Planning, Organizing, and Executing Short Term International Exposures for U.S. Students of Marketing and Business Peter Gordon and D.K. (Skip) Smith Background
B
oth Academicians and practitioners believe that U.S. business students need exposure to international business, markets, and economics. The preamble to the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business's (AACSB) new accreditation standards identifies these as key dimensions of business which must be addressed by U.S. management education. The new AACSB standards also say that "both undergraduate and MBA curricula should provide an understanding of perspective that form the context for business." AACSB goes on to indicate that "coverage should include ethical and global issues, the influence of political, social, legal and regulatory, environmental, and technological issues, and the impact of demographic diversity on organizations." The authors and their institution strongly support the relevance and importance to our students of exposures to diverse political, social, legal, cultural, and economic environments. However, at non-urban, medium-sized public institutions such as ours, where many students are resource constrained, it is difficult to provide such experiences. Few of our students have traveled widely enough to experience the diversity of social and cultural environments in the United States, let alone in non-U.S. settings. In an attempt to simultaneously broaden the horizons and exposures of our marketing students and expose them to international markets and managers, we have organized a four week class which incorporates a three week international trip. This program has now been successfully conducted three times. In the process, we believe we have learned a great deal about the successful planning, organizing, and executing of such programs. While our program is "mission-driven," (that is, it is keyed to our particular students and environment), we believe our comments will be of interest to diverse readers willing and able to fine-tune suggestions regarding the nature and balance of international trip activities to their own unique student and environmental characteristics. The primary purpose of this article is to share suggestions on how readers wishing to run such endeavors might proceed. This paper discusses the objectives of our program and the strategy used to achieve them. In the process, we identify some of the problems first-time organizers are likely to encounter, and suggest ways in which to deal with them. Discussion also touches on the costs and benefits flowing from such programs, not only for students, but also for educators/organizers. Vol. 2 (Spring 1992), 47-53
Objectives, Constraints, and Solution Overview As indicated earlier, the primary objectives are to expose our students to international business operations and the environments in which they operate. Activities, such as tours of overseas businesses and institutions, discussions with executives holding non-U.S. operating responsibilities, and exposures to cultural, historical, political, and technological landmarks outside of the United States all contribute to these objectives. In order to make the trip "saleable," however, we begin our planning process by surveying students to see which cities they would most like to visit. Ultimately, we incorporate as many highly desirable destinations as possible in our itinerary. Several practical matters constrain the scope and timing of our project. First, we have established a per-person expense ceiling of $2,000 on a self-liquidating basis, meaning that the amount must cover all direct program costs. Second, as the program necessitates absence from campus for several weeks, it is important that neither attendance in other classes nor graduation timetables are disrupted. Finally, the trip should be relatively short, so as to not overly interfere with the work schedules of our many non-traditional students. Our strategy to achieve the objectives, within the constraints listed above, is a course which provides background to students during spring semester and then takes them overseas during the break between the end of spring semester and the start of summer classes. This interim is a period when students are not taking other classes, and when overseas tourist traffic is relatively light.
Target Market Many universities conduct short term international trips appealing to students across a broad range of disciplines. By contrast, ours is a focused business trip with limited enrollment. Only students who meet minimum prerequisites of Introduction to Marketing and Fundamentals of Management are permitted to enroll. This means that the majority of our participants have completed their junior year. Only students majoring in business, or minoring in business with a "related" major, such as political science, are included. We believe there are several advantages to our approach. First, the homogeneous background of our upper division business students makes possible a high level of academic content and expectation. Second, academically prepared students are more likely to present themselves effectively as
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representatives of the university. Third, students can graduate on schedule. Finally, those students who will be back on campus for one more year can share their experiences and promote the program to other students. Several additional suggestions may be considered when recruiting and selecting students for this trip:
nally, the communications and transportation networks in London make it easy for students to begin practicing a daily trip routine (for example, appointments in the morning and self-organized sightseeing in the aftemoon) which will demand considerably more initiative and self-confidence in non-English speaking environments.
