brm report - group 13

8/9/2019 BRM Report - Group 13

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FACTORS AFFECTING SELECTION OF B-SCHOOLS

Submitted To: Dr. Gunjan Malhotra

Submitted By:

Jasvir Singh (09FT-067)

Lakshey Bhalla (09FT-074)Nishant Kaila (09FT-100)

Rahul Aggarwal (09FT-111)


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Acknowledgement

We express our sincere gratitude towards Dr. Gunjan Malhotra, professor Business Research

Methods, IMT-Ghaziabad for helping us in the preparation of the project report. Herencouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled us to develop an

understanding of the subject.

Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported us in any respect duringthe completion of the research.


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Table of Contents1. Abstract ............................. ......................... ................................ ...................... ............................... 4

2. Introduction ............................. ........................ ................................ ...................... .......................... 5

3. Review of Literature ........................... ............................. ...................... ................................ ........... 7

4. Research Objectives ............................ ............................ ....................... ............................... ........... 9

5. Methodology/Research Design .......................... ................................ ....................... ..................... 10

6. Data Analysis ............................... ......................... ............................. .............................. .............. 12

a. Cronbachs Alpha Test ............................................................................................................... 12

b. KMO and Bartlett's Test ............................................................................................................. 12

c. Total Variance Explained ........................................................................................................... 12

d. Rotated Component Matrix ........................................................................................................ 12

7. Analysis & Interpretation .......................... ................................ ...................... ............................... 14

8. Conclusion ............................... ........................ ................................ ...................... ........................ 16

9. Bibliography ............................. ........................ ................................ ...................... ........................ 17

10. Appendix ............................. ........................ ................................ ....................... ........................ 18


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1. AbstractThis research paper deals with the various factors that determine the selection of a business

school. The B school a student selects to attend has a huge impact on the future and the

career. There are a large number of schools that have come up over the years some good,some very good and many of them of varying standards.

The selection of a B school has become all the more difficult from a students point of view

because there are hardly any standards in place to rank/grade a business school. Narrowing in

on a few factors is the purpose of this research.

The factors are studied considering both the global as well as a national environment. But

due to lack of resources the survey was conducted only on the schools within the country.

Thus the suggestions are for the students aspiring to pursue an MBA within the country.

Keywords and Phrases:


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2. IntroductionThe Master of Business Administration (MBA) attracts people from a wide range of

academic disciplines. The MBA degree has been adopted by universities worldwide, and has

been adopted and adapted by both developed and developing countries. Most programs base

admission on the competitive exams, significant work experience, academic transcripts,essays, references or letters of recommendation and personal interviews. Schools are alsointerested in extracurricular activities, community service activities and how the student can

improve the diversity and contribute to the student body as a whole.

There has been a sea change in the economic and industrial scenario of India over the pastfew years. The Government's policy of liberalization has unshackled restrictions and controls

on business with the result that there has been a spurt of entrepreneurial activity and aspawning of mega-conglomerates. Naturally, all these organizations need talented, qualified

managers with a professional approach. So they turn to MBAs from premier business schoolsfor their requirement. Increasing globalization has perpetuated severe competition and tough

battles for market share. This has necessitated the need for corporations to revise and reorientbusiness policies.

Following the trend in the requirement of the time there has been a constant increase in thenumber of MBA aspirants through the years. There are large numbers of MBAs present in

the country and with the constant demand of the degree more and more number of Studentswith the degree are coming out of B-schools every year.

MBA today is the most sought after degree all over the world. Research shows people tend to

excel and enjoy career fulfillment when they are in careers that are broadly aligned to theircore personalities. MBA degrees require intellectual, analytical minds, leadership skills and

the ability to motivate people.

