American Assembly Of Collegiate Schools Research Articles

Centennium of collegiate real estate education: a prospection on “the search for a discipline” in the American school of business

PurposeThis study reviews the teaching of real estate in the USA for the first 100 years after the foundational curriculum was laid down in 1923 by three key institutions: the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB), the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities (The Institute) and the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Its line of investigative pursuit is the persistent lamentation by American real estate scholars that real estate is not getting the respect it deserves as an academic discipline compared to its peers in the school of business such as accounting, finance and marketing. The study addresses a fundamental question: What is the cause of this endless “search for a discipline”? This is motivated by the belief that identification of the root cause of this “search for a discipline” will lead to the requisite solution: the intellectual foundation of the real estate discipline.Design/methodology/approachThe study used qualitative document analysis to review two primary documents published in 1959 as reports on business education in the USA: (1) Higher Education for Business, financed and sponsored by the Ford Foundation, and (2) The Education of American Businessmen – financed and sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The impacts of the publications on the teaching of real estate to date have been reviewed in the context of scholarly actions and literature that has been generated in relation to the two documents.FindingsThe two primary documents impacted negatively on the teaching of real estate. The committee members who produced the two reports had indicated that real estate did not fit into the business curriculum hence should not be taught in business school. This conclusion led to unintended negative outcomes for real estate education. The negative impact of the reports arose principally because the teachers of real estate misinterpreted the outcome to mean that they should tweak the real estate curriculum to fit in the pedagogical framework of the business school. This reaction is responsible for perpetuating the identity crisis that has plagued real estate as an academic discipline since its inception as a subject of study in 1923. Secondly, at the inception of the real estate education in 1923, while the AACSB accepted real estate as a discipline in the school of business, Richard T. Ely wrote the curriculum under land economics which has led to the persistent collegiate dilemma regarding the teaching of the discipline.Social implicationsThe study sheds light on the situation of business education in the USA and AACSB-accredited colleges internationally. It draws attention to the incoherent body of knowledge of business education and will help schools of business to redesign their curricula to include course contents that rightly reflects the business oriented academic disciplines.Originality/valueThe study is timely as it has been done 100 years since the development of the first standard collegiate real estate curriculum following the 1923 conference at Madison. The study has reviewed the first 100 years in terms of the persistent quest: “in search of a discipline”. In so doing, it has uncovered the root cause of this search during the first centennium; and to end the search, it proposes that real estate should not be taught as a business discipline.

Achieving globalization of AACSB accounting programs with faculty-led study abroad education

ABSTRACTThis paper is motivated by recommendations from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the Pathways Commission, and NAFSA: Association of International Educators to increase global exposure in the accounting curriculum. Some schools have responded to these demands by offering short-duration, faculty-led, study abroad programs. We explain how these programs play a vital role in fulfilling the educational advisory boards’ calls to internationalize the accounting curriculum and investigate the extent to which schools are incorporating these programs. This paper provides a review of the details from our hand-collected data on the short programs that are offered by AACSB-accredited institutions. We integrate the information from our collection of data on existing programs, prior literature, pronouncements from educational advisory boards, and select faculty interviews to offer an analysis of the course design and travel considerations for schools contemplating such an opportunity for students in their programs.

Observations On The Current Status Of Internationalizing The Accounting Curriculum: Catalog Evidence

The last quarter century has witnessed the acceleration of the development of the global economy. This on-going development has caused profound changes in the way business is conducted and the skills needed by the executives leading this change. Recognizing the need to better prepare future corporate executives to function in this global environment, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), as part of a revision of its accreditation standards, included a curriculum standard requiring business schools to address the international dimension of business. To aid business schools in addressing this standard, the AACSB joined with the Consortium for International Studies Education to produce resource guides in 1987 for the functional areas of accounting, finance, management, and marketing. The accounting guide described two approaches that could be used to address the internationalization of the accounting curriculum. The freestanding approach would use a stand-alone international accounting course. The infusion approach would integrate international topics within other accounting courses. This paper assesses the extent that the accounting curriculum has been internationalized by reference to evidence obtained from the catalogs of ninety-six universities with AACSB-accredited business programs. Thirty-seven of these programs showed no catalog disclosure of international content of their accounting courses. The remaining fifty-nine programs revealed international content in their accounting courses to varying degrees, as discussed in the body of the paper.

