The Contemporary Career Theory as a Lens for Understanding the Internationalization of Business Schools Students

Abstract

This article starts from gaps found in the literature on international students. The literature points out that we need studies on the subject that: bring different student profiles to explain their internationalization; explain, beyond mere description, the factors that motivate students to internationalize their studies and careers; and that they are conducted based on a guiding theory. In order to identify the main motivators of students for the internationalization of their careers, and to bring a theoretical view pointed out by the international education literature as necessary, we conducted a qualitative research by triangulating information from the literature on student internationalization, from the precepts of contemporary career theory, and interviews with students from an internationally accredited business school, to argue that the internationalization of these students is strongly stimulated by the peculiarities of the contemporary career they want for their lives. We used the content analysis technique as the main method of data analysis, with the support of the systematic coding technique to define our categories of analysis. Through this methodological design, we identified three main precepts of the theory that help explain student internationalization: (i) desire to expand their networks and broaden their cultural knowledge; (ii) search for greater autonomy of decision and professional alternatives; (iii) development of their soft skills and ability to solve complex problems. With these results we make contributions to the research topic, for students and for business schools.

Keywords

international students contemporary career theory internationalization business schools management higher education institutions

Introduction

The number of students seeking to study outside their country of origin has grown exponentially in recent decades. As a consequence of this phenomenon, we have a vast literature that investigates the reasons for this expansion, and among the main factors that have positively influenced student mobility are globalization and technological advancement. But these are not the only factors that deserve investigation.

This article starts from three gaps found in the literature on international students. The literature points out that we need studies on the subject that: (i) bring different student profiles to explain their internationalization (Ma, 2022); (ii) explain, beyond mere description, the factors that motivate students to internationalize their studies and careers (Pawar et al., 2020); (iii) are conducted based on a guiding theory (Sandes-Guimaraes et al., 2020).

Given these gaps, in this article we start from the assumption that it is necessary to advance on the causes that lead students to the international scene. We understand that globalization and technological advances are undoubtedly among the main catalysts of this process, however, we defend that there are other causes that are closer to exerting stronger influences on each individual and that generate consequences for their choices for internationalization. These causes can be illustrated from the Contemporary Career Theory (CCT), a theoretical approach still little used in the literature on the Internationalization of Higher Education. According to the literature (Arthur, 2008; Arthur et al., 2005; Greenhaus & Kossek, 2014; Hirschi & Koen, 2021; Khapova & Arthur, 2011), the CCT argues in its precepts that: (i) the new generation of professionals has sought to expand their cultural frontiers; (ii) it has sought greater professional alternatives in view of the uncertainty and unpredictability of our time; (iii) desires greater professional autonomy, in which the individual seeks to decide for himself and wants to be the protagonist of his own trajectory; (iv) understands that must develop soft skills, such as interpersonal and conceptual skills; (v) realizes that must build relationship networks to reach career goals; (vi) is looking for horizontal hierarchical structures, more complex challenges and greater possibility of remote work.

In order to investigate the adherence of the CCT precepts for the internationalization of students, in this article we start from the following research question: how can the internationalization of business schools students be aligned and explained in the precepts exposed by the Contemporary Career Theory? To answer this question, we adopted qualitative research as approach, due to its ability to understand complex social phenomena, through explanations centered on “how” and “whys” (Creswell, 2001). More specifically, we conducted in-depth interviews with students and adopted content analysis (Bardin, 2011) and systematic coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994) as data analysis methods.

From the answer to this question, this study presents two central contributions. The first contribution is of a theoretical nature, and stems from the use of CCT to explain a phenomenon that has been treated empirically, but which needs more theories to address its explanation (Knight, 2004; Sandes-Guimaraes et al., 2020). We argue that the use of CCT will provide important bases for the development of the theme of internationalization in higher education. We note that part of the studies on internationalization in higher education have brought results based on data collected in the field and that these studies need further scientific discussion, as they do not start from any established theoretical approach. While this can be seen as a gap within the theme, it is also the main justification for the contribution we bring in adopting CCT.

