Internships as clinical rotations in business: Enhancing access and options

Internships are high impact practices that offer work experiences and provide advantages for participating undergraduate students and for the talent acquisition efforts of firms. While research consistently documents the benefits of internships as a transformative experience, access and outcomes may vary for students and for underserved populations. Limitations of internships can include lack of access to enough positions as well as inadequate interactions between undergraduate students, firms, and faculty members in business programs. The purpose of this article is to describe an approach to enhancing access to internships on a larger scale with greater variety. Protocols found in clinical rotations in medicine and best practices for business internships guide development of the concept proposed in this paper. Steps associated with antecedents, process, and outcomes are summarized in a schematic and guide the development of the clinical internship framework. If high impact practices such as internships are to provide transformative experiences for all students, then the ideas developed to enhance academic efforts become critical components of future research and of continuous improvement efforts in business education over time