13th Annual Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business 908

PERFORMANCE IN MBA EDUCATION: DOES STUDENT’S PREVIOUS

PERFORMANCE AND DEGREE MATTERS?

Ramshanker, Sriram1; Muthuseshan, Guruprasad2; Ray, Sougata3
1dept. of Operations & Supply Chain, Universal Business School, Karjat, India
2dept of General Management, Universal Business School, Karjat, India
3dept. of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, India

ABSTRACT
Purpose – Masters in Business Administration is the most sought-after post-graduate program in the

country. However, not much is known about how past academic performance and under-graduate

degree of students influences the performance in MBA programs. Given the fact that recruiters have

been expressing concern about the employability of MBA graduates, it is very critical that MBA

institutes put in place an objective admission criterion. With this background, this study tries to

answer whether past academic performance and the type of under-graduate degree matters for MBA

performance. The study also explores if there is any difference between performance of students in a

regular MBA program with the of a foreign collaborative MBA program.

Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on information of students from two academic

year from one B-school located in Mumbai, India. The total number of students’ information used in the

study is 254. The study uses a two-sample t-test to determine if there is any difference in present and

past performance of student enrolled for regular MBA program with that for foreign collaborative MBA

program. Further, a multiple regression model is used to identify the factors that influences the MBA

performance.

Findings – Our study reveals that performance in regular MBA program is better compared to the

foreign collaborative MBA program. In terms of explaining the MBA performance, past academic

performance starting from school final does matter but the type of degree in the under-graduate

program doesn’t. The findings suggest that quality of student matters.

Research limitations/implications – The findings of our study have serious and important

implication of designing admission criterion of MBA programs. Institute must pay due importance to

students’ past academic performance while there is no requirement to select students based on their

under-graduate degree. The scope of the study is however, restricted to only one B-School students and

factors such as admission test (CAT, GMAT, etc.) score, age, gender have been ignored.

Originality/value – The study is one of its kind which considers past academic performance from

school level to under-graduate program to explain MBA performance. It is also a first study which

compares the performance of students from a regular MBA program with that of a foreign collaborative

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program. Therefore, the insights from our paper would provide valuable inputs in designing admission

criterion and planning any collaborative program.

Keywords: Management Education, under-graduate degree, academic performance, regression analysis

INTRODUCTION
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is one of the most sought-after qualifications in

the world of Business and is often considered to be the “ticket to the executive suite” (Kelan and Jones,

2010). This is seen as one of the fast tracks to reach a leadership level in a corporate with fat packages

which include perks and bonuses. Over last 100 years ever since Harvard Business School started its

MBA course in 1908, there have been many reputed Institutes that provide high quality education in

the world across North America, Europe and Asia. In India the number of Management Institutes and

the number of students has proliferated over the years. As per the Associated Chambers of Commerce

of India (ASSOCHAM) reports of 2016, around 200,000 students graduated from 5,000 management

institutes in the year 2016-17. However, the biggest challenge is that, while the top institutes still hold

some merit in the industry, majority of the fail to provide quality management education and as a

result their graduates remain un-employable. (ASSOCHAM, 2016). On the contrary, majority of these

business schools face the challenge of selecting the appropriate applicants, certify the quality of their

education, and fulfill the promise of student expectations of getting jobs in their dream companies.

These blue-chip companies (well-known and reputed in their areas of business Consulting, Consumer

Products, Banking & financial Services, Hi-Tech etc..) go to selective B-School campuses for hiring

based on the MBA performance of students. While we know that the performance of the students

depends on the quality of education provided by these B-Schools, it cannot be ignored that the quality

of the incoming students is also an important factor that impacts the performance. With the highly

competitive activity between B-Schools to attract the best students, the admissions criteria become an

important factor in predicting the MBA performance.

There have been many studies that have sought to examine the issue of the quality of incoming

students and most studies have focused on the previous education performance in high school and

UG Grades, demographic variables, entrance qualifying examinations like CAT, GMAT, MAT, XAT,

and previous work experience. Many B-Schools have often used a mix of all the above criteria for the

student selection process and some of the Top Indian B-Schools have in many cases specifically stated

their preferences on one or more parameters. While some B-Schools have used work experience as one

of the important qualifying parameters, others have used under-graduate specialization as a preferred

choice. We do know that the most common under-graduate programs that are studied by students are

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bachelor’s degrees in, Arts, Science, Commerce, Business Administration and Engineering. Using UG

specialization as a criterion comes from the general understanding that Science & Engineering

graduates are more analytical and hence likely to be able to use management tools, techniques more

effectively in problem solving situations. Similarly, students with Commerce and Economics

background are likely to be more proficient if the field of Finance. While a lot of studies has been

undertaken to study the various factors that impact the performance, there has been limited research

done on the influence of the stream of undergraduate program which makes the objective of our study

relevant. The purpose to study whether the previous degree matters for MBA performance is possibly

the first of its kind in the Indian context. This study has been done at Universal Business School, Karjat

near Mumbai in India, which is one of the premier, fast growing B-School. Universal Business School

which was founded in 2009 by three Global CEO’s and endorsed by 60 CEO’s, offer various bachelor’s

and master’s program in Business management providing both local accredited MBA programs as

well MBA programs with Foreign Collaboration. However, while the entry criteria for both the

master’s program are the same, the course curriculum, pedagogy and assessments criteria has some

differences.

