Teaching International Business in Europe and Latin America

Abstract

An important topic in IB education is to convey the importance of international differences in culture, institutions (economic, political, legal), language, and religion; and the business impact of these differences. Interestingly, the teaching pedagogy of IB must itself also adapt to such differences in culture, institutions (economic, political, legal), language, and religion. So, when teaching in a given country, IB teaching pedagogy must adapt to the local versions of culture, institutions (economic, political, legal), language, and religion (country characteristics, or CCs). Dunning commented that the world of international business is dominated by rapid and far-reaching changes in technology and by environmental turbulence (Dunning 1989). Such complexity certainly challenges the education of IB to no less a degree. Thus, just like the strategies and practices of the international business itself, the strategies and practices of teaching international business need to be adapted to the different environments of various countries and markets. Within any given market, economic, social, technological, and legal environments shape the resources, constraints, and hence the effective strategies for businesses; it is no less true of the education of business. From the macro to micro levels, a country’s education infrastructure, a school’s degree of internationalization, the development of IB related programs and courses, and the student body’s characteristics, resources, and learning styles, along with many other country factors, fashion the pedagogy, format, and style of effective IB teaching in a region, country, school, program, and particular course. JTIB has long recognized the special country and regional nature of IB teaching in the form of many papers and special issues. For example, in 2020, JTIB produced a special issue on IB education focusing on Mexico, the Americas, and Spain (MAS), guest-edited by Dr. Robert F. Scherer and Dr. Eugenio Dante Suarez. The issue brought attention to the importance of discussing IB teaching to the Spanishand