1) Part-time students can be a real asset. The fact that they tend to be older and more mature can be very useful. In addition, our experience is that these students often have better financial resources than full-time students, and, therefore, are more likely to be able to afford the trip. 2) Having one student along who is familiar with trip routines and at least some of the destinations reduces substantially the executional burden on the faculty organizer. Providing a partial scholarship to a student who has previously travelled in Europe may be an advantage. Certainly, one should attempt to have a student from the previous year's trip retum for a second year. The presence of an experienced student makes it possible for the faculty member to increase the sightseeing and cultural options which could be offered to other group members.
2) If one starts with London, and is operating a relatively short trip (say, three weeks), some cities (for example, Rome, Madrid, and Athens) are too far away to be practical. The compact area of the northem part of westem Europe provides the opportunity to visit a large number of coimtries while minimizing travel time.
3) Readers may wonder how many students to recruit. Our experience is that fifteen students is a good number. Fifteen is enough to ensure a free air ticket for the trip leader, and enough so the leader's other expenses can be allocated out to students without dramatically increasing their costs. In addition, a group of this size can use public transportation for local movements, rather than having to charter buses. Not only is public transportation cheaper, it provides a greater opportunity for cultural exchange and immersion.
Place Within tbe context of an intemational student trip, "place" is a multidimensional construct involving issues sucb as destinations, selection of intemational and local transportation, and lodging. These issues will be addressed in tbe sequence in wbicb decisions must be made, starting with choice of destinations and ending with selection of local transportation altematives overseas.
Destinations Each year. Western Europe has emerged as tbe favored venue for our course. Surveys completed by prospective student participants continue to indicate that Amsterdam, Berlin, London, and Paris are preferred destinations. Furthermore, many non-European destinations are impractical. Asia's costs, in terms of both time and money required to travel this huge area, are a major disadvantage. While Latin America is a very dynamic and exciting area for business study, a Mexican or South American trip would offer far fewer destinations that are most desired by students. If, like us, you find that Westem Europe is the most attractive destination opportunity, we have several suggestions to offer: 1) In many ways, London is an ideal first destination. It provides students with initial exposures to foreign exchange, local transport, and hotel procedures but does so in an environment which is safe, conservative, and English speaking. Another advantage is that good quality lodging is available at relatively reasonable prices. London's deep and broad assortment of' both commercial and cultural institutions makes it attractive from a programmatic perspective as well. Fi-
3) Backtracking becomes very costly not only financially but also in terms of time. The implication is that organizers initiating their trips in London are likely to limit their travels to a combination of Britain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy (the northem portion), Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, and perhaps, Czechoslovakia or Poland.
Airline Selection For short, intensive trips, U.S. air carriers usually provide greater flexibility. This is not to suggest that foreign carriers should not be contacted. The advantage of domestic carriers is two fold. First, since one end of any flight must be in the carrier's home country, by using, for example. Air France to fly from the United States to London the trip must be split into a U.S.-France segment and a FranceEngland segment, thus necessitating an additional stop over and resultant delays. The advantage of using a U.S. carrier is that it may be possible to arrive in one country but depart from another. Last year, we arrived in London but departed Europe from Amsterdam, after traveling by surface through Belgium, Netherlands, France, and Germany. Again, avoiding costly backtracking contributed substantially to our ability to keep trip costs per student under $1,500. Second, U.S. carriers are more likely to provide service from smaller U.S. cities. For example, to fly Sabena to Belgium, one must get to Chicago to pick up the flight, an additional expense. On the other hand, TWA, American, United, and Northwest provide connecting service from our regional hub (and even some direct flights) at no additional charge. Special promotional fares to a single European destination (in other words, arriving and departing from the same European city) may be worth considering. However, if London is also on your itinerary, you are now committed to two trips across the English Channel. The time and money costs associated with an extra channel crossing (approximately $80) are likely to offset a large portion of the savings on airfare. As part of the movement toward a single market, Europe is scheduled to revise its air transportation system so that arrivals and departures will be treated as ending not in a particular nation but rather simply "in Europe." When this happens, the advantage of using U.S. airlines will be reduced, since it will be possible to arrive in one European destination on a European carrier and depart from a different city withouf backtracking. Until this happens, U.S. carriers are likely to be the carriers of choice for student trips such as ours.
