Fostering Global Competence in International Business Students on a Latin American Campus

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the development of global competence through the integration of a series of international-intercultural in-class activities in a Latin American international business (IB) course. A pre- and post-survey were applied and analyzed using a non-parametric Wilcoxon test to identify changes in student perceptions of their global competence development. Results showed development of all competences included in the survey. Intercultural effectiveness was the factor that showed the most statistically significant improvement, while willingness to learn from and adapt to other cultures, openness to other cultures, and awareness of diversity developed to a lesser extent. In addition, the dimensions of attitude and knowledge showed improvement while skills demonstrated only slight change. Therefore, IB teaching can be improved by including well-planned international-intercultural classroom activities to promote not only discipline-related knowledge but also global competence development without relying on student mobility.