Social capital and global mindset

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of development of cultural knowledge and cosmopolitan identities among international management students in multicultural learning environments and to investigate how international business students develop global mindset during their studies.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparative analysis was conducted within four undergraduate management and business administration programs in international higher educational institutions, based on constructivist grounded theory methodology. The empirical study is grounded in data that were collected from triangulated multiple sources: qualitative semi-structured interviews with students, faculty and student services professional (n = 95) from 23 countries, participant observation in four programs and document reviews, and were analyzed using the dimensional analysis.

Findings

The study presents a global mindset development process model, which takes into the account social capital of the learners, as well as the existing and emergent social ties.

Practical implications

The paper provides tentative recommendations for the steps that management educational programs and multinational companies can take to promote an environment conductive for cultural knowledge exchange.

Originality/value

The paper presents the development of global mindset as a social learning process; in particular, it addresses the role social capital plays in knowledge generation and sharing in multicultural learning environment. It contributes to the understanding of cultural knowledge development in social networks. Additionally, the paper examines the feasibility of development of global mindset in international higher educational.

Citation

Mikhaylov, N.S. and Fierro , I. (2015), "Social capital and global mindset", Journal of International Education in Business, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 59-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIEB-09-2014-0018