Marketing Education Review There are a couple of additional observations regarding the selection of the intemational air carrier: 1) If fifteen students can be recruited for the trip, the tour leader will receive a free ticket for their own travel. Some carriers may be slightly more liberal; one year we were offered a free ticket for a group of only twelve students. The key is to shop around. 2) Try working not only with a couple of local travel agencies, but also with the group desks of individual carriers. Great deals are possible! 3) One reviewer has informed us that some universities require students to travel on U.S.-flag carriers, if possible. Before making travel arrangements on a non-U.S. carrier, make sure there are no institutional prohibitions against doing so.
Overseas Lodging Most European countries offer a number of lodging altematives including university dormitories, large hotels, small hotels, and families. For short intensive trips such as ours, it is unlikely that living with families would work well. Given the daily programmatic activities, having everyone begin the day at the same place simplifies getting up and out for morning appointments. Large hotels (that is, those included in directories used by travel agents in the United States) tend to cost more. Dormitories and hostels tend not to work well either, given the need for large numbers of students to share bathrooms in the morning. Furthermore, some dormitories do not provide pillows or blankets, and some may not provide breakfast. Our experience is that small hotels work best. There are several advantages associated with small hotels. First, they tend to have either individual bathrooms or a small number of rooms sharing a bath, which makes it possible for students to get up and out together. Second, they tend to include a continental breakfast, wbich makes it easier to move directly from the hotel into the main programmatic activities of the day. Locating small hotels is not difficult. One approach is to call the Washington embassy of the country for which you are seeking lodging and ask for the phone number of the tourist hotel reservations office in your destination city. If you call them directly, they will usually fax a confirmation within 24 hours. Last summer, this approach yielded double rooms in a good location in Amsterdam for $18 per person, including breakfast. There is one caution which we would like to mention with regard to lodging. Students, who have travelled in Europe, may suggest that spending the night on an overnight train or ferry is a good way to maximize the hours available for programmatic activity and minimize lodging expense. For tbese reasons, we tried an ovemight ferry one year. Tbe experiment was not successful. While students did not sleep well on the boat, tbey did sleep during the next day's presentation at a French firm in Paris. Management of the firm was understanding, but our conclusion is that overnighting to a programmatic activity is possible, but not desirable.
Local Transport Overseas For groups of up to 15 students, use of public transportation is recommended. Bus and train networks in Europe are well
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organized, reasonably priced, and very convenient. In addition, the purchase of tickets and/or day passes by students provides them with opportunities to conduct small transactions, calculate foreign exchange equivalents, and become participants in the local economy. In planning train travel, consider the purchase of unlimited mileage passes. These "Eurail" passes can provide good value if one is doing multiple trips and/or covering vast distances. However, if your trip incorporates only one long train trip (say, from London to Paris, and then on to Brussels, Cologne, and Amsterdam), the cost of an individual ticket is likely to be about half of the cost of a Eurail pass. It is also important to remember that Eurail does nor cover travel in Britain, the Channel crossing, or most eastem bloc countries. In addition, some trains are first class only (not much good if you have a 2nd class Eiu^il ticket), and additional fees are levied for reservations on many express trains.
One Final Point Part of our local transport strategy is to rotate each student through a "tour officer for the day" position. The student filling this role is responsible for knowing the day's schedule and making sure his colleagues know when and where they need to be for travel and/or programmatic commitments. This requires students to read maps, familiarize themselves with metro systems, and ask for assistance when they get lost or confused. One benefit is that this experience substantially increases the confidence of students in their ability to operate in unfamiliar territory and cultures. A second is tbat by using this system, no student has ever missed a programmatic commitment in the three year history of the program.
Product As indicated earlier, the learning objectives for our short term intemational experience—the justification for designing and executing this activity as a "for credit" course— include exposure to global businesses and executives as well as the cultural, historical, and political environments within which such businesses and businesspersons operate. Perhaps the best way to describe our approach is to begin by discussing our pre-trip background activities. Having done that, we will provide an itinerary for a recent trip and describe how it was assembled.
Pre-Trip Background Activities Our strategy is to conduct fortnightly meetings with the students during the semester preceding the trip (i.e., spring semester). These country and/or city-oriented sessions, while informal and often held at local restaurants, have proven useful in several ways. Students have a chance to see videos and/or hear presentations by individuals from the areas they wili visit. In addition, these fortnightly sessions help build a group spirit which can be useful when stresses and tensions increase during the overseas portion of the trip. The week before the overseas portion of the trip begins is spent in class covering academic materials. During this period, an intemational business textbook is reviewed briefly.
