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Output and efficiency in the production of business and economics majors
Abstract
A linear education production function was estimated to identify the educational factors that contribute to the production and retention of the core business knowledge and basic academic abilities of graduating seniors at the college level. The data set used in this study was comprehensive and included information on the standardized test scores, demographic characteristics, ability levels, transfer status, major areas of study and core business course performance of 689 graduating seniors from the College of Business Administration (CBA) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). The production and retention of core business knowledge was influenced by a number of demographic, ability and transfer variables. Male students outperformed females in all four Major Field Test in Business (MFT-B) models, suggesting that gender is a significant factor in the production of core business knowledge. Other significant demographic factors included the age, ethnicity/race and nationality of graduating seniors. Entry SAT scores and core GPAs were highly significant in explaining the production of core business knowledge, while the transfer of core business courses from outside institutions negatively influenced the performance of students on the MFT-B. Economics major were the only students to exhibit a positive and significant MFT-B point advantage, while marketing students were the only major to score significantly lower than their business peers. The performance of students in the Principles of Macroeconomics, Business Law, and Principles of Finance courses contributed to significantly higher MFT-B scores. The transfer of Statistics, Principles of Accounting II and Business Law was detrimental to the production of core business knowledge. Finally, all majors but economics were less efficient at retaining core business knowledge when they transferred at least one core business course from an outside institution. The basic academic abilities of graduating seniors were unrelated to a student's age or gender. White students, however, tended to exhibit significantly higher exit ability levels than students from other races/ethnicities. A student's nationality and entry SAT scores were not found to significantly improve his/her basic academic abilities. Student performance in non-core courses, however, consistently explained student scores on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) test. The performance of students in Principles of Macroeconomics and Principles of Marketing positively influenced their exit academic abilities, while the transfer of the Business Law course offered at UNL was the only course transfer to influence the basic academic abilities of graduating seniors in a negative and significant way.
Subject Area
Economics|Business education
Recommended Citation
Asarta, Carlos, "Output and efficiency in the production of business and economics majors" (2007). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3263485.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3263485