Innovative practices in undergraduate business education abroad: an introduction

Journal of International Education in Business

ISSN: 2046-469X

Article publication date: 4 November 2013

507

Citation

Elliott, C.W. (2013), "Innovative practices in undergraduate business education abroad: an introduction", Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 6 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIEB-08-2013-0030

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Innovative practices in undergraduate business education abroad: an introduction

Article Type: Introduction From: Journal of International Education in Business, Volume 6, Issue 2

Business education in the twenty-first century is necessarily an exercise in globalization – where cultural knowledge, proficiency to communicate, and business acumen intersect. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) agrees, where one content Standard (15) goes so far as to say that:[…] Present day curricula will prepare graduates to operate in a business environment that is global in scope. Graduates should be prepared to interact with persons from other cultures and to manage in circumstances where business practices and social conventions are different from the graduate’s native country.There is no better way to develop these sets of competencies during an undergraduate business education than by fully immersing oneself in another culture to study business. All globally competitive business schools have entered the market of study abroad programs to support this trend of further internationalizing the education of their students beyond the campuses on which they traditionally study. This movement in the last several decades creates incredible opportunities and some common challenges from which there may emerge innovative practices in the field.

This special issue of the Journal of International Education in Business is an initiative of the Business International Studies Network (BisNet). As a network of top US business schools, BisNet endeavors to share best practices, discuss issues unique to increasingly international business student populations, identify opportunities for domestic and international collaboration, and to undertake dynamic initiatives to promote and improve the range and quality of business-oriented study abroad experiences. This special issue is one of those initiatives, intending to continue the conversation internationally around innovative practices in global business education.

The organization of this special issue parallels the ways in which we can structure our work in undergraduate global academic programs – considering innovations in broad curriculum and academic programs, innovations in short-term courses abroad, and innovations in student learning outcomes. Of course, these are not mutually exclusive groupings, but nested ones. Short courses are a part of the broad academic curriculum, and student learning outcomes should be embedded at the core of all of our academic programs and services. The nine articles in this special issue offer various international perspectives on innovation in these three overlapping areas.

Innovations with curriculum and academic programs

Some would argue that the crown jewel for a business school’s integration of a global strategy is its ability to offer an international immersion experience for 100 percent of its graduates. Purportedly, this could guarantee a set of graduates with at least a foundation of global experience, though preferably accompanied by cultural competencies and skills. In the first article in this issue, Kirsten M. Alexejun and Anne M. D’Angelo share insights from the University of Minnesota’s (US) Carlson School of Management as they just recently graduated the first complete undergraduate class with an international experience degree requirement.

As an extension of this “international experience required” model, in the second article, Dylan Kissane presents a series of challenges and opportunities through the twenty-six years of history of the Centre d’Etudes Franco-Americain de Management (CEFAM). The CEFAM international double-diploma BBA program requires a year of study at a US partner school, with graduates earning a trans-continental dual degree. As partner business schools continue to find academic synergies and deepen existing international relationships, we anticipate growing interest in the dual degree space. This article begins to explore several of the notable hurdles in funding, cultural acclimatization, awarding academic credits, recruiting, retention, and relationship management.

Study abroad institutions and providers continue to offer excellent programs with unique value propositions for business students. In the third article, Samantha Charlotte Brandauer and Susanne Hovmand share the international business program at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad as a case study for a holistic approach to study abroad, integrating experiential learning and theory to prepare graduates for the intercultural challenges of a global work place. This approach is driven by interactive student consulting projects with local businesses, academic study tours, field studies, career workshops, an innovative living-learning community, and an assessment strategy to constantly evaluate the experiential framework.

Innovations with short courses abroad

As academic business programs continue to grow and develop specialization, students often find that they cannot find the time amidst academic program and elective requirements, financial constraints, and student involvement or athletics to pursue a semester or full year outside of their home institution. So a growing majority of students find short-term, faculty-led courses to be a more palatable way to study abroad in programs ranging anywhere from one to eight weeks. These courses take many different shapes and sizes; including comparative survey courses that travel to two or more locations, fixed location programs that develop a deeper understanding of that place, or project-based courses that position students as regional consultants to a client, just to name a few. The McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia calls them Global Commerce Immersion (GCI) courses, and has grown this offering in ten years from two initial courses in 2003 enrolling 25 students to seven courses in 2013 enrolling 146 students. Susan L. Porter and Marcia L. Pentz describe one such innovative course in the accounting content area, focusing on accounting knowledge, management communication, and conflict resolution themes in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The authors present a detailed description of this course with its cultural framing, accounting and communication content, collaborative work with local Irish students at a partner school, and assessment of learning.

Terri Feldman Barr then introduces a critical question of staffing for short courses abroad, presenting research on student affairs professionals involved in short courses. The author identifies that faculty directors of short courses are asked to assume four roles: logistical, intercultural, academic, and dean of students (or crisis manager). As short courses continue to grow in appeal, the management of these courses requires additional sophistication, and Barr suggests that student affairs professionals bring a unique skill set to these courses to alleviate some of the responsibility from the faculty directors and blend student affairs and academic affairs functions to the benefit of student learning and more prudent risk management practices.

Innovations in student learning outcomes

The third and final section of this special issue presents several innovations in student learning outcomes. The outcomes in this case pertain to skills-based interventions at one’s home institution – either focusing on domestic students developing intercultural skills and international knowledge or focusing on international students learning to navigate the cultural nuance at a home/host institution. Aleya James and Nicole M. Shammas begin with a rich description of an Intercultural Intelligence course taught by expatriates in Dubai (UAE). The authors articulate note-worthy strategies for creating safe classroom environments for challenging conversations, developmental scaffolding using culturally-familiar references, shifting cultural perspectives, using neutral spaces for both content and reflection, and offering virtual and interactive opportunities to practice intercultural learning.

Thi Tuyet (June) Tran then introduces readers to learning and academic support services offered to international students at La Trobe Melbourne (Australia) through a mixed-methods study of at-risk students’ consumption of discipline-based academic support programs. The author shares qualitative and survey data from international students and offers recommendations to increase attendance and relevance of academic support programming for international and non-native language-speaking students.

Kumaran Rajaram and John B. Collins completed an intensive qualitative study of mainland Chinese students studying business in Singapore, and share their findings on cultural values, instructional delivery, and assessment methods in this article. Instructively, they found that students’ comfort with a particular technique of instructional delivery does not necessarily translate into more effective learning due to the use of that technique.

Practitioner’s commentary

Craig Storti is an internationally-recognized consultant in the field of intercultural communications and cross-cultural adaptation and author of several books. His client list includes governments, Fortune 500 companies, military, and education sectors, training clients to understand and work effectively across cultural differences. In this invited practitioner commentary, Storti presents a brief historical analysis of learned cultural ignorance in the US as an illustration of three ways to develop cultural competence despite one’s cultural legacy. He implores business education to take a leading role in developing the next generation of business leaders with this global skill set. We thank Mr Storti for this conversational thought piece and hope that it adds to the discussion of intercultural competence in this special issue beyond an American audience.

On behalf of the Business International Studies Network, we earnestly hope that this special issue of the Journal of International Education in Business extends our collective conversations about innovative practices in undergraduate business education abroad. Just as in business, our field of business education is constantly changing, and constant innovation is critical for success. We appreciate the authors’ willingness to share their research and innovative practices with us in this special issue, and look forward to continuing the discussion beyond these pages.

Chris Wilcox Elliott and Tammy Orahood
Guest Co-Editors

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