Critical thinking in business education: current outlook and future prospects

ABSTRACT

This study investigates all available literature related to critical thinking in business education in a survey of publications in the field produced from 1990–2019. It conducts a thematic analysis of 787 articles found in Web of Science and Google Scholar, including a specific focus on 55 highly-cited articles. The aim is to investigate the importance of critical thinking in business education, how it is conceptualised in business education research, the business contexts in which critical thinking is situated, and the key and more marginal themes related to critical thinking outlined in the business and business education literature. The paper outlines six key areas and topics associated with those areas. It suggests future directions for further scholarly work in the area of critical thinking in business education.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical thinking
• business
• business education
• higher-order skills
• systematic review
• literature review

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the research assistance provided by Emeline Jerez, Subodhanie Umesha Weerakkody and Nicole Ye Yang.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).