The globalization of business education: through the lens of semiglobalization

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a personal perspective on the extent to which business schools have globalized what they teach and to make content‐ and process‐related suggestions about how to make further progress.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides a mixture of quantitative and qualitative/interpretative analysis.

Findings

The paper finds that rhetoric around the globalization of business education has greatly outrun the reality of curricular change and this problem seems unlikely to be solved until the craving for distinctively global content can be satisfied.

Research limitations/implications

Semiglobalization – the intermediate state of integration in which neither the bridges nor the borders between countries can be ignored – is proposed as a conceptual umbrella for organizing curricular change and in terms, of process, a two‐track‐approach, combining infusion and insertion, is recommended.

Originality/value

Both the conceptual and procedural recommendations of this paper are novel.

Citation

Ghemawat, P. (2008), "The globalization of business education: through the lens of semiglobalization", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 391-414. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710810866741