Programmatic learning goals serve as the foundation for an educational institution’s curriculum design and assurance of learning processes. The purpose of our study is to determine the relevance or alignment of undergraduate business school learning goals. We identify the learning goals of US undergraduate business programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-International (AACSB) and determine the extent to which the goals are aligned with (a) evidence-based competencies that are needed for managerial success (including the ‘Great Eight’ and the ‘hyperdimensional taxonomy’) and (b) content areas identified in AACSB’s Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation. We found that learning goals conform to AACSB Standards and evidence-based managerial competencies, but goals are most closely aligned with AACSB Standards, followed by the Great Eight, and the hyperdimensional taxonomy, respectively. We discuss the implications of our findings with respect to business schools’ assurance of learning processes and provide recommendations for AACSB, business schools, the broader academy, and future research.

The purpose of this research is to examine the undergraduate learning goals of business programs and determine if these goals are skewed in the directions posed by critics of undergraduate business education. The underlying theme of many critiques is that nonlinear-thinking processes are underrepresented in undergraduate business curricula, whereas linear-thinking processes are overrepresented. The learning goals of 208 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International-accredited business programs were coded into two goal categories: linear thinking and nonlinear thinking. The results support the contention that nonlinear-thinking processes have a lesser presence in the typical undergraduate business program’s curriculum. These findings are consistent across research and teaching universities.