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with each student assigned to siunmarize in writing (and share with his colleagues) synopses of two or three chapters in the text. Other pre-departure activities include discussion of articles on companies the students will visit in Eiux)pe.
Schedule of Events for Overseas Trip As indicated earlier, the model for the daily routine during the three weeks overseas is usually (1) programmatic activities during weekday mornings and (2) sightseeing, personal time, and travel in the aftemoons and evenings. However, there is some variation around this standard. For this reason, it may be useful to walk through the overseas portion of oiu" coiu:se on a day-by-day basis. The following comments relate to our upcoming trip, which will begin in May of 1992. Day I. Depart from domestic airport. Day 2. Arrive in London approximately 8:00am. Go to hotel, check in, and buy lunch for everyone. In the afternoon, lead group to see the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament. In addition to exposing students to these historical, cultural, and political landmarks, the primary objective of this day is to keep everyone up until evening to minimize jet lag. Day 3. Spend the moming in a presentation on how 1992 is likely to impact publishing opportunities in Europe given by an executive of tbe British subsidiary of a multinational publishing firm. The initial contact for this meeting was made through the U.S. division's textbook representative in our area. After a luncheon hosted by the Managing Director, take students to either the Bank of England or the Stock Exchange (the world's most automated). Finish the day's official activities with a visit to nearby St. Paul's Cathedral, the historical landmark and architectural masterpiece by Sir Christopher Wren. Evening activities are informal and might include a visit to Picadilly and the theatre district. Day 4. Moming tour at the Canary Wharf redevelopment area, the Greenwich Naval Museum, or one of the major repositories of culture, such as the Victoria and Albert or the British Museum. Depart London in the aftemoon; arrive in Paris early evening. After hotel check-in and dinner, savor the cultural diversity of a Parisian night spot in the Champs Elysees or Pigalle area. Day 5. Spend the moming at a presentation given by an executive at the headquarters of the European subsidiary of a multinational entertainment company. Discussion will focus on adapting entertainment offerings developed in the United States to European audiences. The initial contact for this meeting was made by calling the public relations officer of the U.S. parent. After lunch, students are free to explore Paris, culminating in a group cruise on the River Seine in the evening. Day 6. Saturday. Students are likely to travel to the historic summer palace at Versailles, the modernistic Centre Pompidou, La Cite, or Montmarte. In the aftemoon, the group will tour the La Defense hypermarche with its 85 check-out registers, to observe how retailing in Europe is evolving. Other cultural, historic, and political landmarks likely to be visited include the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and what used to be the largest MacDonald's restaurant in the world.
Day 7. Sunday. In support of our cultural diversity objective, students are encouraged to attend one of the great cathedrals during services. The Sacre Coeur or Notre Dame are particularly inspiring. In the aftemoon, the group departs for Geneva on the 270 kmh Tres Grand Vitesse (TVG) train. Day 8. Spend the moming in a presentation given by an executive of the Swiss subsidiary of a major multinational manufacturing or banking firm. The initial contact with the manufacturer was made through friends at the U.S. parent. The banking contact was made by getting a directory of major firms in Geneva and sending out twenty letters asking if an executive would be willing to talk with our group. Students will have the aftemoon to visit cultural, historical, and political landmarks in Geneva. Day 9. Up before dawn to catch a bus/train to Interlacken, Switzerland, to experience the Jungfrau, one of Europe's highest peaks. Arrive late that night in Munich, Germany. Day 10. Spend the morning in a presentation on the impact of 1992 on the pharmaceutical industry in Europe given by an executive of a major multinational pharmaceutical firm. The initial contact for this session was made by using a directory to identify the public relations officer of the firm's U.S. subsidiary. In the aftemoon, visit Dachau, the notorious World War II concentration camp ten miles from Munich. Day II. Travel to Maastricht, the Netherlands. The day's train ride is broken up by taking a boat from Main to Koblenz (the Rhine's castle region), then reboarding the train to Maastricht, arriving early in the evening. Day 12. Spend the moming at the University of Limburg, with a presentation discussing the EC meetings on political and financial unity held in Maastricht in December, 1991. In the aftemoon, students will break into two or three interest groups (for example, manufacturing, marketing, and financial services) and visit a local business firm. Day 13 and 14. (Saturday and Sunday). Students are likely to travel to Aachen (major cathedral and tomb of Charlemagne), to Luxembourg, to Cologne, to Liege and its huge flea market, or explore castles, caves, hot springs, and the casino in the Maastricht area. Day 15. Spend the moming at the