Also when seen in Indian perspective we find that people opt for this course due to thefollowing reasons.

a. Network - Your MBA network is for lifetime if you know how to leverage it.b. Learning in a disciplined fashion - Without an MBA, you are learning from the school

of hard knocks. There is a chance that you will pay a higher price for some lessons in the

school of hard knocks

c. Awareness - Chances are you dont know everything and chances are you will neverknow everything in this lifetime. However, there are some things that you need to know

that you dont know that you need to know. An MBA will increase your awareness onthese things.

d. To get an advantage at the start:With an MBA, you enter the work world in the fastlane. Of course, you cant stay on the fast lane just because you have an MBA. You needto produce highly valued accomplishments for your employer or customers or both.


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e. Course correction: For some reason you picked the wrong subject for your graduatedegree and you dont want to have a career in that field. You want to change course mid-way. An MBA may provide a bridge from where you are to the field of your choice.

f.

Status:

MBA from a good university looks great on your resume.

g. Entry Ticket to many organizations: There are many organizations (especially in themanagement consulting world) whose doors are open almost exclusively for MBA gradsfrom top universities. If joining them is one of your dreams, you may be better off doing

an MBA.

h. Tune-up your purpose: You may have an idea of what you want to do in life. When youmeet a set of highly-ambitious people and hear them share their vision and purpose of

their lives, it may trigger you to upgrade your own vision and purpose of your life.

i.

Safe Laboratory:

It provides a safe and almost risk free laboratory for bouncing off yourideas, testing them.

j. Access to thought leaders: You have chance to meet thought leaders, corporateexecutives and visionaries who come and speak (mostly for free). If you connect withthem and build on that relationship, you have an unfair competitive advantage

From above mentioned reasons one can understand why an Indian gives so much importance

to MBA program. But since every year, large number of students opt for this course due to itsstrong demand, B-Schools try to encash this opportunity by luring them with various source

of information and advertisement media. We have chosen this topic to find out what factorsdoes students consider while selecting a B-School.

On the other hand, this research will be helpful to management institutions to understand the

perspective of the students and can cater them accordingly which will help them to providequality education and create strong brand identity.


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3. Review ofLiteratureThe purpose of our research is to determine the most influential factors which affect theselection of a business school. To support the variables which have been considered in our

research we referred to some of the surveys undertaken by various rating agency andbusiness magazines. Following are a few of them.

a. AIMA "BEST BUSINESS SCHOOLS" SURVEYIn an endeavor to encourage management education in India and provide authentic

information to all its stakeholders, All India Management Association (AIMA) conductedan annual survey on the Best Business Schools in India. The parameters on which B

Schools were rated mainly included:

Intellectual Capital Admissions and Placements Infrastructure Industry Interface Governance

b. SURVEY by COSMODE in 1997In May, 1997, BT commissioned Consortium for Strategic Management & Organization

Development (COSMODE), to design and execute a survey to rank all MBA institutions.

The model developed to evaluate B-schools has two analytical components: objective andsubjective. The former scores a school on internal parameters: the quality of faculty, the

students, and the curriculum; the infrastructure facilities; the number of applicants per

seat; and number of corporate recruiters. The latter captures the perceptions of recruiters,faculties, students, and alumni. Each B-school was evaluated on an overall score of1,000. The scores were assigned using the following criteria:

Objective Score (400) Students & Faculty Profile & Curriculum (180) Library & Classroom & Residential Facilities (72) Admissions & Placement (148) Subjective Score (600) Recruiter Score (300) Faculty Score (150) Students Score (50) Alumni Score (100)


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c. MARYIPE, HRMProfessor,IBS KochiThe business school that you choose to attend will have a huge impact on your future and

your career. The task of selecting a business school has become more difficult from the

students' point of view because there are no standards or universally acceptable

parameters or criteria for ranking management institutes.

d. GMAC SurveyThis survey mainly gives a global touch to our research. The survey is typically

conducted a few months prior to graduation; therefore, we can ask students about theiropinions of their education, and the value of their degree, how they chose their school

and whether they would recommend it to someone else, and what they intend to do withtheir degree after graduation, among many other topics.

e. The MBAGuidebookThis document gives a very subjective view of the various factors affecting the decision

of a B school and has a global touch to it.


