Undergraduate research experiences: Identifying lessons learned and challenges for business schools

•Out of 101 analyzed U.S. institutions, only 21 business schools provide URE.•Promising UR program features are presented in five phases of a research process.•Facilitating and hindering factors for implementing UR programs are diagnosed.•Possible measures to promote UR programs in business schools are suggested.

We explore the merits of undergraduate research experiences (URE) in business administration. Despite a good fit of the skills gained by student researchers to the skills in great demand in the workplace, we have identified a large gap between the implementation of URE in science versus business administration. Based on publicly available curricula data provided by 101 institutions across the country, we found that only 21 institutions offer research opportunities for undergraduate business students. We investigated good practice in UREs and have translated our insights into lessons learned about program features for business schools. Through reflecting on typical hurdles for implementing URE in management education, we identified factors that could facilitate business schools in catching up with their counterparts in science. As an exploratory study, our findings are drawn from our own decade-long personal experience in offering undergraduate research opportunities at business schools both in the U.S. and Germany, from our examination of published URE curricula across the nation and from carefully conducted in-depth discussions.