Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of development of cultural knowledge and cosmopolitan identities among international management students in multicultural learning environments and to investigate how international business students develop global mindset during their studies. Design/methodology/approach – A comparative analysis was conducted within four undergraduate management and business administration programs in international higher educational institutions, based on constructivist grounded theory methodology. The empirical study is grounded in data that were collected from triangulated multiple sources: qualitative semi-structured interviews with students, faculty and student services professional (n = 95) from 23 countries, participant observation in four programs and document reviews, and were analyzed using the dimensional analysis. Findings – The study presents a global mindset development process model, which takes into the account social capital of the learners, as well as the existing and emergent social ties. Practical implications – The paper provides tentative recommendations for the steps that management educational programs and multinational companies can take to promote an environment conductive for cultural knowledge exchange. Originality/value – The paper presents the development of global mindset as a social learning process; in particular, it addresses the role social capital plays in knowledge generation and sharing in multicultural learning environment. It contributes to the understanding of cultural knowledge development in social networks. Additionally, the paper examines the feasibility of development of global mindset in international higher educational.

Global mobility has become commonplace in academic environments and is even considered "the defining characteristic of our age" (Rizvi, 2008). The internationalization of higher education can be both a driver of international student mobility and the resulting student diversity (Jiang, 2005) and a response to these factors (Qiang, 2003). The number of international students has nearly doubled worldwide in the past 10 years. In 2012, there were more than 4.1 million official international students (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2012), and by the year 2025, there will be an estimated 15 million (Altbach & Knight, 2006). Although the United States attracts the largest proportion of international students worldwide-in 2012, 4% of students attending U.S. institutions were international, and 22% of those studied business and management (Open Doors, 2012)-Latin American and European countries were the most popular destinations for short-term study abroad programs (Open Doors, 2012).

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