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4. Research ObjectivesResearch Question

What are the decisions making factors that influence students in selecting B-school?

Specific Objective

To analyze the most influential factors influencing selection of B-school and find outwhat a management schools like IMT can do to improve its quality and image as per the

students preferences.

Hypothesis

H1: All the factors have the same influence in the selection of a B School.

H2: Placement is the most influential factor in selection of a B School

H3: Reputation is the most essential factor for consideration in the selection of the B-School.


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5. Methodology/Research Designa. Formulation of Research Questionnaire

We took a sample size of 8 students with a male is to female ratio 1:1 from IMT

Ghaziabad.W

e conducted a focus group discussion among them which lastedaround 1 hour and from the outcome of focus group discussion we formed aquestionnaire.

b. Sampling PlanThe sample size selected for this research included 80 respondents. Responseswere collected from students of different B Schools and people aspiring to do

MBA in the near future.

c. Sampling TechniqueThe sampling technique chosen during this survey was simple randomsamplingwhich included responses from male as well as female.

d. Preliminary Analysis and Data PreparationAfter the data was collected it was checked, validated, edited and tabulated in

Excel sheet and from the excel sheet data was imported to SPSS.

Analysis of data was done using statistical tool- Factor analysis using SPSS

software and excel. A detailed report is prepared on the basis of analysis of datacollected.

e. Nature of ResearchWe conducted an exploratory researchby preparing a questionnaire which listed

many variables which could answer our research question and help us todetermine the major factors which have an influence on the choice of student

selecting a particular B-school. As mentioned above we formulated thequestionnaire using the focus group discussion.

f. Type of ResearchFor the study we first conducted a qualitative research with the focus group

discussion and on the basis of that discussion we formulated a questionnaire andafter that we did quantitative research using that questionnaire. Qualitative

research focuses on gathering an in depth understanding of human behavior andthe reasons that govern human behavior. It analyses how and why a decision is

made rather than investigating what, where and when it is done. The quantitativeresearch methodology measures the knowledge, opinions and attitude of a person.

Such methodology answer questions related to how much, how many, when andwho.


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g. Mode of ResearchFor studying and analyzing this topic we have done primary research. Howeverfor the literature review use of secondary data was made.


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6. Data AnalysisData from the sample size of 82 people was collected based upon 15 variables and factoranalysis has been used for analysis of the data. To justify the selection of Factor analysis, we

did Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (K.M.O.) & Bartletts test of sphericity. The data sheet has been

provided separately.

a. Cronbachs Alpha TestAlpha coefficient ranges in value from 0 to 1 and may be used to describe thereliability of factors extracted from dichotomous (that is, questions with two possible

answers) and/or multi-point formatted questionnaires or scales (i.e., rating scale: 1 =poor, 5 = excellent). The higher the score, the more reliable the generated scale is. 0.7

is an acceptable reliability coefficient but lower thresholds are sometimes used in theliterature.

The Cronbachs Alpha value comes out to be 0.791 which proves the reliability of

variables derived from summated scales.

b. KMO and Bartlett's TestHere the value of KMO is 0.712 which is greater than .50. It means that sample is

adequate & Factor analysis is justified as a multivariate analysis.

Through Bartletts test we check whether correlation among independent variables

exists or not. In this case, significance value for the variables is 0.00 which is lessthan p- value of 0.05. Hence, there is high correlation among independent variables.

c. Total Variance ExplainedThe factor analysis is based on five factors, because five factors have Eigen values

greater than one.

d. Rotated Component MatrixComponent 1 includes Collaboration with international B Schools, Industry interface

and Research work & Study material provided.

Component 2 includes Ranking, Friends & Peer group, Placement record andAlumni network.

Component 3 includes Infrastructure & other facilities, Years of existence and

Academic experience of faculty.

