Attention Economy


Friday, March 1, 2024

MBA Bubble Bursts

US business schools face up to MBA shake-up
https://www.ft.com/content/72ec83f1-83e2-4e17-a465-42136a1bb828
Full-time courses are under pressure, while shorter masters and bachelors with a business major are on the rise.
In recent years, Penn State, Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, Wake Forest in North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Simmons College in Boston, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have all closed their full-time MBAs in response to shifts in demand.

Online MBAs move beyond isolated, independent study
Top business schools are blending web-based and in-person learning as professionals seek flexible route to qualifications
 

Thank goodness we’ve reached peak MBA by Pilita Clark
https://www.ft.com/content/7608a866-c4f6-4b7b-bda3-6e9d8b115c00

A Fleeting Glory: Self-Serving Behavior Among Celebrated MBA CEOs
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492615607975
Abstract
Recent studies have criticized MBA programs for their association with self-serving behavior, although there is little empirical research to establish the firm-level consequences of that relationship. We explored whether MBAs versus non-MBAs in a sample of celebrated CEOs of major U.S. companies—thus CEOs who have achieved and had opportunity to exploit their fame—were more apt than their counterparts to engage in self-serving behavior that benefits them but disadvantages their companies. We assessed this behavior via the pursuit of costly growth strategies, an inability to sustain performance, and the capacity to obtain superior private benefits in compensation. Our analysis of 444 star CEOs celebrated on the covers of major business publications confirmed that an MBA education either fosters or is related to such behavior among these executives.
 
MBA CEOs, Short-Term Management and Performance
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3450-5
Abstract
There is ample discussion of MBA self-serving values in the corporate social responsibility literature, and yet empirical studies regarding the corporate manifestations and consequences of those values are scant. In a comprehensive study of major US public corporations, we find that MBA CEOs are more apt than their non-MBA counterparts to engage in short-term strategic expedients such as positive earnings management and suppression of R&D, which in turn are followed by compromised firm market valuations.