American Business Schools Research Articles

Measurement of sustainable attitudes: a scale for business students

PurposeThis study aims to present the development and validation of a scale to measure the attitudes of Latin American business students toward sustainable management practices in the economic, social and environmental dimensions.Design/methodology/approachUsing a nonprobabilistic sample, the appreciation for sustainable practices in students (ASP-S) scale was administered to a total of 653 undergraduate and graduate business students in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. A range of psychometric validity (construct, convergent and discriminant) and reliability criteria were applied.FindingsConstruct, convergent and discriminant validity was obtained from the ASP-S scale across all samples. During the internal validation process, two factors were found: systemic consciousness (ten items) and sustainable business leadership (nine items), both of which obtained acceptable reliability indices. The resulting structure is equivalent in all four countries.Originality/valueThe instrument can be applied by educators and learning assurance areas to diagnose and measure the effectiveness of pedagogical strategies used in sustainability courses taught at Latin American business schools. As a result, it has applications for curriculum design. As a valid and reliable instrument set in the context of regional business praxis, it can promote an understanding of sustainable behaviors and practices in future Latin American leaders.

“An A is an A?” Maybe in North America, but less so elsewhere

AbstractWith reference to recent debate about the increasing “an A is an A” mentality at business schools, I provide evidence on the prevalence of this mentality in North America versus other regions of the world (RoW). The evidence presented is derived from the data selection procedures employed in conducting systematic reviews of management research because a focus on specific journals in this selection can be seen as an artifact of the “an A is an A” mentality. My findings suggest that this mindset is more widespread in North American business schools and less so elsewhere. This implies that in order to find remedies against the detrimental effects of the “an A is an A” mentality, North American business school leaders and academics might find inspiration in other countries. In addition, I suggest that a part of the solution could also be directing PhD students toward a more inclusive selection of journals and articles in reviews of management research.

From profit maximization to social welfare maximization: Reclaiming the purpose of American business education

Business schools were founded for the purpose of providing prosocial professional training that would counterbalance profit motives. Recent events in global society, including major social movements, a global pandemic, and the effects of climate change, have accelerated a reorientation of business practice toward socially responsible practice. We identify ways in which American business education can--and normatively should--return to the social welfare maximizing approach that formed its genesis. We thus envision a normative future for American business schools in which social welfare maximization, not profit maximization, exists at the center of pedagogy and practice. Inspired by the backcasting technique, we examine how the future for American business schools (and, as a result, American business practice) may in fact result from recapturing the trajectory of its past. These natural shifts are accelerated by the influence of key business associations including the UN PRME and the Business Roundtable, as well as the accrediting body for American business schools, the AACSB. But only with the self-regulatory participation of business schools in reorienting toward social welfare maximization can the normative goal of prosocial American business schools be achieved.

Nothing Succeeds like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools

A polemic designed to attack an enemy's legitimacy is one of the most ancient of historical genres: the appropriate test is effectiveness. As an excellent example, Steven Conn's Nothing Succeeds like Failure is couched in clear, forceful, engaging language. It uses an impressively large collection of quotations and incidents. It presents many accurate details and makes some very fair points. Written by an accomplished historian, it opens with a disarming, explicit vignette in which the depressed members of a shrinking history department contemplate their enemy, the university's thriving business school. Conn quotes prominent studies of the poor quality of faculty, curriculum, and most students at most if not all business schools over their history. Until recent decades, he reminds, the students and faculty were overwhelmingly white males. Business schools, he argues, have never developed the body of valuable knowledge that justifies schools of law, medicine, the arts and sciences, engineering, and theology; nor has business, as a unified profession, established and enforced clear ethical standards comparable to those of law and medicine, of scientific and scholarly research, or of religious communities.

Instructional methods in emergency online teaching: The case of a Latin American business school

Instructional methods have an impact on the learning process and the quality of educational services aimed at accomplishing learning objectives. The purpose of this paper is to examine the most preferred instructional methods during emergency online teaching used by instructors. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 36 full-time and part-time faculty members belonging to an accredited Hispanic business school. The results showed that faculty used many different instructional methods during synchronous and asynchronous sessions. Similarly, there is a relationship between the professors’ academic areas and the instructional methods used. Based on these results, this study proposes a reference model of instructional methods for higher education based on professors’ experiences during emergency online teaching that includes five categories: group methods, active methods to contribute to the development of competencies, methods to ascertain prior knowledge, methods that promote understanding through the organization of information and methods that use digital tools. The originality of the study lies in the fact that it analyzes the migration experience from in-person to online teaching at an accredited Hispanic business institution.

Different application of COIL methodology in collaboration between Mexican and American Business Schools

This article presents the case study of collaboration in the teaching-learning process between the Business Schools of Mexican and American universities using the COIL methodology. Despite the great versatility of the COIL methodology, the literature on the subject is focused on so-called On Line COIL, which involves students from institutions located in different countries in a project developed asynchronously, using various means of electronic communication. There is almost no information of other forms of its implementation. Considering this absence, a different form of COIL called IN Person COIL that combined online collaboration with elements of face-to-face collaboration is described in the first case, meanwhile in the second case the traditional On Line COIL is presented. The results of the applied methodology and recommendations for instructors for those who would like to incorporate it into their didactic process are presented.

