Journal of Management Education

In the South, as in the North, the need to confront and escape poverty forces people to seek out administrative knowledge as a way of participating in economic activities. The current study considers one such group of individuals and provides a case study of a cooperative of single mothers in El Salvador (the Madres) that produces fairly traded and sweatshop-free clothing for sale in North America. The authors examine how the discipline of the market motivates the Madres to acquire specific educational capitals. Their thesis is that the production—consumption chain in which the Madres participate encourages certain management practices and hence certain forms of management education on the part of the Madres. Although the management knowledge demanded by the Madres is similar in some ways to the educational offerings of universities, there are some key differences in the form, content, and mode of acquisition.

This article describes the current relationship between management education in Colombia and the efforts of the management program at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB) in Medellín to reduce local poverty. The article uses the metaphor of “the bubble” to illustrate how social class, family socialization, and the current UPB management curriculum insulate management students from thinking about and interacting with the poor in Medellín. Based on the authors' experiences, five interventions are described that (a) integrate the issue of poverty more meaningfully throughout the management curriculum and (b) pierce this bubble within which UPB management expect to live their entire professional lives.

This commentary contrasts “Piercing the Bubble” by proposing “pull” (rather than “push”) strategies as a way for business schools to more meaningfully engage poverty and social exclusion. By reframing poverty issues in such a manner that they connect with core business student interests of career opportunities, current management practices, and wealth creation, there is a better chance of their substantial connection to the curriculum and orientation of business schools. This article points to parallel developments in the environmental sustainability field and in management education in North American settings.

Community and Individual Development Association (CIDA) City Campus is a private business college that provides bachelor's degrees to economically disadvantaged students in South Africa. CIDA's model of management education is in stark contrast to conventional business schools, which are not accessible to or adapted to students from extreme poverty. To help overcome their disadvantaged backgrounds, CIDA students are provided with holistic education encompassing inner development and community spirit, not just career-oriented skills and knowledge. Furthermore, CIDA students are engaged in creating economic value for their school and their communities, in contrast to traditional education that sequesters students from productive engagement with their communities. The CIDA model provides lessons for management educators seeking to target impoverished students and their communities.

The Community and Individual Development Association (CIDA) City Campus is presented by Heaton as an innovative African alternative to traditional business education. However, he considers the model in isolation from the unique educational and economic circumstances of postapartheid South Africa. As a response, this article goes beyond the CIDA model to consider the effect of the unique circumstances in South Africa on the formation and success of the CIDA City Campus. It then considers the elements of the CIDA model to examine whether they are radical innovations, as Heaton claims, or extensions of accepted theory and practice. The purpose of this is not to discredit the CIDA model. Rather, this article supports the model by showing that it is well grounded in accepted pedagogy. It concludes by considering whether CIDA provides a model for business education in developing countries or whether it is uniquely suited to the unique conditions in South Africa.

Doing business at the base of the pyramid is a topic of increasing interest to business practitioners and academics. Base of the pyramid business offers the promise of great economic gains for companies and the possibility of a powerful new approach to alleviate poverty. At the same time, it may threaten local culture and independence while providing nowhere near the economic or societal advantages that some suggest. Business schools need to expose students to these issues, given their implications for business and society. Field-based education offers great potential for students to explore such issues. This article describes a program offering field-based education at base of the pyramid locations throughout the world and a means for extending the experience to other students through video-based electronic case simulations.

This commentary asks some critical questions concerning the article “Management Education and the Base of the Pyramid” included in this special issue. Are “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP) multidisciplinary action project (MAP) students prepared to critically assess the impact of their interventions beyond a narrow definition of profit in complex and unfamiliar political and economic contexts? Are these projects exporting an appearance of wealth that is realized only for a small minority of those at the very top of the pyramid? Some reported examples of this pedagogy appear to be clear success stories, especially when the BOP approach is based on the BOP variant called the “BOP Protocol.” With self-reflexive critical awareness, the positive potential of BOP MAP approaches to management education may be enhanced.

Providing management education in countries where poverty is rampant seems a contradiction in terms. Yet it may help the country to develop stronger competitiveness and economic development. The article proposes a tentative framework to show how management education might be implemented in the world's poorest countries. The proposed framework integrates conditions and influences relating to management education, including country environment, with particular emphasis on stage and nature of poverty and openness of educational practices to ideas from outside the country. Finally, the model suggests that outcomes are hard to assess and face many obstacles. The article primarily draws on a decade-long case study within one country in Southeast Asia but also provides observations from other emerging countries in Asia and Africa. The article discusses the challenges of the dream of providing management education—including the length of time and difficulties of infusing concepts and behaviors into developing countries' management education institutions.

The article presents a case study in which business leaders deal with challenging problems related to poverty, involving multiple stakeholders. This emphasizes the importance of training prospective global leaders to manage stakeholder relationships and engage in stakeholder dialogue. The authors highlight the stakeholder role played by nongovernmental organizations and include a simulation that develops stakeholder dialogue skills. They identify practical lessons and assumptions underlying business education that are not shared by all stakeholders in the context of poverty.