Integrating liberal education, business, and high-impact practices – the case of George Mason university’s school of business

Purpose In College Learning for the New Global Century, the National Leadership Council of Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) argue for a liberal education for all students because “(i)n an economy fueled by innovation, the capabilities developed through a liberal education have become America’s most valuable economic asset.” (LEAP, 2007). The Business for a Better World Center and the School of Business at George Mason University endorse this view and have applied the liberal education approach to the study of business. This paper aims to explore the current environment of business education, the role of liberal education and the school’s programs and their benefits. Design/methodology/approach This paper relies on a case-study approach. Findings In this paper, the authors explore how George Mason University’s School of Business brings a liberal education approach to business education and draws on a combination of high impact practices, such as first-year seminars, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, collaborative assignments, undergraduate research, community-based learning, internships, capstone courses and projects and diversity and global learning (Kuh, 2008). Mason’s experience demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of this integration. Originality/value This case study provides unique insight into how business schools can integrate a liberal education approach into business education with successful results. As such, the paper contributes to the growing body of research on the benefits of liberal arts and business education models as a means of addressing global goals and provides a valuable case study to understand better the necessity of integrative, interdisciplinary learning.

The malleability of international entrepreneurial cognitions: a natural quasi-experimental study on voluntary and involuntary shocks

PurposeThe authors investigate the durability of international entrepreneurial cognitions. Specifically, they examine how advanced business education and the Covid-19 pandemic influence international entrepreneurial orientation disposition (IEOD), and subsequently entrepreneurial intentions (EIs), to better understand the psychological dynamics underpinning the drivers of international entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachAgainst the backdrop of emerging entrepreneurial cognition and international entrepreneurial orientation research, the authors theorize that both a planned business education intervention (voluntary) and an unforeseeable radical environmental (involuntary) change constitute cognitive shocks impacting the disposition and intention to engage in entrepreneurial efforts. The authors use pre- and post-Covid-19 panel data (n = 233) and uniquely identify the idiosyncratic cognitive effects of Covid-19 through changes in the OCEAN personality assessment.FindingsFindings demonstrate that when individuals' perceived psychological impact of Covid-19 is low, business education increases IEOD. Conversely, the effects of a strongly perceived Covid-19 impact reduce the risk-taking and proactiveness components of the IEOD scale. The authors trace the same effects forward to EIs.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to a greater understanding of the resilience of entrepreneurial dispositions through an empirical test of the IEOD scale and shows its boundary conditions under planned intervention as well as unplanned externally induced shock.Practical implicationsThe study offers a first benchmark to practitioners of the malleability of international entrepreneurial dispositions and discusses the potential to encourage international entrepreneurial behaviour and the individual-level dispositional risk posed by exogenous shocks.Originality/valueThe study uniquely employs a baseline measure of all our constructs pre-Covid-19 to discern and isolate the pandemic impact on entrepreneurial dispositions and intentions, responding to recent calls for more experimental designs in entrepreneurship research.

Preparing Business Education Teachers for Effective Implementation of Student-Centred Learning Strategies in the E- World

This paper highlights preparing business education teachers for effective implementation of student-centred learning strategies in the e- world. The paper defines terminologies such as Student-centred learning, e-learning and the need for linking ICT to education policies. It examines the world links program with student-centered teaching and learning web sites as well as discusses main characteristics of student-centered strategies and its popular types. It further discusses learning situations in the field of business education, teacher's role in student-centred strategies with implication of using student-centred strategies in Nigeria business education programme and analysis of threats to student-centred strategies. The paper concludes by making recommendation on the way forward among which Teacher should encourage student interaction in utilizing e-libraries or e-world at large in class participations. Institutions should encourage teachers in using student-centre strategies by sending them to seminal, conference/ workshop that base on this purpose. And institution should make available internet service 24/7 with power supply in the schools and staff quarters.

Business Education in Japan

In Japan, the most prominent players in business education are corporations because they provide on-the-job training to their employees, particularly new graduates. However, with the low growth of the Japanese economy after the collapse of the bubble economy around 1990 and the recent drastic changes in the international environment, it is necessary to reexamine business education. To cope with the drastically changing environment, many Japanese companies are evolving their education model to emphasize off-the-job training in addition to on-the-job training. The main target of such training now includes senior executives, in addition to junior- to mid-level executives. Business schools play a role in educating senior executives. Although major Japanese companies utilize top business schools overseas, Japanese business schools are still the major education providers. This chapter discusses the recent changes, prospects, and issues concerning Japanese business schools.

The Transnationalization of Business Education

Recent decades have witnessed the emergence and growth of transnational higher education, a specific form of internationalization which considers education as a product which can be packaged and sold abroad. This transnationalization of higher education is especially prominent in the discipline of business, which has wide student appeal. The purpose of this chapter is to review the transnationalization of business education. The chapter begins by situating transnational higher education within the internationalization of higher education more broadly. It then characterises transnational higher education, enumerating various definitions and transnationalization modes. Finally, it rationalizes transnational higher education from a geo-political/economic perspective.

Business Education Trends in Japan and America

This chapter shares the author's academic and career experiences in Japan and America and its influence on his perception towards business education, specifically MBA programs, in America. By sharing his experience, he will compare the business education in Japan and America and its differing perception of entrepreneurism. Comparing these two countries would highlight the current obstacles and future improvement for business education. Compared to business education in Japan, business education in America emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurship within its curriculum.

Young People as Transformative Citizens Fighting Climate Change

The government of Indonesia has launched environmental policies to address the risks of climate change at the national to local levels and involves all elements of development: economy and business, education, environment and forestry, and transportation. In fact, behavioral change is seen as unsustainable, particularly in people's everyday lives. As this problem emerges, Indonesian young people through youth-led environmental organizations hold environmental activities to alternatively introduce and educate communities and schools to recognize and identity climate change impacts. The author then presents two successful youth organizations: Greenpeace Youth Indonesia (GYI) and the Indonesian Students Climate Forum (ICSF). GYI's actions are more stirred with Greenpeace's ideology, which focuses on direct campaigns, protest, and young activist mobilization, while ICSF's repertoires for mitigating climate changes are more community schools-based educational outreach. Although both of them are distinct in nature, their works have been transformative and applicable.

Student Perspectives on Business Education in the USA

This chapter examines the academic and personal trajectory a student takes from before they ever set a foot on campus to beyond a college degree. By first assessing the private vs. public school dynamics in Southern California, the author documents the ways in which these systems are a reaction to the American college system, and how the prevailing psyche around college as being an ultimate end for students and their parents plays out. Reflecting on personal choices and circumstances unique to the individual yields a variety of challenges and benefits posed by pursuing a college degree, all of which influence what to study and where to pursue it. Influences range from relative income to geographical location and parental occupation. Through an examination of these elements, the relative importance and weight of a college degree in light of developments accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic leaves the collegiate system and the students who are at the center of it in an unparalleled position.

University Business Education for the “New Global Normal”

This chapter examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on university business education within the context of a post-pandemic era which has created the “new global normal.” The speed at which a nation's society and economy will recover in the “new global normal” shall largely determine the degree to which business organizations and university business education in different nations reinvent themselves to meet the new global transitions brought on by the pandemic. This will entail being more innovative with products, services, organizational structure, and business modeling than in the past. The chapter suggests university business education focuses on entrepreneurial leadership to combat post-pandemic uncertainty which is a complex situation requiring a delicate “balancing act” between practice and theory that considers its effect on global income inequality to be successful for all societies.