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Global service-learning and business education: the case of Azerbaijan

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Abstract

This study investigates the development of service-learning models for business school students in Azerbaijan. Drawing on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this study identifies field projects and financial literacy immersions that benefit society while also promoting partnerships between Azerbaijan’s business schools, Central Bank, and international non-profit organizations. Based on the conceptual framework of Brower (Academy of Management Learning & Education 10:58-76, 2011) and theoretical underpinnings of Kolb (2015), this article develops two service-learning models for business schools in Azerbaijan and presents new corollaries between issues of sustainable community development, service-learning, and experiential learning theory. In one service-learning model, business school students complete a service-oriented consulting project based on real-world assignments from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In a separate service-learning model, business school students partner with the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and Junior Achievement in exerting servant leadership by serving as mentors for Azerbaijan’s schoolchildren in the area of financial literacy. The service-learning models in this study are distinctive and innovative in the context of Azerbaijan, both in terms of management education development and the potential to infuse and teach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into the business curricula.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank participants at the 29th Annual International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference (20 - 22 October 2022), Nazim Hajiyev, and discussants at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics and Khazar University for useful comments and discussions. The author is grateful for the research grant provided by the Fulbright US Scholar program. The author is grateful for useful comments and suggestions provided by the Editor-in-Chief and the anonymous reviewers.

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  1. College of Business Administration, University of Detroit Mercy, 4001 W. McNichols Road, Detroit, MI, 48221, USA

    Omid Sabbaghi

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Correspondence to Omid Sabbaghi.

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Sabbaghi, O. Global service-learning and business education: the case of Azerbaijan. Asian J Bus Ethics (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-023-00186-1

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