Component 4 includes Financial cost of course, Scholarships and Affiliation toAICTE, UGC etc.


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Component 5 includes Advertisement and Geographical location,


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7. Analysis & InterpretationThe 5 predominant factors taking the mean value of the survey response intoconsideration that influences the selection of a B school are as follows

Placement record Ranking Infrastructure Industry interface Alumni

The 15 factors taken into consideration in our survey have been broken into 5 key factors

through the Factor Analysis.

Fac

tor 1 Fac

tor 2 Fac

tor 3 Fac

tor 4 Factor 5

International_ Collaborations Ranking Faculty Financial_ cost Advertisement

Industry_ Interface Peers Infrastructure Financial_ aid Location

Research Placement Year_Existence Affiliation

Alumni

Table 1. Grouping different attributes under factors.

The different attributes captured through the questionnaire have been grouped under the

following factors.

a. Credibility which then forms the first factor comprises of Research work done incollege, industry interface, and international collaborations.

b. Reputation which is the second factor comprises of Ranking, Peer group,Placement & Alumni.

c. Facility is the next important factor which comprises of infrastructure, faculty,and years of existence.

d. Value for money which comprises of financial cost and financial aid provided.e. Awareness is one the factor which comprises of advertisements and location of

the college.

The above mentioned 5 factors have been ranked on the basis of the mean values .This

ranking is in the decreasing order of influence on the selection of a B School.

Reputation Facility Value for money Credibility


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Awareness

Now following table summarizes the comparison of our actual findings with previously

set hypotheses.

Sl. No. Null Hypotheses Actual Findings

1 H1: All the factors have the same influence in the selection

of a B School.

Rejected

2 H2: Placement is the most influential factor in selection of a

B School

Accepted

3 H3: Reputation is the most essential factor for consideration

in the selection of the B-School.

Accepted


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8. ConclusionThe five factors identified through factor analysis provide an insight into the attitude of

MBA aspirants which influences selection of B-schools. MBA seekers give importance to

ranking and placement assistance provided by the colleges. So, management schools have

to ensure 100 percent placement assistance ship and a strong brand reputation by being intop list of colleges. The institution should provide better facilities to students in form ofbetter infrastructure and faculty. The value for money proposition is also a major factor.


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9. Bibliographya. www.pagulguy.comb. http://www.careerlauncher.com/mba/about_mba/choosing_good_bschools.htmlc. http://www.foreignmba.com/article.php?id=94d. http://www.bschool.com/choose.htmle. http://www.time4education.com/Select_a_B-School.aspf. http://www.sbir-georgia.org/2008/07/criteria-for-choosing-b-school.htmlg. http://www.mbapursuit.com/nine-points-to-remember-while-choosing-a-b-school-

international

h. Marketing Research book by Naresh Malhotra.


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10.Appendixa. Questionnaire

Please respond to the following questions keeping in mind, factors affecting your decision inselecting a B- school

Please rate the following statements on a scale of 1-7 > One being least applicable and 7being highest

Statements 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 Do advertisements of B-school affect your decision?

2 Does ranking of a b-school affect your decision?

3 Does geographical location of a B school impact yourdecision?

4 Do friends and peer group influence your decision?

5 Does infrastructure and facilities provided by B schoolinfluence your decision.

6 Does the number of years of existence of B school influence

your Choice?

7 Does the academic experience of faculty influence in selecting

B-school.

8 Does placement record of b-school influence you?

9 Do the positions of b-school alumni influence your decision?

10 Does the financial cost like fees affect yours decision forselecting your b school?

11 Does certification and affiliations with boards like AICTE,UGC influence your decision

12 Does financial aid provided by B-school influence yourdecision?

13. Does collaboration with international B-schools influence yourdecision?

14. Does industry interface affect your decision in selecting a Bschool?

15. Does the research work done and the study material providedby b-school influence your decision.


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brm report - group 13

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