The Economist as Dean: An Investigation of the Academic Training of Business School Deans

This paper finds that the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited business school deans in the United States are trained as economists at a disproportionately high rate. This paper searches for the reasons behind this seemingly contrarian finding. The research finds no evidence that economist deans differ significantly in background or personal characteristics from the non-economist deans. Demand- and supply-side theories to explain this finding are presented along with interviews with a sample of the business school deans.

Efficiency in accounting education: evidence from Turkish Universities

It is important to see efficiency of accounting education in order to fully understand the operational environment of companies. In this study, the 45 public universities in Turkey was investigated by using Data Envelopment Analysis [DEA]. In order, some definitions for the outputs and inputs are required for the model. The criteria developed by American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is used as definitions for inputs, is used and the result of the Selection Exam for Public Personnel [SEPP] is used to measure efficiency in accounting education. According to our results, Turkish universities are successful in producing the most appropriate output. They are usually using their input components in a favorable way. According to our model accounting education delivered in the undergraduate programs of the higher education system in Turkey is generally effective. But universities are using resources excessively to get the output. On the departmental basis, Turkish universities are technically effective to a great extent. It is determined that the departments of labor economics, industrial relations and partially public finance are more effective departments. According to resource usage, while the most effective departments are departments of public finance, departments of business administration are the most ineffective ones.

Interdisciplinary, Team-Taught, Undergraduate Business Courses: The Impact of Integration

Given the widespread use and success of cross-functional teams in industry and the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business's focus on the importance of interdisciplinary education, many business schools have incorporated interdisciplinary elements into their curricula. This study examined current student and alumni perceptions of the value of interdisciplinary, teamtaught, undergraduate business courses. Of specific concern was the impact of perceived integration. Overall, the courses were perceived to have value. In addition, the more integrated the course, the more positively it was evaluated on every dimension. Practical and research implications are discussed.

Professing Accounting: A Portrait of the Accountant as a Young Man

In 1972 the author joined the accounting faculty of a private urban university which had an established reputation for quality in professional accounting education. This paper describes the evolution of accounting education at that university as well as selected aspects of the author's professional experience over the ensuing thirty years. Programmatic highlights include the achievement of accounting accreditation under the standards of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business as well as the subsequent abandonment of that accreditation. Aspects of faculty development are discussed from the perspective of an accounting faculty member, a department chair, and an associate dean. Lessons derived from these experiences may be helpful to other accounting academics in responding to continuous change in higher education, in planning successful and fulfilling careers, and in advancing the cause of professional accounting education.

Perceived Characteristics and Abilities of an Effective Marketing Department Head

This study uses an Internet survey of 247 full-time marketing faculty members and 43 marketing department heads at 167 American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) universities to examine perceptions of characteristics and abilities crucial for marketing department head effectiveness. It also examines crucial department success measures for judging a marketing department head’s effectiveness. Implications for faculty, department heads, and university administrators are addressed.

The Environment for Professional Interaction and Relevant Practical Experience in AACSB-Accredited Accounting Programs

Exposure to business issues and practices has never been more important than in today's ever-changing environment. This is explicitly recognized in the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) standards for accounting accreditation. In this study, the author surveyed faculty members at nondoctoral-granting institutions with separate AACSB accounting accreditation to investigate which faculty activities schools are emphasizing and expecting. Results of the study indicate that, depending on their mission, schools could be placing more emphasis on faculty involvement in business and the accounting profession.

Evidence of Teaching Anxiety Among Accounting Educators

In this study, the authors investigated teaching anxiety among accounting professors in the United States. The vast majority of respondents (78%) in our study reported having experienced some type of teaching anxiety, and a substantial proportion (69%) indicated that it was a continuing problem. In addition, 38.5% of the respondents reported specific physical symptoms such as heart-rate acceleration, gastrointestinal distress, or being flushed while experiencing teaching anxiety, and 80% reported general psychological reactions such as apprehension. Occurrence of teaching anxiety was associated with academic rank, age, years of teaching experience, the nature of the institution (whether doctoral granting or not), and whether the accounting department had separate American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation.