Our second contribution can be classified as having a practical or managerial nature, given that our results will bring important insights for decision-making by academic managers and students, especially in the context of business schools. While the managers will have in hand possible explanations for the attraction or disinterest of students for their HEI, or even for the understanding of the universe of their national students, students will have subsidies so that they can carry out their own internationalization strategies and realize their benefits. Students will also be aware of the tradeoffs involved in this process. More specifically, as a contribution to decision-making in business schools, in our implications section we argue about the need to create partnerships between higher education institutions, which must be guided by clear criteria, namely: (a) seek internationally accredited partners, for their ability to develop soft skills in students and ability to solve complex problems; (b) seek partner institutions that have different profiles, so that this can bring greater autonomy in choosing a destination for students and also greater cultural expansion; (c) we suggest prioritizing partnerships with institutions that allow foreign students a career path abroad, for those who wish, in the future, to establish themselves as expatriates. This converges with the desire that students have to expand their professional opportunities and networks.

Our article is divided into different sections. Initially, the concepts and definitions relevant to the topics of International Students and Contemporary Career Theory are brought up. Next, we developed the methodology section, in which we present the classifications of our research, the collection procedures used in the investigation and our strategy for data analysis. The results of the study based on the interviews are then presented, and in the same section we discuss the points of convergence between our results and the literature. We then make recommendations for business schools.

Literature Review

International Students and Contemporary Career Theory

OECD (2021) document brings us a forecast that in 2025 we will have more than 8 million international students distributed around the globe. This number, which in 2019 was around 6 million students, is one of the indicators of the importance that this topic has gained in recent decades. The literature of international students has, also in recent years, highlighted the need for more studies that can clarify the reasons that motivate students on this path of internationalization of their studies and their careers. Authors such as Ahmad and Hussain (2017), Heng (2017, 2018), Pawar et al. (2020), and Zhou et al. (2008), argue about the importance of better understanding the views of students who have different profiles, also marked by nations that are less frequently investigated within the theme and their educational institutions. In this context, Ma (2022) highlights that when we look at different students, we can get a better idea of their motivators in terms of internationalization. This is one of the gaps in the literature that we intend to fill with our article.

Among the studies on this topic, those that investigated the factors in the choice of international students for their intended destinations stand out, which is not necessarily the same as investigating what makes students want to internationalize. Preference for developed countries, with a better image in foreign relations, search for culturally richer cities and renowned institutions are among the main factors related to the destinations chosen by students (Börjesson, 2017; Cubillo et al., 2006; Hazen & Alberts, 2006; Pavlou, 2002; Ward & Masgoret, 2004); however, these studies do not provide us with further clarification on the reasons that lead the student to choose internationalization—regardless of the destination to be chosen—a gap that we consider an opportunity that is addressed by our study.

In addition, when analyzing this literature, we noticed a predominance of empirical articles, or articles that do not start from a robust theoretical lens, to explain the phenomenon of internationalization in higher education, whether at an individual, institutional or national level. There is, therefore, a need for further studies that go beyond the descriptive and non-theoretical predominance within this research topic (Ashong & Commander, 2017; Sandes-Guimaraes et al., 2020). This is another gap in the literature to which we intend to contribute with our study. For this purpose, we understand that contemporary career theory is a contributing lens to our understanding of students’ interest in internationalization.

Contemporary career theory has this name because it deals with aspects that involve the particularities of the “today” career compared to those existing in the past (Hirschi & Koen, 2021). In other words, it is a look that seeks to understand the aspirations of current professionals and also, sometimes, professionals in the near future, in relation to their professional trajectories (Akkermans & Kubasch, 2017; Akkermans et al., 2013, 2015). According to Direnzo and Greenhaus (2011), Greenhaus and Kossek (2014), McKern (2003), Neal and Hammer (2017), and Newman (2011), changes in the business environment, also caused by increased competition, both at an individual as well as an institutional level, technological advances that have brought about a greater speed of communication between people, a change in understanding about family structures, which also involves greater reflections on how much of a person’s time should be dedicated to work and how much to family members, as well as the aging of the workforce, are among the main factors that have strengthened our view of career in contemporary times. Based on these influences, it is possible to present propositions from the contemporary career view, as shown in Table 1:

Table 1.

