MBA Courses Research Articles

A Note on Process Analysis

This note provides an introduction to process analysis, covering key concepts such as bottlenecks, capacity, capacity utilization and throughput time. Concepts are illustrated in a context that is simple and familiar to most students: a neighborhood drycleaner. The note is suitable as a technical reading on process analysis in a required MBA or undergraduate course in operations management.

Educação on-line em contabilidade: propensão e aspectos curriculares

Com base na literatura envolvendo educação na área de negócios, bem como nos achados de pesquisadores da área de desenvolvimento de recursos humanos e considerando as necessidades educacionais e de treinamento no ambiente de trabalho, este estudo foca a análise da metacognição e propensão de estudantes-executivos (alunos adultos trabalhadores) em participar de disciplinas oferecidas on-line relacionadas a programas de MBA com ênfase em Contabilidade e áreas afins, além de explorar quais conteúdos específicos podem estar relacionados a esse fenômeno. O crescimento da oferta de cursos on-line, considerando a flexibilidade e adaptabilidade que essa modalidade de ensino permite, reforça a importância da compreensão dos fatores que influenciam a propensão à participação. Segundo dados do Anuário Brasileiro Estatístico de EAD 2007, um em cada 80 brasileiros estudoupor EAD em 2006. Foram cerca 2.279.000 alunos a distância matriculados em vários tipos (ensino credenciado, educação corporativa e em outros projetos nacionais e regionais) dentre os 889 cursos a distância (credenciados pelo Sistema de Ensino - MEC e conselhos estaduais de educação). Esses números confirmam a importância de se examinar esse tema. Foi estudada uma amostra composta de 189 alunos de pós-graduação matriculados em programas de MBA em Contabilidade, no formato presencial, oferecido por reconhecida instituição brasileira de ensino e pesquisa (a Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Contábeis, Atuariais e Financeiras - FIPECAFI, órgão de apoio ao Departamento de Contabilidade e Atuária da FEA/USP). Além da análise estatística descritiva, estudos e testes de correlação, de comparação de médias e análise de conglomerados foram conduzidos para apoiar a discussão e resposta às questões de pesquisa aqui estabelecidas. De forma integrada, os resultados reforçam a premissa de que o conteúdo de disciplinas possui papel relevante na propensão dos estudantes em participar de cursos on-line. Implicações para as dimensões acadêmicas e profissionais, assim como sugestões para futuras pesquisas são também apresentadas.

Model World: The Hidden Ingredient and Nature vs. Nurture

AboutSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Go to Section HomeInterfacesVol. 37, No. 6 Model World: The Hidden Ingredient and Nature vs. NurtureSaul I. GassSaul I. GassPublished Online:1 Dec 2007https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.1070.0293 Previous Back to Top Next FiguresReferencesRelatedInformationCited ByApplying a critical biography perspective to the work of Frank GilbrethJournal of Management History, Vol. 22, No. 4Saul I. Gass24 February 2011 Volume 37, Issue 6November-December 2007Pages 501-603 Article Information Metrics Downloaded 1 times in the past 12 months Information Published Online:December 01, 2007 Copyright © 2007, INFORMSCite asSaul I. Gass, (2007) Model World: The Hidden Ingredient and Nature vs. Nurture. Interfaces 37(6):577-581. https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.1070.0293 KeywordsOR/MS philosophyhuman OR characteristicstime and motion studiesOR historyPDF download

MBAs are an irrelevance for doctors

Increasing numbers of doctors are applying for MBA courses. Are they useful for members of the medical profession? Yes, says Rahul Shah

Computing Value at Risk: A Simulation Assignment to Illustrate the Value of Enterprise Risk Management

INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION FOR THE ASSIGNMENT The following assignment was created for use in an undergraduate risk management course, or perhaps a short assignment in an MBA course. The purpose of the assignment is to introduce the students to simulation using ©Risk modeling software, to provide them with an opportunity to compute the Value at Risk (VaR) for a combined set of risks facing a firm, and to illustrate some of the value concepts associated with a firm adopting an enterprise-wide view of the risks that it faces. Through the assignment, the students are introduced to the following important concepts. First, they observe that the smaller the number of iterations in the simulation, the more the variation that occurs in the results when running a simulation. This result illustrates the limitations that firms face in estimating their risk exposures if they have limited observations or experience of their own. Second, they learn how the interactions of individual risk exposures combine to influence the overall risk profile of the firm. They observe that the sums of various summary statistics (e.g., median and VaR) across the individual risk categories are greater than the comparable parameters for the total losses. This is an example of the portfolio effect of pooling of risks. Pooling these risks leads to some level of risk reduction which is being ignored if the parameters for each risk factor are estimated separately and then added together. In other words, a value of an enterprise-wide view is that these pooling benefits are not ignored. The students are also introduced to the value that negative correlation among risks can generate when risks are assessed at the enterprise-wide level. VaR and other risk estimates for total losses when individual risks are negatively correlated will be lower than the value estimated when the risks are statistically independent (uncorreIated). This result highlights the concept of natural hedges. Finally, they learn that summary statistics like VaR are just point estimates, and values above the VaR are certainly possible. The assignment illustrates that, in fact, these possible outcomes above the VaR can be substantially above the VaR number. They see that when the distribution is positively skewed, as several of the risk distributions in this assignment are, it is especially important not to ignore the tail of the loss distribution. The assignment has been a valuable learning and instructional tool in the MBA risk management classes where it has been used. The information below should be readily adaptable by other instructors for use in their courses. The questions that are assigned to the students are presented below with suggested answers. The necessary data are provided in an Excel workbook that can be downloaded from the Web (see Appendix C) or requested from the authors. INTRODUCTION TO SIMULATION AND VAR Simulation Many business decisions can be evaluated using an analytical model. An analytical model is an equation that uses observed or hypothetical values of certain inputs to determine the values of outputs of interest to the firm's management. For example, consider a manufacturing firm with two identical machines. Each machine produces 100 units per day. The manager can use an analytical model to determine the likely impact on daily production of adding a third machine. The model would look like this: M × 100 = units of production, where M equals the number of machines. Analytical models often are less useful for evaluating scenarios involving uncertainty as to the exact form of the model. The analyst may have a reasonable assessment of the analytical models that fit frequency and severity associated with a particular risk, but these separate models may not result in a clear analytical model for the distribution of total losses. As an alternative example, assume the machines referenced above do not always produce 100 units per day. …

A primer on the economics of re‐importation of prescription drugs

AbstractUsing the basic tools of intermediate microeconomic theory (such as taught at the level of undergraduate or first‐year MBA courses), in this primer I present a framework that helps the reader gain an understanding of economic issues underlying the current political economy debates concerning the impacts on consumers (both US and ex‐US) and on prescription pharmaceutical manufacturers of moving to a world with more uniform pricing across countries than is currently the case. The impact on global revenues and profitability of moving from differential to uniform global pricing is relatively modest if confined to the North American (US and Canadian) market, with only Canadians bearing the brunt of higher prices, a most unlikely political economy outcome. The impacts on global revenues and profitability from global uniform prices become considerably larger, however, when one incorporates the much larger entire ex‐US market, including not only Canada, but also Europe, Asia and other countries. I conclude with some observations on likely longer term outcomes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Advancing the case for creativity through graduate business education

We describe an MBA course focusing on creativity and innovation in organizations. Drawing on the creativity literature and experiential learning theory, the theoretical foundations of the course are discussed. Core aspects of the course include reading articles from academic journals and business periodicals, engaging a wide variety of experiential activities, keeping a personal journal, and completing two individual projects. We sought to understand the effect of the course on students’ perceptions of the importance of creativity for organizations, their own creativity and self-perceptions of creativity, as well as their perceptions of the utility of journaling. Data were collected at the beginning and end of the course to examine these issues. The results suggest that the course had a positive influence in each case. These results are discussed and thoughts for future research are provided.

Winning the China vitamin war by building a strong brand

PurposeTo provide insight on the characteristics of the Chinese multi‐vitamin marketplace and to discuss key issues involved in marketing work, including market testing, product positioning, market segmentation and targeting, differentiation, and branding strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a field‐based case study. An in‐depth interview has been used for data collection. The case is presented on a chronological order and could be divided into four stages (2001‐2005). Substantial information regarding the company's marketing strategy and tactics has been provided. Detailed sales data have also been given to facilitate the case discussion.FindingsThe case presents the uneven growing path of a Chinese multi‐vitamin brand. It has established the importance of brand‐building strategy on the basis of integrated marketing mix.Practical implicationsThe case provides an excellent basis for exploring the pros and cons of numerous marketing tactics – individual branding vs brand extension, penetration vs skimming, choice of promotional tools, etc. It has also illustrated different ways for product positioning and differentiation. In addition, it provides a basis for discussing ethics in advertising – e.g. the soft advertising.Originality/valueThe case has been used successfully in executive MBA courses. The case helps managers and researchers to understand China health supplement market which has indicated many special characteristics compared with Western market, or discuss general issues related to marketing.