Dialectical possibilities of thwarted responsibilities

Abstract The university’s responsibility in the new world dominated by global organizations is to articulate the contemporary socio-economic challenges brought about by the globalization of capital and capitalistic enterprises, enlighten society to the implications, and formulate and disseminate means for responding in an informed and just manner to the challenges. The paper argues that the colonization of the lifeworld of the university, especially schools and departments of accounting, has, and continues to, inhibit, indeed actively thwarts, the academy in carrying out its social responsibility. In a previous work (Dillard & Tinker, 1996), the authors argue that the international management system is directly implicated in dictating process and content within business schools by, among other things, influencing the accreditation standards of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The current paper evaluates the developments subsequent to the total quality management (TQM) based accreditation standards implemented in the early 1990s. The focus is primarily on accounting education, accounting department/schools, and the accounting academic. A case is made for the position that the new Baldridge Award criteria for education performance excellence, the new AACSB accounting accreditation guidelines approved in 2000, the revolutionary changes in the constitution and by-laws of Beta Alpha Psi (the US professional accounting fraternity), and the current position of the American Accounting Association (AAA) as articulated in AAA monograph (Accounting Education Series, No. 16) by Albrecht and Sack are manifestations of the managerialist influence continuing to at best neutralize the academy’s responsibilities to any constituencies other than global capitalism primarily articulated in the demands of the Big 5 professional service (formally accounting) firms. The discussion evaluates the recommendations of each of the four regulative documents in terms of the underlying ideology and concludes with a discussion of the dialectic possibilities confronting accounting education.

Overcoming Barriers to Successful Delivery of Distance-Learning Courses

For this study, the authors collected data from 81 business professors who taught distance-learning courses at 61 U.S. business schools accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Findings indicate that the professors (a) primarily used self-training for the design and delivery of on-line courses, (b) believed that the technology was not sufficiently reliable, (c) believed that the greatest benefit of distance learning was flexibility for students, and (d) perceived a student-centered teaching approach as necessary for successful distance-education courses.

Communicating a New ABC: Advocacy, Partnerships, and Implementing Change

In their speeches at the October 2000 meeting of the Association for Business Communication, Paula Pomerenke (Outstanding Teacher, 2000), Priscilla S. Rogers (Outstanding Researcher, 2000), and Gail Fann Thomas (Chair, Research Committee) made an impact in a way I have seldom encountered. Professor Pomerenke, in particular, challenged us as an organization. I encourage JBC readers to reflect personally on these recently published addresses. What I will do in making a brief reply is to reiterate some key points and, hopefully, respond to challenges issued by the speakers to the ABC. Paula Pomerenke (2001) spoke about formalizing support of Plain Language across the continents and about ABC's continuing need to strengthen relationships with practitioners. She recalled Jan Ulijn's Outstanding Researcher Award lecture from the previous year, in which he talked about ways to make research more relevant to business and teaching. Is research based on real life or simulation? He asked, Will the business community listen to us? Paula adds emphasis to Ulijn's answer in her text, Yes, if we listen to them! (2000, as quoted in Pomerenke, 2001, p. 8). For several years, I have been active on a committee within ABC designed to engage business practitioners in the work of our Association. The Business Practices Committee urges ABC members to continue to listen to practitioners. Invite practitioners to ABC regional meetings and the annual convention. In so doing, you will actively participate in the work of helping each of us shed the basic skills yoke (Suchan & Dulek, as quoted in Pomerenke, p. 9) that, as Paula says, confines our work as business communication professionals. Another phrase that resonated with me was Paula's plea, Cut us (Pomerenke, 2001, p. 9). Not only do business communication professionals need to be cut free from artificial lenses that constrict the vision of our major stakeholders; we need, as Paula says, to be cut free from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business's (AACSB) inclusion of business communication in the same category as business education. In her words, Until we have our own AACSB classification, we will continue to be considered weak and vulnerable (p. 11). Professor Rogers (2001) underscored the problem of finding a home when she talked about her quest for professional nurturance. There is a paradox in that while we may be embracing what she calls convergence and becoming more comfortable with our plurality (pp. 14-16), deans and departmental decision-makers are seemingly less comfortable with broad commitments to teaching communication within the business school curriculum. How many people do you know who have ma de shifts within programs, departments, or universities? Professionally speaking, many good programs and people are dead or in jeopardy. The ABC can provide us the political leverage to assert our discipline's merits independent of business education. But where do we start to argue the case for independent classification within AACSB? Professor Thomas (2001) stated in her address that we are not the only profession having to rethink and reshape its identity (p. 27). She suggested that as an organization we follow a twofold approach: (a) focus on our common purpose of making a difference in the lives of business professionals and (b) think strategically about our place within academe. In the months I have been considering the challenges proposed by the several speakers in Atlanta, I have found myself looking more and more to the precedent established by the American Accounting Association (AAA). [1] Accountancy professionals have a strong record of recognizing the value and place of communication instruction within academe, as well as in business and professional settings. Notable about AAA is the organization's ability to support business communication in both its sponsored publications and its national teaching agenda. …