Dutch School of Interpretation and Translation (our university has institutional linkages here), which will give the students an opportunity to experience first hand the specific business language training that European students and executives receive. In the aftemoon, depart for Amsterdam. After hotel check-in and dinner, address cultural diversity with a visit to Amsterdam's famous red light district. Day 16. Spend the morning at a presentation on the firm's global strategy given by an executive of a major multinational consumer packaged goods company. The initial contact for this session was made by writing to tbe firm directly and requesting one of their executives to meet with our group. In the aftemoon, students may toiir the fiower markets, cruise the canal, or visit artistic and/or historic landmarks (for example, the Anne Frank house). Day 77. In the moming, travel to Bmssels. Spend the aftemoon at a presentation on manufacturing for the Euro-
Marketing Education Review pean market, pre- and post-1992, given by an executive of a multinational consumer durables manufacturer In the evening, go to the Grande Place for dinner, refreshment, and the nightly light show. Day 18. Spend the moming at a presentation given by an executive of the Belgian subsidiary of a major U.S. manufacturer, including a plant tour. In the aftemoon, toxu: the scene of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Day 19. Catch the train to the airport. At this point, our group has met with business executives in six nations and experienced firsthand major cultural, historical, and political landmarks in major overseas cities including London, Paris, Geneva, Munich, Brussels, and Amsterdam.
Price Once air fare, hotel, and train costs are available, a total cost can be established. Additional amounts need to be included for meals, some admissions, and similar expenses. Approximately 10 percent should be added as an adniinistrative surcharge. This covers the costs of the faculty member's expenses, as well as the "out of pocket" expenses, such as photocopying, printing etc. After the program and its costs are firmed up, it is possible to begin promoting the experience to students. Word of mouth. Marketing Club announcements, and in-class announcements have been the primary promotional tools. Students indicating an interest in the trip must make a confirmation with a sizable down payment. Our approach has been to collect a deposit of approximately $200 by January 15th, with monthly installment payments of a sufficient amount thereafter, to have students fully paid by April 15th. For us, these monthly payments have run between $400$500 per month, per student. Early cash fiow is important, as one needs to make a multitude of payments from the accumulated funds—airline tickets, hotel deposits, rail tickets, etc. Ideally, this whole program can be set up witbout any financial support from the university. There should always be a positive casb balance in the tour fund account. For students, the total trip cost has ranged from a low of $1,495 in 1991 for a 6 country trip, to a high of $1,820 in 1990, when the trip included a side-trip to Berlin before "the Wall" was eventually demolished. These prices included transportation to our regional air hub (some 100+ miles from campus), airfares, ground transportation throughout Europe, English Channel crossing, all tours, most breakfasts plus one or two other meals on most business days, all accommodations, and some admissions, such as the Eiffel Tower and River Seine cruise. A simple proforma budget might look approximately as follows: Domestic ground transportation Intemational Airfare 17 night accommodation @ $25 Eurail Pass London/Channel crossing Other European ground transportation Meals, 17 @ $10 Miscellaneous Total +10% Grand Total
$
30 700 425 325 70 50 170 25 1,795 180 $1,975
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We have one additional observation on the pricing and fmancial aid aspects of intemational trip planning and execution. As indicated earlier, many of our students are resource constrained. For this reason, our program includes opportunities for students to eam a portion of the cost of the trip. Activities, which students have used to eam money for the program, include car washes, merchandise sales, and various other service activities. In addition, sponsorship of specific students or activities can be solicited from area service clubs (Lions, Optimist, etc.) or from area businesses. Finally, although local travel agents are prohibited by the Intemational Air Transport Association (IATA) from discounting intemational fares, they may be willing to make small tax-deductible contributions to the university that can be used to reduce student travel costs.
Promotion We have tried many different approaches of promotion, including advertisements in the campus newspaper, direct mail to students who meet course prerequisites, and fiyers in student dormitories. Our perception is that none of these advertising approaches are very effective. The most effective promotional approaches involve in-class personal sales pitches to eligible students and/or positive word of mouth from recent participants. Our perception is that the relative ineffectiveness of advertising is due largely to the fact that it is difficult to address the complex issues of trip scheduling and funding in an ad. Both student word of mouth and in-class sales pitches address those complex issues directly and in detail.
