Reorienting business education through the lens of Ernest Boyer

K. Doreen MacAulay, Mark J. Mellon and Walter R. Nord

American Journal of Business, 2020, vol. 35, issue 1, 45-59

Abstract: Purpose - This article assesses the ability of Boyer's (1990) four-function definition of scholarship to address critiques of business schools. Boyer's definition of scholarship is presented as the foundation for a paradigmatic shift in higher education in business. Design/methodology/approach - The authors developed this conceptual paper by considering information from three sources: 1) Ernest Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, 2) articles by four well-known pundits of business education as well as critiques appearing in the Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal and 3) articles in which Boyer's work was the focal point of the article found by searching Google Scholar, two well-known education journals, a prominent database of education articles and theInternational Handbook of Higher Education(Forest and Altbach, 2007). Findings - A four-function framework based on Boyer's definition of scholarship is proposed to help improve the operations of business schools. The authors also forward ideological and practical implications related to each of Boyer's four functions. Originality/value - For several decades now, a number of highly respected business scholars have criticized American business education in its current form. These criticisms, although plentiful, have not fueled the magnitude of change needed to have a significant, sustainable impact on business education. The authors suggest that this lack of change is due, in part, to institutional practices and to the absence of a unified framework for how higher education in business should be executed. The authors argue that Boyer's four-function definition of scholarship could provide such a framework.

Keywords: Ernest Boyer; Business education; Scholarship; Higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ajbpps:ajb-05-2019-0027

DOI: 10.1108/AJB-05-2019-0027

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Business is currently edited by Dr David Burnie

More articles in American Journal of Business from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().