Trends in the market for entrepreneurship faculty, 1989–1998

The last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the number and status of entrepreneurship programs in schools of business and management. The popularity of entrepreneurship courses has increased dramatically among both graduate and undergraduate students. Alumni and external constituencies of schools of business have generally been supportive of the development of entrepreneurship programs, and in fact in many instances it has been the demands of these constituencies that have led to the creation or expansion of entrepreneurship programs within these schools. The growth in entrepreneurship programs has been fostered by an increase in the popularity of entrepreneurship, an increase in the status accorded entrepreneurs, as well as an increase in the recognition by the business press of the importance of entrepreneurship in the larger economy. Despite the increase in popularity within the field, there has also been considerable resistance from within the faculties of many institutions to the expansion of entrepreneurship programs. Faculty outside the field have been, and many remain, very skeptical about the validity of entrepreneurship as an academic field, the quality and rigor of entrepreneurship research and the need to hire academic faculty to teach and research in the field. The last decade has seen the confluence of these opposing forces. This disparity has created the question of whether the external forces supporting entrepreneurship are overcoming the inertia inherent in academic institutions and succeeding in institutionalizing the study of entrepreneurship within schools of business and management. This study hopes to shed some light on which of these forces is winning by addressing the question of whether the field of entrepreneurship is moving toward or has been institutionalized as part of the curriculum and research within schools of business and management. It also examines the institutionalization of the field by analyzing the change in the number and level of entrepreneurship positions, the quality of the recruiting institutions as well as the number, level and training of entrepreneurship candidates during the years 1989–1998. Data was obtained from the Academy of Management Placement Roster and The Chronicle of Higher Education for the years 1989–1998. Previous entrepreneurship education researchers have examined the number of endowed chairs and professorships, conferences, journals, programs and various centers for entrepreneurial education, however sparse research, if any, has been performed on the trends and characteristics of candidates and positions in the field of entrepreneurship. The results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand for and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. Between 1989/90 and 1997/98 the number of entrepreneurship positions increased 253% while the number of candidates increased by 94%. During this period the number of positions that list entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased ten-fold from 5 to 50 and the number of candidates that list entrepreneurship as their primary field has increased four-fold from 5 to 20. During the same period the number of secondary and tertiary positions have increased 116% and 78%, respectively, and the number of secondary and tertiary candidates have increased by 67% and 53%. The percentage of entrepreneurship positions listing entrepreneurship as the primary field has increased from 19% in 89/90 to 54% in 1997/98. Overall, the growth in the number of primary entrepreneurship positions is very encouraging. In the end, the results of this study are very encouraging. Both the demand and the supply of entrepreneurship faculty have increased spectacularly during the last nine years. The field has clearly made significant progress toward being institutionalized. However, it is still too soon to conclude that the commitment to entrepreneurship by schools of business and management is irreversible. One clear indication of the tenuous status is that, unlike strategy and international business, there has been no mandate from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business that entrepreneurship be incorporated into the curriculum of all accredited schools. Entrepreneurship remains an elective subject in most schools and therefore depends on student interest. The field has made great strides during the 1990s, but a couple of hurdles remain.