Other Key Issues Timing is one issue touched on earlier which merits additional comment. The end of our spring semester (May) is an excellent time for traveling to Westem Europe. Such timing gives one the opportunity to travel Europe before the height of the summer tourist season. In addition, it gives students the benefit of "shoulder fares" for the intemational air travel portion of their expenses. While this is not as inexpensive as "low season," it is preferable to the high season rates which come into effect around the start of June. While round trip tickets to Europe were as low as $395 in late winter/early spring 1991, fares for May travel were approximately $650. This is still a considerable savings over the high season fare of $850. Another key issue warranting comment is faculty selection and/or self-selection. Our experience leads us to believe that there are certain qualities which are essential for success. First, the faculty member must be able to win commitment from both students and tbeir institution. Our tactics for generating student awareness, interest, and desire have already been discussed. As for institutional commitment, we took advantage of the first year of an institutional mle allowing a course to be run experimentally for one semester. Subsequently, the lead author used his own descriptive materials on the day-by-day activities of that first trip, as well as two-page write-ups by every student participant, to win ongoing approval for the intemational trip course from both academic (undergraduate credit) and graduate
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councils (graduate credit). Approval by these bodies means not only that the course can be listed in the catalogue and offered for credit, but also that the trip counts as half of the faculty member's paid summer teaching assignment. Winning student and institutional commitment is necessary but not sufficient for success. A second key success factor for faculty is the ability to plan and organize the myriad details, including air transport, lodgings, and programmatic activities. Third, once the group begins the overseas portion of the experience, the faculty member must be able to relate to the students not only as "co-explorer and discoverer," but also, when necessary, as leader and arbiter of last resort for disputes and/or decision situations. A high energy level, a sensitivity to cultural difference, and an ability to discuss subjects which may be embarrassing or even taboo in an ordinary classroom situation are also useful. Last year's trip schedule called for a 7:00am walk or jog to Kensington Palace, Albert Hall, and Hyde Park, followed by breakfast at 8:00am and a business appointment at 9:00am. As for cultural sensitivity, an ability to sense the differing ambiances of several major European cities and then to design activities that capture some of those differences is useful. Finally, we believe that an ability to dialogue comfortably with students on topics such as the nightlife in the Pigalle area of Paris or the red-light and drug boutique areas of Amsterdam is critical to the success of the faculty member and the program. Of course, there is an institutional side to the issue of faculty selection and self-selection. Organizing a student experience, such as the one described in this paper, is energy and time intensive. At our institution, the criteria for promotion and tenure are based primarily on intellectual contribution (e.g., read, referred joumal articles), and are ratcheting upwards every year. The fact that our institution is moving toward AACSB accreditation is increasing the publishing pressure on junior faculty. We suspect that the institutional envirormients of many readers will be similar to ours. Assuming so, planning, organizing, and executing international trips such as the one described above may not be a good use of time for untenured faculty. We do not believe that delegating trip details to travel agents and graduate students is likely to lead to a high quality/reasonably-priced trip experience. Therefore, it is unfortunate, but true, that untenured faculty interested in becoming involved in such programs need to consider carefully whether they can afford to invest the amount of time and energy required to develop and execute a successful program. In addition, they, as well as tenured faculty in merit pay environments, may wish to check whether these activities are rewardable within institutional reward structures. First-time faculty members who do decide to initiate an international trip program are likely to have a number of questions relating to institutional and/or individual liability, as well as student medical and/or financial problems. Our approach to institutional Hability is two-fold: (1) students sign waivers indicating that they participate at their own risk and (2) our faculty leader purchases a million dollar professional liability waiver insurance policy, which is available as a rider on his homeowner's insurance at minimal cost. While such liability waivers may not provide total protec-