We first review the findings of the prior research to confirm the student’s previous performance as

good indicators of their success in the MBA program in the Indian context. We then extend this

literature by examining the influence of the stream of undergraduate program as an indicator for

MBA performance. In this study we analyze data of two different MBA programs which made us

undertake an additional study to see if there was any impact on the end results.

LITERATURE REVIEW
It is a common belief that the admission criterion used for MBA admission capture the ability and the

motivation of MBA aspirants. There are numerous studies which have been conducted to examine the

admission criteria that are likely to influence the performance of the students in their MBA program.

One of the earliest studies on this topic was done by Deckro and Woudenberg in 1977, where they

studied GMAT scores and undergraduate GPA’s to predict the success of the MBA performance. The

study concluded that these two factors were important factors. (Deckro and Woudenberg, 1977).

Carver and King (1994) studies also reported that several MBA schools base their admissions on some

combination of their Undergraduate GPA’s and GMAT scores. They also found that GMAT was a

better predictor of performance than undergraduate GPA. However, although a number of studies

analyzed the relationship between MBA student performance and these variables, some these studies

found inconclusive and conflicting results. One study done by Hecht and Powers (1982) reported

multiple correlations between undergraduate GPA and GMAT for first-year MBA students that

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ranged from .12 to .67. In another study by Ahmadi, Raiszadeh, and Helms (1997) found that

undergraduate GPA explained more than 27% of the variability in graduate GPA, whereas GMAT

scores explained 18%. Zwick (1993) studied 90 schools in the United States and Canada to investigate

the validity of the GMAT for the prediction of grades in doctoral study in business and management.

Zwick found that undergraduate GPA alone tended to be a more accurate predictor than GMAT

Verbal and GMAT Quantitative together. Talento et al. (2008) also showed that GMAT is one of the

best factors to predict MBA success.

In fact, some researchers went a step ahead to investigate whether undergraduate pre-requisite

courses like marketing, economics, accounting, etc. predicted MBA performance (Christensen et al.,

2012). Many other researchers such as Anderson, Benjamin, & Fuss (1994); Borde (1998); Cheung &

Kan (2002); Durden & Ellis (1995); Ekpenyong (2000) have found support for this notion. In particular,

Ely and Hittle (1990) showed completed accounting courses were significantly correlated with

performance in graduate business studies. Additionally, Anderson and colleagues as well as Didia

and Hasnat (1998) found students who had taken calculus and other mathematics courses performed

better in economics and finance courses than students without such background. Though researchers

studied impact of certain subjects on the MBA performance, there is no possible evidence in research

to examine in detail what specializations will impact the performance.

Researchers have also sought to examine other variables that influence the MBA performance like

demographic variables (education, income, age, marital status), social (student-classmate

relationships, student-lecturer relationships), individual (work experience, skills) and organizational

(location, work atmosphere, technology facilities). Quite a few standalone reputed institutions have

also done studies in this area and one such study was conducted by Institution of Business Economics

of Istanbul University where demographic, social, individual and organizational factors related data

was collected through a survey method (Cigdem and Mustafa, 2013). In this study researchers used

the Categorical Regression Analysis as the statistical method and found that two demographic factors,

age and marital status influenced the MBA performance significantly.

Some researchers explored age as an explanatory factor in graduate GPA performance. Peiperl and

Trevelyan (1997) found age to have predictive value. They discovered a negative correlation between

age and MBA performance with younger students performing better than older students. One

explanation for this result may be the fact that younger students have more recent experience with

academic environments and thereby are better primed for graduate study. However, Graham (1991)

and Paolillo (1982) found age not to be significantly correlated with MBA performance. Finally,

Braunstein (2006) compared business and nonbusiness undergraduates and found age and work

experience to be more significant than GMAT for nonbusiness degree MBA applicants. In another

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study, a team of researchers predicted the MBA performance of applicants at Stanford University

School of Business, one of the top 10 rated B-Schools in the world. (Srinivasan et al., 2017). They

applied multiple regression methods on the past applicant information thus aiding the selection

process at Stanford where thousands of applications are received every year. Similarly, a predictive

model using multiple regression by Yang & Lu (2001), showed that undergraduate grade point

average and scores on the Graduate Management Admissions Test had significant impact on MBA

performance. A detailed literature review of studies published from January 1990 to December 2013

on the academic performance of students or graduates of MBA programs was conducted by Silvana et

al. (2016), The review results showed that most researchers studied relations between the entrance test

GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) and UGPA (Undergraduate Grade Point Average) as

predictors of GGPA (Graduate Grade Point Average). Adams and Hancock (2000) also found the

number of years of work experience between the undergraduate degree and MBA functioned as a

good predictor of MBA success. However, Dreher and Ryan (2000, 2002, 2004); Dugan, Grady, Payn,

Baydar, and Johnson (1996); Graham (1991); and Peiperl and Trevelyan (1997) all concluded that work

experience was not correlated with graduate GPA. Surendran and Monisha (2017) study done at

National Institute of Technology, Trichi, India considered variables like Age, Gender, High School

grades, UG grades, Common Admission Test (CAT) percentile and Work experience and used

Logarithmic Regression to predict the MBA performance of 64 students. Their study results indicated

that Work experience was the most influencing factor and the high school grades were the least

influencing factors for MBA performance.