Propositions From the Contemporary Career Theory.

Main references	Propositions
Akkermans et al. (2013, 2015) Akkermans and Kubasch (2017) Arthur et al. (2005) Arthur (2008) Direnzo and Greenhaus (2011) Greenhaus and Kossek (2014) Hirschi and Koen (2021) Khapova and Arthur (2011) McKern (2003) Neal and Hammer (2017) Newman (2011)	P1 : The new generation of professionals has sought to expand their cultural frontiers;
	P2 : It has sought greater professional alternatives in view of the uncertainty and unpredictability of our time;
	P3: Desires greater professional autonomy, in which the individual seeks to decide for himself and wants to be the protagonist of his own trajectory;
	P4: Understands that must develop soft skills, such as interpersonal and conceptual skills;
	P5: Realizes that must build relationship networks to reach career goals;
	P6: Is looking for horizontal hierarchical structures, more complex challenges and greater possibility of remote work.

Source. The authors, based on the literature.

These six propositions can be interpreted as a synthesis about the interests of contemporary professionals. Cultural expansion, a natural trend since the acceleration of the globalization process in the 1980s, the search for greater career opportunities and risk diversification, as a result of the aforementioned increase in competitiveness in its markets, the search for greater autonomy (and hierarchical horizontalization), as a result of the prevailing mental management model of our time, which distances itself from the classic view of the early 20th century, the need to develop soft skills and abilities to solve complex problems, seen as those of greatest difficulty of copying by technologies (which is also associated with the establishment of good professional networks), and a growing interest in remote work, exponentially accelerated with the Covid 19 pandemic, mark the main precepts of this theoretical lens (Arthur, 2008; Arthur et al., 2005; Greenhaus & Kossek, 2014; Hirschi & Koen, 2021; Khapova & Arthur, 2011).

In our study, we verified the strength of each proposition for the specific phenomenon of student internationalization, based on our presentation and analysis of results, highlighting that some propositions seem to have greater explanatory force for internationalization than others. We intend, therefore, to contribute to the deepening of the discussion about this phenomenon that stands out in our contemporaneity.

Methodology

Research Design

The qualitative approach was chosen for this research because it allows direct contact with subjects who are part of a given social phenomenon, based on evidence from their individual perceptions. In addition, qualitative research allows the understanding of complex social phenomena, through explanations centered on “how” and “why” (Creswell, 2001). We argue, therefore, that this approach is suitable for our purpose of identifying the main motivators of students for the internationalization of their careers. Therefore, we start from the premise that contemporary career theory is a theoretical lens capable of explaining this phenomenon of student internationalization, also starting from the need for more theoretical-empirical studies pointed out by the literature (Ashong & Commander, 2017; Sandes-Guimaraes et al., 2020).

In-depth interviews formed the main source of data for this study. Fifteen respondents were interviewed, including undergraduate students from the Business School of a traditional Brazilian higher education institution, which has international exposure through the accreditation of organizations such as AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA. The selection by students of this HEI was due to the need to choose a unit of analysis that may in fact be familiar with the phenomenon investigated. In order to select the students to be interviewed, we use the criterion of having international experience on their resumes or not. From these two profiles, our study was enriched by collecting both the students’ intentions for internationalization (on the part of students with no international experience) and the efforts they actually made (on the part of students with international experience). This choice increases the internal validity of our investigation, following the precepts of Patton (2014), since the diversity of the respondents’ profile, marked in addition to the presence or absence of international experience, is also, to a lesser extent, characterized by gender, age, and stage in the course (course semester), which allows us to have richer perceptions about the investigated phenomenon.

We adopted the snowball technique to expand our sample of respondents. At the end of each interview, students were invited to indicate possible respondents. We then contacted the recommended students, with the exception of those who did not meet the sample selection criteria used in our research. The interviews, each lasting about 56 min, were conducted by Zoom as a way to meet the health protocols arising from the Covid 19 pandemic and were continued until we reached a state of saturation, the point at which the responses of the interviewees start to repeat. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and encoded.

