Eastern Promises Fulfilled: The Differential Impact of Marketing-Focused Short-Term Study Abroad Programs in India and Japan

Abstract

This study compares two marketing focused short term study programs in Asia (Indi a and Japan) and highlights reasons as to why students perceive that they learn more in one country than the other . Research to date has sparsely assessed the impact of study abroad programs on students’ perceived growth . The existing literature has rarely focused on short term study abroad programs while focusing mainly on undergraduate non business students studying in Europe in long term study abroad program s Short term study abroad programs (lasting less than eight weeks) are not considere d rigorous enough and several doubts exist as to their effectiveness as a pedagogical technique. This paper uses survey methodology and a sample of 92 undergraduate and graduate business students who have completed a short term study abroad program. The results show that students in these particular short term study abroad programs perceive greater personal, professional, and inter cultural growth than in a 10 week quarter long course. Students’ backgrounds could be a differential impact facto r, but more research needs to be done. Marketing educators, when designing short term study abroad programs, are encouraged to balance freedom and structure, and account for students’ backgrounds.