study abroad courses to increase students' global awareness and lay the foundation for the development of a sophisticated global mindset in future managers. The global mindsets discussed in the literature coincide with the levels of cognitive complexity found in the critical thinking literature. Building on these traditions, we construct an approach based on facilitated, group discussion. One major advantage of this technique is that, because it is done in a group setting, it is less time-consuming for faculty than other ways of providing feedback to students during study abroad courses. Given that short-term study abroad courses have become a popular way to internationalize business school curricula, this approach offers a way to maximize the impact of these experiences.     

Combining Strategic Technologies to Facilitate the Teaching of International Business

SUMMARY

Strategic Planning, globally, is an important business activity. In today's competitive world the best of “soft” and “hard” support tools are required. Leading edge technologies can be used to overcome some of the problems which come from a group of human beings (and their history) sitting down to plan. Group Support System technology (GSS) (Lewis, 1993) allows issues to be divorced from the people proposing them. It allows discussion and organisation of ideas in a debate-like way. It provides instantaneous evaluation for prioritising. Strategic Conferencing (Phillips, 1984) with the help of a multi-attribute value model aims to support shared understanding and provide modelled scenarios of the consequences of allocating strategic resources in a particular way. Mental imagery, a “human technology,” releases the imaginal so that strategic ideas are fired with imagination as well as facts and forecasts. The case study used these three technologies for the planning of Health Care. They proved to be a viable combination.     

Studying Abroad: Understanding the Relationships Among Beliefs,Perceived Value,and Behavioral Intentions

Increased globalization highlights the importance of encouraging university students to participate in an international experience. In this study, the authors investigate how behavioral belief, subjective belief, and control belief influence students’ perceived value and intention to study abroad. The authors further examine the moderation effects of generation on the proposed relationships. The results show that behavioral belief, not subjective belief and control belief, is significantly related to perceived value. Second, the relationship between perceived value and intention to study abroad is stronger for the first-generation sample. Third, the subjective belief measure could be divided into the financial support versus nonfinancial support scales. The article concludes with implications of its findings for educators as well as for academic researchers.