Business Education in an Age of Science and Technology

In a 1994 interview, Carl Sagan described the relationship between science and society thus: ‘We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster’ (Kalosh, 1994). This view of a world dependent on, yet largely ignorant of, science and technology is an apt description of the situation facing business today. The global economy is increasingly dependent on science and technology. Joseph McCann, Dean of the Sykes College of Business at the University of Tampa in Florida, has written in BizEd that the ‘Next Economy’ is a ‘science and knowledge economy’ in which ‘industries revolve around the convergence of technologies such as computing, communications, and engineering, and the growing importance of life sciences such as physics, biology, and chemistry.’ (2006, pp. 40–41). In part, this transition reflects the commercial opportunities afforded by the persistent, exponential progress of scientific and technical innovation in fields such as computers, communications, genomics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology. In part, it is also necessitated by circumstance, as our societies and economies confront the multifaceted challenges of stagnant economic growth, globalization, global climate change, and feeding and meeting the resource demands of a world population expected to reach 9 billion individuals by mid-century.