Kevin O’Mara, professor of management, and Art Cassill, Wesley R. Elingburg Professor of Accounting, had a paper entitled “The Value of a Study Abroad Experience for the Cayman Islands: Connecting and Reflecting” published.
The paper, co-authored by Brian Chapell, former dean of University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI), appeared in the proceedings of UCCI’s 2011 Conference on Leadership, Governance and Empowerment in the Caribbean.
Abstract
A recent research report conducted by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business characterizes most attempts by business schools to integrate globalization as “shallow” (AACSB, 2011). This paper outlines an approach that rethinks how globalization can be studied within the study abroad context. The approach is incremental in execution while divergent in design. Instead of visiting multiple locations for a short period, this course stayed in one location for the entire time. Instead of visiting a wide variety of organizations, the class focused many of its visits on a single industry (financial services). The conscious decision to focus on depth rather than breadth required partnering with a local university, developing a network of business contacts and educationally sequencing the financial sophistication level of the visits. As a result, the students had an opportunity to experience globalization holistically as their knowledge of the culture unfolded.