Participants and Data Analysis

The initial contacts with the target audience of the interviews were made through one of the authors of this article, who works as a professor and coordinator at the business school. Students who showed interest in participating in the study were then contacted via email and social media to schedule the interviews. Pseudonyms in lieu of the participants’ real names were used. The participants are profiled in Table 2:

Table 2.

Interviewee Profiles.

Ref.	Name} (pseudonyms)	Gender	Age	Semester	International experience	Duration(in min)
1	Michael	Male	17	1	Yes	63
2	Sarah	Female	18	2	Yes	40
3	Beth	Female	18	2	Yes	40
4	John	Male	21	5	Yes	65
5	Angela	Female	19	3	Yes	57
6	Fred	Male	18	2	No	60
7	Tom	Male	19	2	Yes	60
8	Roger	Male	22	2	Yes	78
9	Donald	Male	19	2	Yes	55
10	Luize	Female	19	2	No	42
11	Sofia	Female	19	2	No	56
12	George	Male	22	2	No	60
13	Margareth	Female	19	2	Yes	60
14	Jeff	Male	20	2	Yes	55
15	Alice	Female	19	2	Yes	52

The interviews were conducted using a semi-structured script, organized into fifteen central questions, classified according to four major dimensions: (a) internationalization trajectory and experience; (b) culture and skills resulting from internationalization; (c) professional opportunities and networks arising from internationalization; (d) mobility and autonomy resulting from internationalization. It should be noted that the dimensions of the questions asked in the interviews were based on the TCC precepts that best dialogue with the phenomenon of student internationalization. Because of this choice, the questions asked in the interview phase allowed the establishment of relationships between the propositions of the theory and the investigated phenomenon. The complete script can be seen in Table 3:

Table 3.

Semi-structured Script Based on the Precepts of the CCT.

References from CCT	Dimensions	Questions
Akkermans et al. (2013, 2015) Akkermans and Kubasch (2017) Arthur et al. (2005) Arthur (2008) Direnzo and Greenhaus (2011) Greenhaus and Kossek (2014) Hirschi and Koen (2021) Khapova and Arthur (2011) McKern (2003) Neal and Hammer (2017) Newman (2011)	(a) International trajectory and experience	1.As a student linked to an institution, or professionally, have you had experiences of internationalization? If so, tell us a little about your experiences. If not, tell us about your intentions to internationalize your career. Where would you go and for what reason?
		2.What is your view on this internationalization process? In other words, what, in your opinion, are the main motivators, barriers and facilitators of this process?
		3.What, in your view, are the costs and rewards involved in your career internationalization activities?
		4.Do you believe that the internationalization of an individual’s career is related to the trends and expectations of contemporary professionals? Could you illustrate your answer with examples?
		5.Do you believe that a negative political, economic, social and technological context in a country, such as the one we are experiencing with the COVID-19 pandemic, influences students’ choice of destination country? If so, how would that happen?
	(b) Culture and skills	6.How do you see the relationship between the different cultures of our planet and the international experiences you have had or want to have?
		7.Do you evaluate yourself as someone who seeks to expand your general culture? Could you give us examples in the context of the internationalization of your career?
		8.How do you see the relationship between the development of human skills and the international experiences you have had or want to have?
		9.What about analysis skills? How does this type of skill relate to an individual’s international experiences?
		10.In your view, what is the relationship between an individual’s internationalization and his ability to solve complex challenges? Could you illustrate your answer with an experienced example?
	(c) Professional opportunities and networks	11.Do you see a relationship between the internationalization of an individual’s career and their professional opportunities and alternatives? In addition, could you carry out this analysis taking as a scenario both the country of origin and the country of destination of the individual?
	(c) Professional opportunities and networks	12.In your view, what is the relationship between the internationalization of a person’s career and their professional network? Could you illustrate your answer with an example?
	(d) Mobility and autonomy	13.In your opinion, is there any relationship between career internationalization and its horizontalization? In other words, is there any context in which internationalization can influence the context of power in which the individual finds himself? In addition: could this process somehow influence the power relationship between the individual and his superiors or subordinates?
		14.How do you see the relationship between your professional autonomy and the international experiences you had or want to have? Could you try to illustrate your answer with examples?
		15.In your view, what is the relationship between the internationalization of a person’s career and the possibility of working remotely today or in the future? Could you illustrate your answer with an example?