tion should litigation occur, they are standard at all schools offering overseas programs. As for medical problems, the countries we have travelled to date all have national health programs which cover tourists, including our students. Regarding student financial problems, we tell students to bring cash for incidental expenses (the recommended minimum this year is US$250) and encourage them to bring a bank or travel and expenses (T&E) card as well. Our faculty leader follows a similar strategy; he carries cash and credit cards with unused credit lines. To date, no student has experienced an insurmountable financial problem. A final key issue, which begs attention, is the question of assessment. Both extemal reviewers, questioning whether our course serves primarily as a vehicle to provide tenured faculty with free trips to Europe, and outcomes-oriented internal reviewers sensitized us to the importance of this issue. We'll address this issue by commenting first on the assessment of student performance in the course, and second, by commenting on die subsequent impact of the course on student attitudes and behaviors. Students participating in this course do receive a grade. Twenty-five percent of the grade is based on pre-trip-related activities including preparation and presentation in class of summaries of materials relating to intemational business and/or the companies to be visited. Fifty percent is based on vigorous and professional-style participation in the day-to-day activities. The final 25 percent is based on essay questions administered to the students either the last day abroad or during the fiight back to the United States. Essay questions range from specific questions on particular presentations to more general questions regarding differences between U.S. and overseas environments and their implications for marketers and strategists. In answering these questions, each student is free to use the dairy that he or she keeps as one of the course requirements. In regard to the impact of this course on student attitudes and behaviors toward intemational business and/or cultural diversity, we have not, as yet, attempted a systematic assessment. Because cultural diversity is often assessed using demographic measures, detection of individual changes on this dimension is problematic. Difficulties in sorting out which changes in student attitudes and behaviors are due to a particular treatment (in this case, participation in our short term intemational course), together with the small numbers of student participants each year (twelve, plus or minus four), is a second restraining factor. However, we would like to share with readers the small amount of anecdotal information we have on the impact of our course on the attitudes and behaviors of some students. As indicated earlier, few of our students have travelled overseas prior to this experience. However, what we see happening is that many retumed participants actively search out additional opportunities for ongoing intemational involvement. Some do so by seeking advanced training with an intemational focus; one recent graduate and participant has enrolled at a major university in an internationallyoriented MBA program. Others do so by seeking project or program opportunities overseas; another former student is leaving soon to teach in Japan. A third group of students seeks additional intemational exposure by focusing their re-
Marketing Education Review cruiting efforts on multinational enterprises, and our sense is that many of our graduates and participants have taken this route. While we do not now have empirical evidence to support our claim, we are currently organizing a follow-up survey of past participants to address this issue and attempt to assess other long term impacts that our program may have had. A final outcome that deserves mention is the increased real-world experience with which the faculty member can return to the classroom. There have been innumerable instances where some knowledge gleaned from the trip has been utilized in classroom discussion or lecture.
Tactical Considerations There are a few tactical issues which we would like to mention. These include: (1) While travelling in Europe, a European Train timetable is nearly essential. If no travel agent loans you one, they can be procured for $20 from Thomas Cook Travel Agents. (2) Students must be counseled and then reminded to travel light. We believe that one soft-sided bag per student, plus a small carry-on bag, is the limit. Hard-sided suitcases on wheels do not roll easily over cobblestones and large rigid frame backpacks can be a problem in tight spaces. (3) Faculty leading such trips will be confronted by numerous challenges along the way. These are likely to include the need to roll students out after a night in which both hosts and students have overindulged, romantic entanglements, lost luggage and tickets, and all the other issues normally encountered by international travellers. Faculty need to be comfortable and willing to deal with not only the hard skill
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challenges associated with planning and organizing, but also the soft skill challenges of working with a young student devastated by the thought of leaving behind a newly found girlfriend or boyfriend, or a group of students not accustomed to bouncing out of bed early in the morning after a very late night.
Concluding Comments It is very important for business school students to experience first hand international business and competition, as well as cultural diversity. This is especially important for students, such as ours, who are not likely to have traveled extensively even in the United States, let alone overseas. Motivated by these beliefs, we have developed a short-term, low-cost intensive program to provide our business students with exposures to international business and competition as well as cultural diversity. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the behaviors of participating students have been impacted by our course. We believe this description of our program and processes should be useful to all educators interested in creating "onsite" international business and culturally diverse experiences for their own students. Readers who have never before attempted this will find suggestions on nearly every aspect of planning and executing such projects. We suspect that those who have experience in planning and executing short term international trips will find at least a few useful suggestions. Finally, we hope that readers with comments, questions, or suggestions will give us a call.