Preparation for the real business world: empirical research in the MBA finance curriculum

College Student Journal, June, 2005 by Angeline M. Lavin, Stephen K. Johnson

In order to complete the project, the students must use scholarly research articles. Fortunately, a variety of electronic databases of scholarly publications are available which enable students to study research conducted by some of the "greats" in the business field even though the students may reside in an area far removed from an academic library. For example, the JSTOR database provides access to the premier finance journals including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Business, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. Electronic databases work particularly well for this course because it is frequently taught offsite where the students do not have access to traditional "print" resources available at the library on campus. After reading scholarly works and developing a literature review, the students need access to a real source of data to test their own hypotheses. Compustat PC Plus and the World Wide Web are excellent sources of empirical data for these research projects.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Developing project guidelines is only the beginning of implementing an empirical research project in the classroom. Actually teaching students, even graduate students, to do the type of research that we as academics do every day is a time consuming but rewarding endeavor. As a first step in the project implementation process at USD, a technology pre-assessment survey was developed and administered during the first class. This survey revealed interesting facts about the fall 2001 class of 34 students as well as the two spring 2003 classes of 21 and 33 students.

Demographic Data and Background Information

The overall demographics of the Spring 2003 classes were quite different from the demographics of the Fall 2001 class, despite the fact that one section of the Spring 2003 class was a non-traditional class like the Fall 2001 class.

Fall 2001

* Seventy-five percent (75%) of the students in the class were undergraduate business majors; 44% of the students currently work in the banking, finance or insurance industries.

* Despite the fact that nearly 77% of the students in the class fell in the 22 to 30 age group, only 53% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that they had used the library's online databases for research purposes.

* In fall 2001, a startling number of graduate students in this class had never conducted "formal" research before completing the empirical research project in BADM 710 as the pre-assessment responses in Table 2 show. However, after completing the project the students were much more familiar with the process of formal research as indicated by the post-assessment responses.

Spring 2003

* Fewer students (64%) in spring 2003 were undergraduate business majors, and only 15% of the current BADM 710 students work in the banking, finance or insurance industries.

* The spring 2003 students are also younger; overall 88% of them fall in the 22-30 age group.

* Fortunately, more of the spring 2003 students (91% of the traditional section and 72% of the non-traditional section) strongly agree or agree that they have used the library's online databases for research purposes.