Although, in general, the students interviewed were not familiar with the precepts of the Contemporary Career Theory, they were able to report their international experiences, their cultural aspects, skills, professional opportunities, networks, mobility, and autonomy. In other words, it was not necessary for the group of respondents to know or understand the theory, but to be able to answer in depth the questions that were asked (based on the theory). The use of theory contributes to the external validity of the study, even if generalizability is not an immediate goal of the qualitative research tradition.

We adopted content analysis as a data analysis method, following the precepts of Bardin (2011). This technique was carried out in three major stages: (i) pre-analysis, with floating reading, choice of evidence sources, and reformulation of the main objective of the investigation; (ii) exploration of the material, through immersion in the transcription file of the interviews carried out. At this stage, the analysis categories of the study were defined (expansion of networks and cultural borders; perception of decision autonomy and search for more professional alternatives; soft skills development and search for complex challenges)—the definition of the analysis categories, as it is from a predominantly deductive study, it was based on the propositions contained in the Contemporary Career Theory (CCT) that dialogue with the phenomenon of internationalization of students; (iii) treatment of the results, with the interpretation of the results within the categories of analysis established in the previous step.

After conducting the interviews, we began processing the collected information. This process generated the data coding of the analysis categories. This open, axial, and selective coding was devised based on a reading of the entire transcription, firstly to identify which quotes are effectively in accordance with the research objective, in order to increase the reliability of the research (Creswell, 2001). Following the qualitative research precepts of Miles and Huberman (1994), the technique of systematic coding was also adopted for the analysis of the data, starting from the interview transcripts recorded.

Results and Discussion

Following the precepts of Guba and Lincoln (2005), we compared the major categories that emerged from coding with a guiding literature, focused on the internationalization of students and contemporary career theory, in order to form new analytical perspectives and, mainly, to verify which theoretical propositions best explain the motivations for internationalization on the part of students. We identified three main precepts of the theory that help explain student internationalization: (i) desire to expand their networks and broaden their cultural knowledge; (ii) search for greater autonomy of decision and professional alternatives; (iii) development of their soft skills and ability to solve complex problems. In our investigation we identified three main codes (Knowledge, Freedom, and Skills). These precepts are shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1.

Motivators of student internationalization based on contemporary career theory.

Expansion of Networks and Cultural Borders

The desire to expand their cultural knowledge (proposition 1 highlighted in the theoretical framework) and the perception that the development of professional networks is fundamental for career success (proposition 5) are strong precepts of contemporary career theory that also work as a motivator for the internationalization of students. Starting with the importance of expanding knowledge, it is noted from the reports that students see it as a phenomenon that also brings difficulties, but at the same time motivates them to seek internationalization, because the learning compensates the costs:

What motivates me today are learning and challenges. I’m a very challenge-driven person, and I like to face new things and be really challenged. So when you go to another country with a different culture than yours, it’s very challenging. (Michael)

When you really get to know cultures, places, people, you realize that everything is very diverse, and at the same time very interesting. So there are a lot of reality conflicts, decisions that for many cultures would be normal, and for others would be absurd, and I see these differences as normal. (Sarah)

I think that a very big motivator for people to leave where they are to have an international experience is the cultural gain and interaction with other people, and also learning other ways of life, in addition to the differentiated formal education you can have. (Beth)

In addition to the speeches of Michael, Sarah and Beth, John defends that leaving the comfort zone of his country of origin is fundamental, as he highlights: “my motivators for internationalization come from the desire I have to know new cultures and interact with what is different from me, I think it’s really cool to try to get out of ‘this bubble I live in’, get out of my comfort zone.” (John). Angela’s speech, about the comfort zone, goes in the same direction:

By being placed outside your comfort zone and being open to new things, for example respecting other cultures, you learn from those people, you learn from others, including about problems you went through abroad, and then you can replicate this learning that you’ve got for other problems in life, and I think that’s very helpful. (Angela)

The interviewees make it clear, therefore, that cultural development is fundamental to a person’s success, and that internationalization is possibly the best means of carrying out this type of development. Van Dyne et al. (2010) call this competence cultural intelligence, something fundamental to young people in the current job market and in the future. Associated with this idea, also as one of the possible ways of measuring a person’s cultural intelligence, is their ability to establish networks in different social environments, a context in which part of the interviewees highlights this networking as the main reward of internationalization:

For me, the main reward of internationalization is the network. This is a clear reward. I believe that internationalization will bring you this kind of reward in the long run when you realize, for example, that you are in certain places because of the network created. (Roger)

Having a good network matters more than many things, many other things, right? So the more I go abroad, the more opportunities I’ll have, and the more networks I’ll create, and that’s why I want to have this exchange. (Louise)

In addition, Fred’s and Tom’s reports exemplify some of the professional opportunities that arise from the established networks, as highlighted:

The fact that you have had many experiences abroad makes it possible for you, in your own company, to have contacts and to be able to tell your stories, and I think this is very important for you to rise to the professional level in which want to go up. (Fred)

In internationalization you live many experiences, and then your network increases, you meet people from different realities, from different countries. You create relationships with people, both in friendship and professionally. So in this process you really expand your network, this is very clear, and it is very good that this happens, so you can call one of those people with whom you interacted abroad to work with you, or you can even undertake in a company that operates in two different countries. (Tom)

The importance of networking is not new to the management and careers discussion. In a classic work, Luthans (1988) had already highlighted that there is a difference between effective executives (those who fulfill objectives and goals) and those who are successful. The provocation made by the author goes in the sense that networking is, sometimes, more important than the exclusive concern of hitting goals. Networking would then be the key to the executive’s professional success, which, obviously, does not remove him from the need to be efficient and effective. On this point, the precepts of contemporary career theory converge with the internationalization of students, because the exercise of internationalization can be seen as one of the strongest experiences for establishing personal and professional networks.

Perception of Decision Autonomy and Search for More Professional Alternatives

The objective of having greater autonomy to decide on their own trajectory (proposition 3 highlighted in the theoretical framework), and the desire to establish greater professional alternatives, in the uncertain times we live in (proposition 2), are among the bases of contemporary career theory which have a strong relationship with the internationalization of students. Part of the interviewees’ reports converges with the idea that the market sees the student with international experience as someone who has greater decision-making autonomy, as highlighted by Roger, Donald and George:

The fact that you have internationalized your trajectory, whether to study or to work, makes you grow in the market, because you acquire more experience, and become versatile, demonstrating that you have the ability to adapt to another country, you also show that you can adapt to pressure situations within the business in which you operate. You also demonstrate that you have resilience and greater autonomy, becoming someone desired by the market. (Roger)

When you have this experience abroad, you get an informal type of certificate, a stamp for your competence, for how responsible you are, for your capacity, and when you have this certificate, you have this stamp, you have this validation, you become a person who has a certain respect in the market, the market looks at it and says: ‘ok, this guy is competent, I’ll trust him, I give him more autonomy, leave the guy alone, let the guy work, because I already know he is capable for this work.’ (Donald)

In addition to these views, Sofia understands that the international experience is, in itself, an opportunity to develop autonomy, even when it already exists: “in general, I know how to take good care of myself in my life, but I learned even more about it in my experience in Asia. I learned about my communication, about my directions and about my values.” (Sofia). In the same idea is Luize’s report, which highlights the impacts of internationalization on the student’s routine:

Through international experience you need to develop your autonomy, you need to develop that responsibility, and when you return to your country, you want to be more responsible, more autonomous, and that impacts your routine when you return. This experience of autonomy is very important, not only in the academic sphere, but also in the personal sphere. (Louise)

The students’ reports converge with the idea that these young people are looking for a “protean career” (Hall, 1996; Hall et al., 2018), a term derived from the god Proteus, who had the ability to change his own form according to his will and circumstances (decision autonomy). We note that this is a great interest of contemporary professionals, and that this encourages internationalization, because one of the precepts of internationalization is based on the idea that a global citizen is, in general, someone who has great responsibility for their own growth, someone who has autonomy, and thus is able to expand their professional possibilities (Cankaya et al., 2018).

