Unbundling Business Education: A Review of Micro-Credentials as Drivers of Higher Education Innovation and Labor Market Alignment

Abstract

This review examines how micro-credentials are reshaping business education through modular, flexible, and skills-oriented credentialing. Drawing on recent literature published between 2015 and 2025, the article synthesizes five themes of adoption drivers, institutional and curriculum innovation, labor-market alignment, stakeholder tensions, and implementation challenges. The review finds that micro-credentials can expand access, support lifelong learning, and improve responsiveness to changing skill demands. However, their value remains constrained by uneven quality assurance, fragmented policy frameworks, uncertain employer recognition, and risks of socioeconomic exclusion. The article argues that micro-credentials should not be treated as a simple replacement for degrees, but as part of a broader credential ecosystem requiring academic coherence, transparent recognition, and equitable access. It contributes a multi-stakeholder framework for understanding how micro-credentials may support higher education reform while preserving the wider educational purposes of business schools.