Reflections on the globalization of management education

Abstract

Purpose

Globalization of management education seems to have become the natural way to go for management and business schools. Almost every week one can find in the specialized press another announcement about an overseas campus, a new international partnership or a major research tie up. But announcing an international venture is easy, implementing is the challenge. The purpose of this paper is to provide some advice on how to implement globalization.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based of the author's own experience with INSEAD, the University of Cambridge and Singapore Management University, as well as his observations of many other business schools. It is thus anchored in a few case studies.

Findings

The author offers some reflections on what he sees as the challenges of implementation and how one can overcome these; focusing in particular on the need to understand what the driver for the globalization is and on implementation issues, e.g. how to build an international brand, some of the lessons one can learn from professional firms about the internationalization of key staff, the impact on the business model of a University, and the need for internationalization of the school's leadership and the deployment of technology.

Originality/value

The paper brings new insights based on an extensive experience with internationalization.

Citation

De Meyer, A. (2012), "Reflections on the globalization of management education", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 336-345. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711211218988