Growing Leaders in Emergent Markets

South Africa has unique challenges. Thirteen years since becoming democratic, it is still going through its own unprecedented change in joining the global economic network and moving from Apartheid to democracy and from a closed to an open community. These political and sociological changes have also infiltrated business and therefore management education in South Africa, bringing demand for new approaches. At the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, the authors adapted their traditional MBA teaching approaches to become more creative. This article summarizes the main themes within a core MBA course that have been guided by their new learning design, growth-stages methodology, a multipronged plan for moving management and leadership students through the growth stages by using ideas from systems thinking, scenario planning, coaching and mentoring, and organizational learning. These Western constructs are being complemented by African knowledge, which the authors are slowly developing and integrating into the traditional business school curricula.

Effective Leadership of Social Enterprise

Educational Objectives The goal of this course is to engage students in exploring the key determinants of superior performance in established nonprofit social enterprises through the prism of the top management and/or the leadership of the governing boards of these institutions. Students will examine the experiences of established nonprofits to determine common themes and approaches. The objective is to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to build and lead high performing enterprises, which are dealing with some of the most challenging problems facing societies around the globe. As with studying the management of complex for-profit businesses, students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge acquired in other MBA courses in an interdisciplinary fashion. However, because the nonprofit operating environment is so different, and most would agree more complex than the business environment, students will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a creative and unfamiliar way. Students will be encouraged to think outside of their traditional comfort zone. Previous ELSE enrollees have observed that applying their knowledge to the nonprofit sector has actually sharpened their for-profit management skills.

The importance of participant interaction in online environments

An emerging body of research suggests that participant interaction is one of the strongest predictors of success in online environments. However, studies about the effects of participant interaction in a large sample of multiple online environments are rather limited. Using hierarchical modeling techniques, we examine a sample of 40 online MBA courses to determine whether learner–instructor, learner–learner, or learner–system interaction is most significantly related to online course outcomes. Our findings suggest that while collaborative environments were associated with higher levels of learner–learner and learner–system interaction, only learner–instructor and learner–system interaction were significantly associated with increased perceived learning.

Using the Information Orientation Maturity Model to Increase the Effectiveness of the Core MBA IS Course

Introduction When Harvard Business Review published Nicolas Carr's article, Doesn't Matter, (2003) a debate was launched in which many gallons of ink and reams of paper were consumed. Our purpose here is not to rehash the debate, but to reference its passion in introducing the purpose of this paper. Despite extensive evidence suggesting the valuable contribution that can make to enterprise performance (Marchand, Kettinger, & Rollins, 2002; Weill & Ross, 2004) the relative value of and the status of professionals in modern business remains contested (Kaarst-Brown, 2005) and the ineffective business communication with IT remains a the top inhibitor of effective and business alignment (Luftman, Kempaiah, & Nash, 2006, p. 81). Although are an integral part of every modern organization, IS faculty often struggle to show MBA students the value of the core IS course in the MBA curriculum. This is also evidenced by the fact that some business schools do not have an IS course in the core MBA curriculum. Also, although it was changed in an early revision, the first draft of the new AACSB accreditation standards did not include information systems or information technology as a core knowledge area for students (Hilton, 2003). In addition to the probable existence of systemic issues within the business culture discussed by Kaarst-Brown (2005), we suggest that students and, perhaps, some appreciable portion of business school faculty perceive that is not much 'there' with respect to what is taught in the typical MBA core course. However, there has been an abundance of research examining management practices and contributions that has resulted in the development of a set of fairly consistent management prescriptions (Broadbent & Weill, 1997; Feeny & Willcocks, 1998; Rockart, 2004; Rockart, Earl, & Ross, 1996; Ross, Beath, & Goodhue, 1996; Weill, 2004; Weill & Ross, 2004; Wheeler, Marakas, & Brickely, 2002) published in top management journals and generally reflected in major management textbooks (Applegate, Austin, & McFarlan, 2003; Laudon & Laudon, 2003; Luftman, 2004; McNurlin & Sprague, 2004; Turban, McClean, & Wetherbe, 2004). While these articles and textbooks contain explicit and quite useful management knowledge based on theoretical and empirical research, their content is most likely to be of use to experienced professionals possessing a wealth of practical experience. For inexperienced professionals and students, these publications may raise more questions than they answer. A commonly heard question is something to the effect that If they know all this stuff, how come there are still so many problems [with management]? The problem, as we see it, is that the textbooks very capably provide know-what but find it difficult to impossible to adequately convey know-how. Students lacking a sound experiential framework have a difficult time comprehending the challenges presented in implementing these prescriptions in practice. The pedagogical challenge then, becomes one of providing students with an experiential learning opportunity where they can evaluate their new knowledge in a real world environment. MBA courses often use case analyses to provide students opportunities to apply conceptual material. However, written business cases are necessarily simplifications of reality, and therefore lack the richness of live business situations. Projects that require students to engage in some activity with a live organization are another way to provide students the opportunity to apply newly-learned concepts. However, live projects present significant risks, in that the students may struggle to successfully recognize and apply concepts if not provided a robust organizing structure to guide their actions. This paper describes the initial use of the Information Orientation (IO) Maturity Model as the basis of a MBA course-based project intended to assist students to experientially investigate the relationship between business performance and several and management concepts. …

