Navigating Disruptive Innovation in Undergraduate Business Education

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe undergraduate business education landscape is dramatically changing and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Many of the changes are being driven by increasing costs, advances in technology, rapid globalization, and an increasingly diverse workforce and customer base, and are occurring simultaneously in both the business world and higher education. This is especially true for undergraduate business education in which alternative models to the traditional four‐year curriculum continue to emerge. Using Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation as a framework, we develop a set of recommendations to help undergraduate business education navigate the disruptions it faces by adopting a “pragmatic liberal” approach. This approach offers a direct contrast to the decades of limited success that business schools have had integrating liberal education and business education.