Experiential learning in emerging markets: Leveraging the foreign experience

Abstract

For much of the decade of the 1990s, business schools around the world - and especially in the U.S.A. and Canada - were taking initiatives to internationalize the business curriculum, mainly in response to a directive by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (A.A.C.S.B.), the prime international accreditation agency for business schools. A global survey of business schools conducted in 1992 (Arpan, Folks, and Kwok, 1993) found that only a small majority (57%) made specific reference to internationalization in their mission statement, and very few schools had a requirement for a "foreign experience," defined in the survey as a study or an internship experience in another country. It was evident from this and other studies (see Arpan and Kwok, 2001 for a bibliography) that business schools still faced the major task of (1) infusing international issues into core courses; (2) developing specialized courses in international business (I.B.); (3) internationalizing their faculty; and (4) offering classes and internships overseas. A follow-up survey in 2000 found that schools had made progress in all these areas (Arpan and Kwok, 2001); 65% of bachelors and masters business programs now offered both core courses infused with international issues and specialized I.B. courses, suggesting that business schools were well on the way to meeting the first two objectives of instilling a general awareness in students of the global business environment and developing a basic understanding of I.B. issues in at least one functional field. Significant progress had also been achieved in internationalizing the faculty, with over 90% of schools reporting an increase in this area (Arpan and Kwok, 2001). Furthermore, 52% of bachelors business programs and 48% of masters programs now offered some kind of overseas experience (Arpan and Kwok, 2001), suggesting that business schools were making greater provision for developing students' global expertise by offering them first-hand experiences in other countries. The most commonly offered foreign experience was study tours, followed by study abroad and internships abroad. However, the number of institutions that actually required an overseas experience was still very small - just 5% of bachelors programs and 11% of masters programs. Data on the number of students who had completed a foreign experience were not available. The decade of the 1990s also witnessed the rise of emerging markets - nations whose economies were opening to trade and foreign direct investment and were becoming more integrated with those of the richer nations. It was no accident that business schools were increasing their efforts towards internationalization at the same time since it was apparent that emerging markets - especially the "Big Ten" (Garten, 1997)1 - were becoming key players in the new global business environment, so an awareness and understanding of the impact of emerging markets on global business was essential. In these markets, the onset of trade liberalization, privatization of state-owned industries, deregulation, the flood of inward foreign direct investment - and, more recently in some cases economic recession - have left the business environment in a state of flux. The old ways of doing business are no longer valid as new 'rules of the game' are being written and re-written. In this situation, the challenge of training students for global competence has become even more acute. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the foreign experience in developing students' global competence in business in emerging markets. Seven types of foreign experience are identified, ranging from classroom-based activities to full-time internships overseas, and their utility is examined through the lens of experiential learning theory. Although a North American perspective is taken here, the concepts, logic, and conclusions presented apply equally to business schools in other developed countries. © 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.