Stimulating knowledge-transforming writing to foster conceptual understanding in international business students

Recently-published studies have shown that conceptual understanding of international business is important for professionals, since international business is a complex domain comprising numerous context, occupations, industries and activities. This study hypothesises that educators can foster students’ conceptual understanding of international business by stimulating knowledge-transforming writing. However, the mechanisms contributing to the development of conceptual understanding in international business students during undergraduate courses are unknown. This study therefore explores how stimulating knowledge-transforming writing affects conceptual understanding of international business. The research question is, ‘How can stimulating knowledge-transforming writing contribute towards the development of conceptual understanding in international business students?’ This paper reports an exploratory case study about a 14-week undergraduate course in which students developed graduation research plans for future international business projects. The case involved 84 international final-year bachelor students who were following the course. Through analysis of dialogic class interaction and students’ writing assignments, descriptive research was conducted to investigate how stimulating knowledge-transforming writing contributes towards conceptual understanding in a course for international business students. Pre, mid and post-tests revealing conceptual understanding indicate that stimulating knowledge-transforming writing through dialogic class interaction and writing assignments is positively related to the development of students’ conceptual understanding of international business. However, some components of conceptual understanding showed more progress than others. Results suggest that meaning construction, active engagement and knowledge integration are key effect mechanisms. It is concluded that to adequately trigger mechanisms that contribute to the development of conceptual understanding, educators need to stimulate the self-regulatory processes needed for knowledge-transforming writing.