“The Other Side of the Coin”: What Do Business Schools Teach the Typical Business Undergraduate Student About the Nonprofit Sector? A Case Study From the Netherlands

Abstract

This article focuses on the exposure of the typical undergraduate business student to the nonprofit sector and management, as opposed to focusing on learning opportunities available to interested students in particular, as is typically reviewed in research on nonprofit management education. To address this novel question, the authors employed a multimethod research strategy to investigate the coverage of the nonprofit sector in the undergraduate business degree program of a leading international business school: the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands. Based on an exhaustive review of course syllabi, interviews with faculty members, systematic analysis of course lecture notes, and a student discussion group, the results show rather tepid attention to the nonprofit sector and management in the undergraduate curriculum. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for instruction of business administration undergraduate students to prepare them for interaction with the nonprofit sector.