A Study of Disciplinary, Structural, and Behavioral Effects on Course Outcomes in Online MBA Courses

ABSTRACTThis article reports the results of a 2‐year study examining the effects of subject matter, course structure, and participant behaviors on students' perceived learning and satisfaction with delivery medium in Web‐based courses of an MBA program in the midwestern United States. Using finance as the referent discipline, we found statistically significant differences in the mean course outcomes (students' perceived learning and satisfaction with delivery medium) associated with 13 business disciplines. Although most of these disciplinary differences ceased to be significant predictors of student perceived learning as structural and behavioral characteristics were incorporated into the model, these differences remained significant predictors of perceived delivery medium satisfaction. We also found that some structural and behavioral characteristics were significant predictors of course outcomes, but in opposite directions. For instance, media variety was a positive predictor of delivery medium satisfaction but a negative predictor of perceived learning, while learner–learner interaction positively predicted perceived learning but negatively predicted delivery medium satisfaction. These findings suggest that instructors of online graduate courses must manage trade‐offs in balancing students' learning with their perceptions of the internet as a course delivery medium.

Three Questions to Guide Study and Practice in the Information Systems Field

Gaining an understanding of Information Systems and improving IS education has become a serious issue for the IS discipline. Prior to undertaking Management Information Systems (MIS) in an MBA course, students sometimes cannot clearly explain exactly what information systems are and what they should do in practice. This paper begins by considering the various influences on the MIS curriculum and some of the conventional approaches to curriculum design, selection and organisation of teaching materials. It then offers an alternative approach by presenting a three question framework for understanding and explaining the IS field. From this basis the paper argues that these three questions can be used to guide the study, teaching and practice of MIS.

Separating the effects of knowledge construction and group collaboration in learning outcomes of web-based courses

This research investigates the effects of knowledge construction and group collaboration in outcomes of MBA courses entirely delivered on the web. The data comes from a sample of courses conducted from summer 2000 through summer 2002. The results indicate that students achieve higher perceptions of learning in courses where knowledge is transmitted through the system, as opposed to constructed by the students, and when students are engaged in collaborative assignments. In terms of final grades, our findings show that the absence of both factors (knowledge construction and group collaboration) has a detrimental effect on student performance. Students earn on average better grades in courses where either one of these factors is present. Contrary to our expectations, the presence of both factors does not have positive synergistic effects on student performance. These findings suggest that the success of web-based courses entirely delivered online depends upon providing collaborative learning activities, and/or challenging environments where the students are responsible for the creation of their own knowledge.

Do Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles Also Apply to Online MBAs?

Do Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles Also Apply to Online MBAs?

In search of a sustainable philanthropy.

