Socio-digital disadvantage, widening participation and management education

Business education is often seen as a means for social mobility and economic prosperity (Kumar et al., 2024). There is an increasing emphasis on widening participation within business schools (Fernando and Kenny, 2021). However,
scholars have warned that social and digital inequalities negatively impact the educational opportunities and
experiences of individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (Fotaki and Prasad, 2015; Timsal et al., 2024). There
tends to be a ‘deficit approach’ adopted within widening participation practices that assumes limited motivation and
skills of students from disadvantaged backgrounds as the main reason for lack of progression to and within
universities (O’Sullivan et al., 2019).

In this work, we report findings from our study exploring use of digital technologies of students from less privileged
backgrounds, enrolled in a full time MBA programme in two business schools in Pakistan. Our research revealed that
the students found digital technologies to be alienating and isolating. This experience significantly impacted their
academic engagement and social interactions, and further entrenching their socio-digital disadvantage in business
schools within a Global South setting.