Soft Skills Development and Search for Complex Challenges

The purpose of developing soft skills, associated with human relations (proposition 4 highlighted in the theoretical framework), and having a greater ability to solve complex problems (proposition 6), are among the precepts of contemporary career theory that stimulate the internationalization of students, while they can be seen as skills developed through internationalization, as highlighted by Margareth and Jeff:

You expand your horizons when you do a process like this because you learn a lot, you learn to think closer to the people who are in the host country, because in this context you didn’t just visit, you went international, and with that you learn to think like a foreigner too, and when you return to your country of origin, you continue with these lessons, and this completely changes your way of seeing things, your way of thinking, analyzing situations and making decisions. (Margareth)

The more ‘baggage’ you carry, the more knowledge you have about the world, the better your ability to analyze situations tends to be, and with that you are no longer so tied to a doctrine, and you start to have a clearer and broader view of almost everything. (Jeff)

Katz (2009) classifies the skills necessary for career success in three large groups: conceptual skills, related to the cognitive ability to understand and knowledge about the subjects that are part of the professional activity, technical skills, focused “on things,” such as software, machines and procedures, and soft skills, focused on people, on the capacity for interpersonal relationships, on their behavior in these relationships. Soft skills are also commonly called “skills for the 21st century,” also because the World Economic Forum (WEF, 2016) has included them in the list of key competencies for managers of the future. One of the main ways to develop this skill is, of course, establishing relationships with people and learning from them, which is also done through observation and through the exercise of empathy, as Michael and Alice highlight:

When you are immersed in an international experience, you broaden your horizons, and with that you can see different realities. This brings great influences to your human abilities, because when you start to have a broader view of the world, you can empathize with people’s different realities. (Michael)

The international experience makes you a more observant person, and by dedicating yourself to this experience and the people who are part of it, you can discover new things, also about cultures and about the human being. (Alice)

In addition to soft skills, there is evidence that points to internationalization as a driver of students’ ability to solve complex problems, and this ability is also pointed out by the WEF (2016) as one of the main skills demanded by the contemporary market. The reports of John, Sarah and Fred go in this direction:

By getting in touch with different realities, with problems that you had no contact with before, really different, you create a repertoire in the sense of problem solving. When you accumulate these experiences, you expand your problem-solving capacity. (John)

For me the ability to solve problems is related to the foreign language, in my case English. With my international experience, this difficulty has decreased a lot, so in the face of any challenge I have now, meetings in English, texts in English, I can do much better. (Sarah)

I see different benefits from internationalization, in almost every way, for example, you grow a lot as a person, you become a more independent person, you have other views of the world, so it seems that your mind, even when it comes to solving complex problems, works best by acquired repertoires (Fred)

Beghetto (2018) highlights that the great characteristic of complex problems is that they do not have clear solutions or pre-defined methods to reach a solution. Uncertainty is, therefore, a key element for solving complex problems, and the way of dealing with uncertainties will greatly influence students’ ability to solve this type of problem. By getting in touch with how to solve problems from other cultures, they can actually increase, to use interviewee John’s term, “their repertoire” of problem solving.

Implications: Recommendations for Business Schools

In our article, we identified that students seek the internationalization of their studies and careers due to the desire to expand their networks and broaden their cultural knowledge, to seek greater autonomy of decision and professional alternatives and to develop their soft skills and ability to solve complex problems. These results are present, and to a certain extent predicted, in the precepts of contemporary career theory. In other words, students want these achievements for their careers, and internationalization presents itself as a personal experience that can bring them closer to what they want.

