Differences in Student Offshoring Attitudes: Challenges in Teaching Offshoring

ABSTRACT

While offshoring represents a polarizing topic, limited pedagogical research helps us understand how to address diverse student offshoring views in the classroom. The present study fills this gap with a survey of undergraduate business students, revealing how resentment toward offshoring differs by student political views and global exposure. Furthermore, multi-group analysis shows how the antecedents and consequences of such disparate offshoring attitudes also differ depending on political views, global exposure, and gender. The findings thus shed light on the range of potential student offshoring biases, indicating that educators must help students critically process the confounding benefits and detriments of offshoring. We therefore close with a stakeholder analysis exercise to teach diverse offshoring perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Offshoring
• free trade
• international business
• globalization
• political views
• global exposure
• gender
• stakeholder analysis
• innovative pedagogy
• active learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael J. Maloni

Michael Maloni (Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is a Professor of Management in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. His research and teaching focuses on operational and supply chain challenges like offshoring, global logistics, and responsible management.

Canan C. Mutlu

Canan Mutlu (Ph.D., University of Texas at Dallas) is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and International Business in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. Her research focuses on corporate governance with a focus on board of directors and competitive dynamics. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, and Corporate Governance: An International Review.

James A. Swaim

James (Tony) Swaim (D.B.A., Kennesaw State University) is a clinical assistant professor in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. His areas of interest are operations/supply chain management, entrepreneurship, project management, and strategic management. He has published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Industrial Management and Data Systems, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, and Journal of Management Education.

Yoon Hee Kim

Yoon Hee Kim (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin Madison) is an assistant professor in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. She previously has taught international supply chain management and operations management courses at the Ivey School of Business (Western University) and the Parker College of Business (Georgia Southern University). The topics of her teaching reflect her research interests that investigate the relational and structural issues in integrated supply chain relationships using primary and secondary data analysis. Her research has published in such premier journals as Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences and Journal of Supply Chain Management.