IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorsoc/v61y2010i8d10.1057_jors.2009.75.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Varying routes to the top: identifying different strategies in the MBA marketplace

Author

Listed:
  • P Naudé

    (mIMP Research Group, Manchester Business School)

  • S Henneberg

    (mIMP Research Group, Manchester Business School)

  • Z Jiang

    (mIMP Research Group, Manchester Business School)

Abstract

The market for MBA degrees is changing rapidly. As this market tends to maturity, an increase in the number of universities offering these degrees is evident, and also in the different formats in which these degrees are offered. In this increasingly crowded marketplace, there exist two main sources of information that buyers (students as well as prospective employers of MBA students) can use to assess the products on offer—whether or not a Business school/MBA programme is accredited, and also the position of the school in available rankings, a number of which are regularly published. Playing ‘the rankings game’ is one that occupies the time and effort of many MBA directors globally, as they all try to edge their way upwards in order to attract more and better students. The problem with an ordinal ranking, though, is that it suggests too readily that it is based upon a unidimensional measure. We use the data behind one of these rankings, that of the Financial Times top 100, full-time MBA programmes in 2008, in order to explore to what extent schools are using different routes to try to improve their rankings. Using a variety of multivariate statistical tools, we base our analysis on the three underlying factors of alumni career progress, diversity, and idea generation. What emerges is a clearer picture of the extent to which programmes that are ranked very closely do, in fact, base their success on very different routes to the top.

Suggested Citation

  • P Naudé & S Henneberg & Z Jiang, 2010. "Varying routes to the top: identifying different strategies in the MBA marketplace," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(8), pages 1193-1206, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:61:y:2010:i:8:d:10.1057_jors.2009.75
    DOI: 10.1057/jors.2009.75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/jors.2009.75
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/jors.2009.75?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stewart Page, 2000. "Ranking of Canadian Universities: A New Marketing Tool," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 59-69, March.
    2. Ray, Subhash C. & Jeon, Yongil, 2008. "Reputation and efficiency: A non-parametric assessment of America's top-rated MBA programs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 245-268, August.
    3. Jeffrey Pfeffer & Christina T. Fong, 2004. "The Business School ‘Business’: Some Lessons from the US Experience," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(8), pages 1501-1520, December.
    4. A Paucar-Caceres & R Thorpe, 2005. "Mapping the structure of MBA programmes: a comparative study of the structure of accredited AMBA programmes in the United Kingdom," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(1), pages 25-38, January.
    5. Pfeffer, Jeffrey & Fong, Christina T., 2004. "The Business School "Business": Some Lessons from the U.S. Experience," Research Papers 1855, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    6. Colbert, Amy & Levary, Reuven R. & Shaner, Michael C., 2000. "Determining the relative efficiency of MBA programs using DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(3), pages 656-669, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tommy Krabberød, 2015. "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants? Exploring Consensus on the Validity Status of Mintzberg’s Configuration Theory After a Negative Test," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(4), pages 21582440156, October.
    2. Cotton, John L. & Stewart, Alex, 2013. "Evaluate your business school's writings as if your strategy matters," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 323-331.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johnes, Jill, 2015. "Operational Research in education," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(3), pages 683-696.
    2. John M T Balmer & Wei-Yue Wang, 2016. "The corporate brand and strategic direction: Senior business school managers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and management," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 8-21, January.
    3. Awadh Pratap Singh & Shiv Prasad Yadav & Preeti Tyagi, 2022. "Performance assessment of higher educational institutions in India using data envelopment analysis and re-evaluation of NIRF Rankings," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 13(2), pages 1024-1035, April.
    4. André, Kévin, 2013. "Why Should Business Education Care About Care? Toward an Educare Perspective," ESSEC Working Papers WP1315, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    5. Mike Wright & Evila Piva & Simon Mosey & Andy Lockett, 2009. "Academic entrepreneurship and business schools," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 34(6), pages 560-587, December.
    6. Albrecht, W. Steve & Hoopes, Jeff, 2009. "An empirical assessment of commercial web-based professor evaluation services," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 125-132.
    7. Corinne Bendersky & Nicholas A. Hays, 2012. "Status Conflict in Groups," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 323-340, April.
    8. Aithal, Architha & Aithal, Sreeramana, 2018. "How and Why Wharton Business School became World Topper – A Case Study on Organizational Quest for Excellence of First US Business School," MPRA Paper 85727, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Brent D. Beal, 2012. "Competitive markets, collective action, and the Big Box Retailer problem," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 6(1), November.
    10. Kristof De Witte & Laura López-Torres, 2017. "Efficiency in education: a review of literature and a way forward," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(4), pages 339-363, April.
    11. Sandrine Frémeaux & Grant Michelson & Christine Noël-Lemaitre, 2018. "Learning from Greek Philosophers: The Foundations and Structural Conditions of Ethical Training in Business Schools," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 231-243, November.
    12. Fogarty, Timothy J. & Zimmerman, Aleksandra B. & Richardson, Vernon J., 2016. "What do we mean by accounting program quality? A decomposition of accounting faculty opinions," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 16-42.
    13. Nelarine Cornelius & James Wallace & Rana Tassabehji, 2007. "An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Identity and Ethics Teaching in Business Schools," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(1), pages 117-135, November.
    14. Malida Mooken & Roger Sugden, 2014. "The Capabilities of Academics and Academic Poverty," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 588-614, November.
    15. Chuanyin Xie & Susan D. Steiner, 2013. "Enhancing Management Education Relevance: Joint Creation Of Knowledge Between Business Schools And Business," Business Education and Accreditation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(2), pages 1-15.
    16. Miguel Pina e Cunha & Rita Campos e Cunha & Armenio Rego, 2005. "What is an "exemplary workplace"? Evidence from Cuba," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp475, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    17. Scott Kelley & Ron Nahser, 2014. "Developing Sustainable Strategies: Foundations, Method, and Pedagogy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(4), pages 631-644, September.
    18. Kévin André, 2013. "Why Should Business Education Care About Care? Toward an Educare Perspective," Working Papers hal-00880241, HAL.
    19. Larrán, Manuel & Andrades, Javier & Herrera, Jesús, 2018. "An examination of attitudes and perceptions of Spanish business and accounting students toward corporate social responsibility and sustainability themes," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 196-205.
    20. Ellson, Tony, 2009. "Assessing contribution of research in business to practice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 1160-1164, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorsoc:v:61:y:2010:i:8:d:10.1057_jors.2009.75. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.