In this sense, some precepts of contemporary career theory, such as those mentioned above, seem to be stronger than others to explain the internationalization of students. Examples of weaker elements within our evidence are the search for the development of conceptual skills, the preference for more horizontal hierarchical structures in their professions and their preferences for remote work. This means that although students seek these elements for their careers (Arthur, 2008; Arthur et al., 2005; Greenhaus & Kossek, 2014; Hirschi & Koen, 2021; Khapova & Arthur, 2011), internationalization does not seem to be a direct enabler of these career preferences. In other words, it is not the international experience, in itself, that will provide a job with a less rigid hierarchy or a job that can be done remotely, although indirectly we believe that internationalization will bring a strengthening of the curriculum for students, and this empowerment will make them more likely to pursue these and other interests for their careers.

As a result of the strongest categories in our evidence, it is possible to point out recommendations for business schools, given that their internationalization, within the scope of students, occurs in two ways: in sending their students to other countries and also in receiving foreign students. In both senses, international agreements with partner institutions are strategic, at the same time that they must be carried out based on clear criteria addressed to the partner, as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2.

Recommendations for the internationalization of students in business schools.

As a first argument, we suggest that business schools seek partners that have international accreditations, such as AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA. We emphasize that institutions that have these accreditations have already been evaluated regarding, for example, the ability to develop in their students soft skills and the ability to solve complex problems (Batista & Romani-Dias, 2022), which are two of the main results of our study. In addition, we note the great desire of students for more decision-making autonomy and, for this reason, we recommend that business schools establish partnerships with institutions of different profiles, in the northern and southern hemispheres, in developed and emerging countries, specializing in different areas of knowledge and research topics, and that allow the greatest possible cultural diversity for students. In this way, institutions will be able to better dialogue with the interest of students for cultural expansion, also marked as one of the main results of our study. As a last recommendation, of equal importance, we suggest prioritizing partnerships with institutions that allow foreign students a career path abroad, for those who wish, in the future, to establish themselves as expatriates. This recommendation converges with the desire of students to develop networks and expand their professional possibilities. We understand, therefore, that in this way the internationalization of students will be able to better fulfill its role of social development.

Conclusion

This article aimed to analyze how the internationalization of business schools students can be aligned and explained by elements of Contemporary Career Theory. We identified that the theory explains, to a large extent, the students’ search for the internationalization of their studies and their careers.

The theory brings us precepts that serve as motivators for students, such as: (i) desire to expand their networks and broaden their cultural knowledge; (ii) search for greater autonomy of decision and professional alternatives; (iii) development of their soft skills and ability to solve complex problems. These precepts can be interpreted as gains from internationalization for students and can also be seen as motivators for them to increase their international insertion. Internationalization is, therefore, in line with what students want for their careers in the present and in the future. This is one of the main results of our study, and based on this finding we can propose future studies.

We suggest that researchers investigate, in quantitative and longitudinal studies, causality relationships using the categories of analysis that we found in our study, to answer the following questions: (a) To what extent does the expansion of networks and cultural borders contribute, in the medium term, for building students’ careers? (b) To what extent do greater degrees of autonomy and professional opportunities contribute, in the medium term, to building students’ careers? (c) Finally, to what extent does the development of soft skills and ease of solving complex challenges contribute, in the medium term, to building students’ careers? We suggest that these propositions, put in the form of questions, be investigated in view of the international experience of students.

This future research may cover some of the methodological limitations existing in our study. Due to our qualitative approach, we did not establish different levels of importance for the categories found, and it would be helpful to do this numerically. In addition, we did not seek to generalize our results, but to search for true results within the reality of the students interviewed. If, on the one hand, we fulfilled the objective proposed for this investigation, on the other hand, we suggest an expansion of research with different sources of evidence that can bring greater external validity to the categories that we present in this article.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Fundação Getulio Vargas for the fundamental support for carrying out this research.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iDs

Marcello Romani-Dias

Seimor Walchhutter

Caio Sousa da Silva

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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