Philanthropists are important funders of health care in developing countries, but their funding can be unreliable and misdirected. One philanthropist found that the best way to establish a health-care project of lasting benefit was to address unmet needs in the local health system, listen to the experts and work closely with local partners. Nairobi, Kenya will soon see a brand new women's hospital offering free treatment to women. It comes courtesy not of the government, nor of the usual international aid agencies, but of an unlikely collaboration between a local obstetrician and the mother of the world's most famous basketball star. Deloris Jordan, mother of Michael, has long been active in local philanthropy in the United States and her home city, Chicago, working through the James R. Jordan Foundation, named after her late husband. She first went to Kenya 13 years ago, bringing American children on a cultural visit. She ended up bringing back a young Masai man and putting him through an MBA course. He has since returned to Kenya to build a tourism business in his community. Deloris Jordan has returned many times since, but her visit three years ago, she says, changed her life. went back to Kenya in 2003, at the invitation of the vice-president, for the 40th anniversary of independence. I was invited to visit the Nairobi Women's Hospital with about 40 beds. The line outside was long, but they were all treated whether they had money or not. I met the staff there, and later when the hospital's founder Dr Samuel Thenya came to the United States on a visit, I flew to Washington to meet him, because I wanted to know why a young man would set up a women's hospital. I started working with him to try to get the hospital some equipment, including some of the things our hospitals throw away. Mrs Jordan says she is determined that her project will be more than a rich person's plaything, or a pathway to recognition. found that working in Africa and especially Nairobi, it's vital to learn about their culture, not trying to take over but learning from them what their needs are. learnt a lot from my visit to London on World Health Day in April, she says, referring to the launch of The world health report 2006: Working together for health, which highlights the plight of 57 developing countries with serious shortages of health workers. wanted to learn how to really reach out into the villages, to truly make a lasting difference. She describes Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as a fountain of useful advice. A key message that Mrs Jordan took from the WHO event was the need to retain staff in a continent where health workers are continually seeping away in search of a better living abroad. found that some of Dr Thenya's health-care staff and nurses were looking for work abroad. This is, of course, a big problem in Africa. They need to feel needed there, and that they have a future there. They need decent benefits. It's the only way a project will last. One of the hospital's immediate goals is to set up an exchange programme to train nurses and other staff in the United States. For me, it's all about networking and partnership, not just here but also in Kenya. We talked to the mayor of Nairobi and the parliament about a better facility. The city council has donated land for a larger 150-bed hospital. The plan is to move the old hospital's staff to the new facility and replace much of the old equipment. Completion is planned for 2010, at an estimated cost of $20 million. My main role was networking in the United States, to try to get some of this equipment that Pfizer and so on don't need. I later partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative. …

Does “teaching presence” exist in online MBA courses?

This paper assesses the construct validity of the dimensions of teaching presence, one of three types of presence articulated in Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's [Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., and Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and higher education, 2, 87–105.] Community of Inquiry model of online learning. Using items to measure these characteristics developed by Shea and colleagues [Shea, P.J., Fredericksen, E.E., Pickett, A.M., and Pelz, W.E. (2003). A preliminary investigation of “teaching presence” in the SUNY learning network. In J. Bourne and J.C. Moore (Eds.) Elements of quality online education: Practice and direction, 4, 279–312. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for OnLine Education.], a sample of 191 MBA students was used to test the posited model through a structural equation model. The results revealed that dropping some of the measurement items produced a stable model with good fit between the data and the model. This is one of the first studies to establish construct validity for the components of teaching presence, suggesting that it is a valid framework for studying online management education. It also points to the potential of the broader Community of Inquiry model for further research and application in online management education.

Are MBA Students a Good Proxy for Non-professional Investors?

We investigate a key assumption underlying much of the experimental research in financial accounting that graduate business students are a good proxy for non-professional investors. To conduct our investigation, we categorize recent experimental studies in financial accounting based on the relative level of integrative complexity inherent in each study's task. We then conduct experiments using two tasks, one that is relatively low in integrative complexity and one that is relatively high in integrative complexity, and compare the responses of two groups of MBA students and non-professional investors. Our results suggest that using MBA students as a proxy for non-professional investors is a valid methodological choice, provided researchers give careful consideration to aligning a task's integrative complexity with the appropriate level of MBA student. MBA students who have completed their core MBA courses and are enrolled in or have completed a financial statement analysis course are a good proxy for non-professional investors in tasks that are relatively low in integrative complexity. Though less definitive, the majority of our tests also suggest that these students are a good proxy for non-professional investors in tasks that are relatively high in integrative complexity. However, care must be taken when using students in the first-year core financial accounting course. In tasks that are relatively low in integrative complexity, these students perform similarly to non-professional investors except when they are asked to make an investment decision. In tasks that are relatively high in integrative complexity, these students acquire information similarly to non-professional investors, but they do not appear to integrate the information in a similar manner.

Issues and challenges of cross-functional integration: introducing ERP in MBA courses

An increasing number of universities have entered or are contemplating entering into alliances with leading vendors of ERP software and are redesigning both undergraduate and graduate curricula to help students understand the requirements and the design of enterprise-wide systems solutions through the use of an ERP system. Ball State University joined the SAP alliance program in spring 2002 and has been offering ERP courses both at graduate (MBA) and undergraduate levels since then. Different approaches have been used by various schools to introduce SAP to the curriculum. Ball State University's approach is to deliver a set of modules by a team of faculty from six different departments. This paper articulates our approach for teaching ERP courses to understand cross-functional integration at the MBA level. The paper also highlights various technology, pedagogical and human resource issues and challenges.