Let's Have More Choice in Accounting Education: A Look at Some Economic and Ethical Issues

Accounting education has become quite rigid, mostly because it is structured along the lines of a monopoly. The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has been granted a national monopoly by the Department of Education to accredit business programs and the six regional accreditation agencies have a similar monopoly for their regions of the country. Curriculum is structured along the lines of a top-down system. The author argues for more flexibility in curriculum requirements using a bottom-up approach that is more consumer driven.

Relating Pedagogical Preference of Marketing Seniors and Alumni to Attitude toward the Major

Learning styles of marketing students have changed over the years. Changes have also occurred in emphases placed by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, universities, schools, and departments on meeting student learning needs. This study measures the pedagogical preferences of marketing seniors and alumni and relates them to a global attitude toward the marketing major. This approach may be used in any marketing program as a potential attitudinal enhancement mechanism, since key pedagogies can be identified. In turn, the motivation and learning potential of pedagogies can be evaluated. Results indicate an association between in-class activities and overall attitude toward the marketing major.

Quality management applied to higher education

In the last decade, many universities and American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) have increased their interest in applying principles of quality management to higher education. There is general agreement on the tools of quality management, however, there is limited discussion and no universally agreed upon model of quality management. We propose a model of quality management that has three components: quality of design, quality of conformance and quality of performance. The model is applied to Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Business. It provides a framework to identify research, teaching and operational improvement opportunities.

Using Total Quality Processes and Learning Outcome Assessments to Develop Management Curricula

A process was designed to identify what total quality skills should be included in the authors curriculum and howto deliver them. Customer data led the authors to change their focus toward exploring and assessing what they do in the entire curriculum. The emphasis on learning outcomes is a theme in American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business and education reform. The authors summarize things learned that may help others avoid certain pitfalls and build on the authors progress to date.

Ethical Preferences among Business Leaders: Implications for Business Schools

Since 1976, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has encouraged business schools to include ethics in their curricula. Because lan guage is the means for conveying values, including ethical values, business com munication faculty play an important role in deciding what should be taught, and how. But until very recently, most researchers failed to look specifically at actual practices and perceptions in the workplace. To address that need, we conducted a survey of 250 business leaders concerning their ethical preferences and compared our results with an earlier study of business faculty and students. The survey, adapted from one used in the Arthur Andersen Business Ethics Program, consists of 20 narratives which presented respondents with the need to judge the impor tance of certain issues and their approval or disapproval of the action or decision described. We found no significant differences in responses to the 14 items which addressed ethical issues in such areas as creating health and environmental risks, taking credit when credit is not due, focusing on disability issues, deceiving cus tomers with products and services, and using insider information to gain personal advantage. We did find significant differences in responses to six narratives focused on ignoring wrongdoing in the workplace, doing special favors for others to gain personal advantage, and covering up flaws in merchandise or operations. Our results, and the survey instrument itself, provide useful tools for the business com munication classroom.

The Second Course in Business Statistics and Its Role in Undergraduate Marketing Education

The emphasis on mechanics in business statistics courses poses a problem for marketing research instructors who teach their course with an application emphasis. Instructors of marketing research could find students ill prepared for the course. As a result, some marketing programs require students to take a research laboratory or break the research course into two parts of 3 credit hours each. This article outlines an alternative. Repositioning (reengineering) the second course in business statistics from a problem-solving orientation to a decision-making emphasis eliminates the need for an additional research course. A 2-year experience teaching the course shows students to be better prepared for the marketing research course. In addition, how to develop and assess key business skills such as communication, problem solving, decision making, and computer use in the course is also discussed. Assessment of outcomes is presently mandated by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).