Innovation in Family Business Syllabus: The Case of the American University in Cairo

Teaching family business has been trending in some European and American business schools. This trend has very limited existence in all Egyptian, and Arab business schools. This manuscript presents the experience of the family business course at American university in Cairo (AUC) which started in 2017, and is still in the evolution phase in spring 2020. The article starts by shedding light on the concept of family business, and its importance in the economy. This is followed by addressing the literature of family business education on the global level, and its status in Egypt, and the Arab world. Moving forward to the micro level of the AUC, through discussing the origins of the family business course inception as a pillar in the school of business strategy, and then the evolution of the syllabus from spring 2017 till spring 2020. The details of the course from pedagogy to assessments, guidelines, and rubrics are explained.

Better, Faster, Stronger: The Evolution of Co-authorship in International Management Research Between 1990 and 2016

As a border-transcending discipline, the advancement of international management research depends on collaboration between scholars, universities, and nations to account for the diversity and complexity of management phenomena. Yet, relatively little is known about how international management has evolved as a field of research. We address this gap by examining the evolution of collaboration patterns on three levels of analysis, applying the concepts of cumulative advantage, preferential attachment, and isomorphic behavior in a diachronic network analysis. Based on 6,874 articles published between 1990 and 2016 in eight international management journals, our analysis shows that collaboration is driven by a few key players on each level. Although the US and UK still represent hubs, semi-peripheral actors from Europe and Asia enter the landscape. Nevertheless, non-western actors are still underrepresented. We tie this effect to the expertise-based hegemonic status of American and British business schools and dynamics of cumulative advantage on country-level.

Steven Conn. Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools.

S<scp>teven</scp> C<scp>onn</scp>. <i>Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools</i>.

An American Business School’s Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers’ Early Pandemic Response

As colleges and universities around the world grapple with the continuing impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary for research to not only focus on student academic learning issues, but also test for maintained support of needed student resources such as Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers. Using the Senior Student Satisfaction Survey, two separate samples of graduating business undergraduates at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States of America were surveyed, in late Spring 2019 (pre-pandemic) and late Spring 2020 (early pandemic). The goals of this study were two-fold. The first was to test for changes from pre-pandemic to early pandemic in seven student-related perception measures: attendance motivation, coursework challenge, professional development engagement, academic advising ease/quality, professional development ease/quality, business degree satisfaction, and perceived market value to potential employers. The second goal was to test for changes in the perceived relationships of five “independent variables”, i.e., attendance motivation, coursework challenge, professional development engagement, academic advising center ease/quality, and professional development center ease/quality, to two “dependent variables”, i.e., business degree satisfaction and perceived market value to potential employers. Comparing pre-pandemic (2019) to early pandemic (2020) perceptual change data, this study found that both the Academic Advising and Professional Development Centers handled these student-based perception variables from the surveys quite well. When the campus was suddenly closed due to the pandemic, both Centers successfully made quick adaptive changes to virtual models to handle initial student needs.

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools, By Steven Conn New York: Cornell University Press

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools, By Steven Conn New York: Cornell University Press

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools

Nothing Succeeds Like Failure: The Sad History of American Business Schools

Business education and students' ethical orientations in a Latin American business school

This study explored a way of assessing the impact of business education on students' ethical orientations, by comparing MBA students' entry-exit responses to two different instruments. Results showed significant reductions in the propensity for unethical decision scores, but not in the propensity for moral disengagement score. This study had also a practical purpose: to illustrate a way business schools could evaluate their efforts at ethical education and present their achievements in compliance with accreditation requirements (particularly, assurance of learning procedures). By highlighting the study's limitations (particularly, measurement and research design), the authors propose a research program for business schools.

International Double Degree Programs as Accelerators for Internationalization: Lessons from the Trans-Atlantic Business School Alliance

ABSTRACT The global nature of the modern business world has expanded the set of skills and attitudes necessary for success, even among new bachelor degree graduates. Although US business schools have primarily integrated international concepts through their curricula, students who stay at their home institutions for their entire degree programs do not live and experience the global business environment to the extent necessary for twenty-first-century careers. Short-term, semester- or year-abroad programs help to bridge this gap. However, carefully constructed undergraduate double degree programs can provide students with much richer experiences. This article provides a model for creating international undergraduate double degree programs in business, highlighting the main challenges and offering successful proven solutions employed by a group of American and European business schools that other institutions can adapt to accelerate internationalization and deepen students’ international experiences in American business schools.

The interplay between identity construction and L2 investment during study abroad program: cases of MBA students from China

ABSTRACT The study looked into three Chinese MBA students' discursive language and cultural behavior in an American study abroad (SA) program. It intended to unveil the complex social and individual factors shaping the students' second language (L2) and cultural learning. The key notions of identity and investment were employed to interpret the three MBA students' L2 acquisition in the American business school. The study revealed that learners' L2 investment and learning process during SA could be further complicated by their divergent academic and professional identities. Based on the findings, educational implications were drawn for SA programs in international education.

