The Internationalization of American Business Education: Are U.S. Business Students Less Ethnocentric?

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2006

Department

School of Business

Abstract

Although AACSB feels that “every student should be exposed to the international dimension of business through one or more elements of the curriculum,” they do not suggest any particular method for doing so. Schools have attempted to meet this mandate in a variety of ways. This study looks at one effect of internationalizing the business curriculum on business students. The results show that overall business students are less ethnocentric than their non-business counterparts and that those students who had taken a course in international business were considerably less ethnocentric than those who had not. Since 1974 a major part of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation process has been the inter-nationalization of the business education curriculum. From 1974 until 1993 AACSB Standards for Accreditation evolved from simply encouraging an increase in the “international business content of the curriculum” to requiring undergraduate and graduate curricula specifically to include “global issues” and “global economic environments” [Fugate & Jefferson 2001, p. 160]. Although almost everyone involved seemed to agree about the importance of international business education, nearly two decades later only slightly over half of business schools surveyed reported that they had written mission statements that “included specific references to international or global business as part of their education and research mission [Kwok, Arpan, & Folks, 1993, p.609], and only 18% of those schools agreed that students “should develop expertise in international business” [p.610].

Volume

5

Issue

1

ISSN

15535827

Comments

At the time of publication, James Walton was affiliated with University of Houston-Victoria.

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