Why business schools do so much research: A signaling explanation

Damien Besancenot, Joao Faria and Radu Vranceanu

Research Policy, 2009, vol. 38, issue 7, 1093-1101

Abstract: Criticism is mounting on business schools for their excessive focus on research and the relative neglect of teaching quality. This paper shows that if students have imperfect information about teaching quality and if business schools differ in their research productivity, the least productive schools would do as much research as the top-tier ones only to manipulate students' expectations. In turn, the most productive schools might resort to excess research in order to signal their type in the eyes of prospective students. Since resources are limited, they also tend to neglect teaching quality. Such a situation is socially inefficient as compared to the perfect information case.

Keywords: Business; schools; Research; management; Research; policy; Research; vs.; teaching; Signaling; Imperfect; information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048-7333(09)00087-0
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Why Business Schools Do So Much Research: A Signaling Explanation (2008)
Working Paper: WHY BUSINESS SCHOOLS DO SO MUCH RESEARCH: A SIGNALING EXPLANATION (2008)
Working Paper: WHY BUSINESS SCHOOLS DO SO MUCH RESEARCH: A SIGNALING EXPLANATION (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:38:y:2009:i:7:p:1093-1101

Access Statistics for this article

Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray

More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().