How do business schools compete in Latin America? Stability and best predictors of success for the AmericaEconomia MBA Ranking

ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper is to present a longitudinal analysis of the AmericaEconomia MBA Ranking for the period 2005–2014. AmericaEconomia was the first international ranking specifically devoted to Latin American business schools, and with data gathered from this publication, we build a panel to study its stability and the main determinants of a school‘s position in such ranking. We examine the reliability of the ranking, that is whether changes in the relative positions are not just due to white noise, and compare its stability with those of the US and other global rankings. We also empirically determine which are the key quality variables this ranking is promoting for Latin America Business Schools and the evolution of these business schools during the period under study. Unlike previous literature that usually considers dynamic Tobit models for ranking analysis, we put forwards an alternative methodology based on a system GMM estimator with first-differenced instruments. We argue that dynamic Tobit models are appropriate only if you have truncated data about the ranking variable but full data on Business Schools variables.

The microfoundations of innovation processes in Latin American firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the microfoundations of innovation-enabling dynamic capabilities in Latin American firms and, in particular, their processes to: sense and shape opportunities; seize opportunities; and maintain competitiveness through reconfiguring assets.Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out a confirmatory factor analysis of survey data obtained from a sample of 721 firms located in Latin America, and employed a hierarchical analysis of linear regressions with robust standard errors to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe authors found that when firms manage their innovation processes based on sensing opportunities and reconfiguring their tangible and intangible assets, they are more likely to improve on four innovation-related outcomes: development of new products and services; profitability; market share; and diversification.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited to the specific context of Latin American countries. In particular, the authors took a random sample of firms from a business directory built by prestigious Latin American business schools, but that may not be representative. Therefore, the generalizability of the results is limited beyond the type of companies that are represented in that sampling frame.Originality/valueContributions are twofold. First, the authors test the applicability of an orchestration model of dynamic capabilities to the Latin American context. And, second, the authors relate specific microfoundations of dynamic capabilities to the ability of firms to innovate successfully.

Strengthening capitalism through philanthropy: The Ford Foundation, managerialism and American business schools

Business schools have played a significant role in creating and sustaining many of today’s grand challenges, including income inequality, the gig economy and climate change. Yet calls for change go unanswered. With a critical perspective on philanthropy, an understanding of power and historical reflexivity, this article helps develop our understanding of why business schools are so deeply rooted in managerialism and so resistant to change. Through archival research, I show how the Ford Foundation used its money and influence in the 1950s to embed a managerialist ideology in American business schools as part of its efforts to sustain and strengthen the capitalist system. Through its outward face of objectivity and neutrality, combined with targeted support of specific schools, individuals and research, the Ford Foundation went beyond shaping the structure and curriculum of business schools to shaping the ideology and identities of management scholars. The more that we, as business academics, understand the full histories of our own institutions and the often hidden or ignored sources of power that played a role in their development, the easier it will be to change business schools in ways that fit our current contexts and support our current and future needs.

The Story Only Few Can Tell: Exploring the Disproportionately Gendered Professoriate in Business Schools

In American business schools, the higher the position, the lower the female representation, especially when including additional intersections of identity such as race, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Our article aims to supplement existing research regarding gender bias and underrepresentation in academia, particularly in business schools. Such research can uncover faculty gender issues, work toward mitigating the existing biases related to diversity and inclusion, and bring a needed voice and discussion for the purpose of moving toward solutions. To build our hypotheses, we provide a literature review regarding academic satisfaction, perceived performance weight–teaching and perceived performance weight–service differences between genders, and gender issues with the academic pipeline to full professor. Next, we utilize data collected from a sample of n = 696 academics from American business schools and find that women faculty have significantly lower academic satisfaction throughout all ranks and institutions. Our results further indicate that there are differences in perceived performance weight–teaching and perceived performance weight–service between female and male academics at the ranks of assistant and full professors at various types of institutions. Last, we offer conclusions and implications, limitations, and future research suggestions that include studies regarding intersectional faculty, academic mobbing and bullying, incivility, and academic satisfaction.

Knowledge of managerial competencies: cross-cultural analysis between American and European students

This paper reports on the differences of managerial competencies among MBA students from American and European business schools. The results of this research suggest that there are certain differences of not only nationality but also gender. The study also points out the need for different managerial competency profiles to better assess MBA students looking for future career development. The results of this study indicate that there is a difference at the national level between assessed managerial competencies of American and European MBA students that can be attributed to cultural factors. This conclusion confirms the findings of Chong (2008) and Akinola, Martin, and Phillips (2018). Secondly, at the organisational level, cultural differences manifest themselves in some but not all assessed managerial competencies. These research findings provide empirical evidence which suggests that, in managing and advising international and global future managers, one ought to distinguish between external, interpersonal and personal managerial competencies which are applicable across cultures and which are prone to cultural differences.