مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

The American model of MBA schools remains the main vehicle to train managers around the globe. Publicly-funded universities, private universities, or even stand-alone MBA schools are scrambling to recruit faculty, develop course materials, and apply the teaching tools e course syllabi, case studies, journal reprints, and textbooks. Public rankings of MBA schools by the leading publications like Business Week, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal, despite shifts, all show an unequivocal positioning of the leading US business schools. In the Financial Times 2014 ratings, to cite one example, seven of the top 10, 12 of the top 20, and 30 of the top 50 were American business schools.

However, for over a decade, MBA schools have faced a paradoxical challenge. Despite rapid growth, high fragmentation of the business school industry and research output in academic journals, business schools are under intense scrutiny by the public at large, key decision-makers in business and government, and the business schools themselves (Datar, Garvin, & Collen, 2010). According to Rubin and Dierdorff (2013), researchers have largely argued that the MBA curriculum is either deficient or contaminated. It has been suggested that business schools are too focused on scientific, abstract research and not focused enough on practical knowledge that can be generalized and used by practitioners (Datar et al., 2010; Kuchinke, 2007; Rubin & Dierdorff, 2013; Rynes & Bartunek, 2013). To counter this issue, there have been calls for greater focus on applied research that can be used by practitioners (Knight et al., 2008).

In the curriculum, there is a lack of focus on problem solving, decision-making, globalization, or even sustainability. As a result of this deficiency, graduates care less about sustainability issues, which conflicts with the movement of the global economy toward sustainability. Compounding the issue is that graduates possess limited awareness of global issues (Rynes & Bartunek, 2013). To overcome this issue, universities have experienced increasing pressure to develop international partnerships, which can expose their students to global, political, economic, and technical forces that are shaping our environment (Bartell, 2003). Perhaps most concerning is that graduates possess poor decision-making abilities (Atwater, Kannan, & Stephens, 2008). Furthermore, deans are hiring faculty with limited professional experience and business acumen. As a consequence of being taught by faculty with limited practical knowledge, graduates are ill-prepared to address the problems that they will encounter in their careers (Bennis & O’Toole, 2005). Given the limited experience, faculty members often possess limited ties to business. However, partnering with businesses tend to increase the career opportunities of students (Friend, 2010) and, as a result, the partnerships between universities and businesses are becoming increasingly vital.