Researchers like Krambia‐Kapardis & Zopiatis (2008) have taken the research to another dimension by

considering whether there is a balance between “head” and “heart”. Based on the survey of 1000

students in Cyprus they found that factors like honesty, loyalty to family and friends, friendliness,

self-confidence and world peace are ranked as the five most important personal values for college

students. Similarly, Damnjanovic et. al. (2020) explored the extracurricular activities such as

mentoring top talented students for international business case competitions on performance. This

according to authors, provides the opportunity for the development of phonetic skills, knowledge and

leadership potential of under-graduates and has a positive impact on students' overall development.

In lieu of the limited studies to examine the influence of the Undergraduate specialization on the

student MBA performance, we embarked on this study. There was also very limited study on the

impact of High School grades which is another criterion that has been analyzed in this study.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY

The key research objectives of the study are:

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i. To understand the influence of high school academic performance on the academic

performance during Post-Graduate Management education.

ii. To understand the influence of various streams of under-graduate academic performance on

the academic performance during Post-Graduate Management education.

iii. Any marked difference between the performance of students in regular MBA program and

foreign collaborative MBA program

Therefore, based on the objective of the study our hypothesizes to be tested are as follows:

Hypothesis 1

H0: There is no difference in performance of students between regular MBA and foreign collaborative

MBA.

H1: There is a difference in performance students between regular MBA and foreign collaborative

MBA.

Hypothesis 2

H0: There is no association between the various streams of Under -Graduate program and

performance in the Post-Graduate Management education.

H1: There is an association between the various streams of Under -Graduate program and

performance in the Post-Graduate Management education.

Hypothesis 3

H0: There is no impact of past performance on MBA performance.

H1: There is an impact of past performance on MBA performance.

Considering the objectives of the study and the hypothesis framed, we have collected related to

academic performance for all students of both the regular MBA and foreign collaborative MBA

program from Universal Business School, Mumbai. The data collected include grades of students

from 10th, 12th, undergraduate and post graduate level for batched of two academic year (2017- 19

and 2018-20).

We use two-sample t-test to test the first hypothesis, which is to identify if there is any significant

difference in the mean performance (both past and present) of students enrolled for the regular MBA

program and the foreign MBA program. The analysis of the second and third hypothesis is done

based on the theoretical framework provided by Holton (1996), which proposes a causal relationship

among motivational elements, environmental elements, ability or enabling elements and outcomes.

Holton suggested that individual performance is a function of learning outcome, which, in turn, is

influenced by motivation to learn and individual ability. However, unlike Holton’s model our focus is

primarily on the “ability” aspect of the students, assuming the they are motivated enough for the

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course and the institute provides them the conducive environment for effective leaning and outcome.

We use the past performance of the MBA graduates to evaluate their ability to perform in the MBA

program. For the purpose of our analysis, we use a multivariate regression model, where the final

MBA grades is the dependent variable while the grades at 10 th, 12th and undergraduate level along

with the undergraduate degree as the dependent variable. The graduation degree is captured using

dummy variable. We assume that business related degrees (BBA and BCom) are the most suitable

graduate degree for MBA. So, we treat these two degrees as the base. Remaining degrees are grouped

as Technical degree (BE and BCA) and Others (BA and BSc). Apart from these, we also use two control

variables, the batch year and batch type. We use a year dummy to differentiate the 2017-19 from 2018-

20 batch and another dummy for MBA program to differentiate the foreign collaborative MBA with

regular MBA. The results of our analysis are discussed in the following section.

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

We have collected data of 254 from two consecutive batches of both regular and foreign collaborative

program. The detailed breakup of students is provided in the following table 1 while the descriptive

statistics of 254 students are provided in table 2. The descriptive statistics suggest that on an average,

score for the sample students have a downward trend. The highest is for the 10th standard while

lowest for MBA. Moreover, the variation has also gone down, lowest for MBA scores. Students

performance is more consistent at the MBA despite having higher variability in performance in lower

classes. However, this consistency would have been better if the grades for MBA would have

improved.

Table 1. Details of Students

Regular MBA Foreign Collaborative MBA

2017 – 19 Batch 59 57

2018 – 20 Batch 70 68

TOTAL 129 125

Source: Compiled by authors.

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics

Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max

10th Score 254 75.469 11.1916 7.8 97
12th Score 254 73.472 11.0493 48.54 95.4
Graduation Score 254 65.5472 8.5984 7 85
MBA Score 254 63.0835 6.19461 45.0923 79.5864
Source: Compiled by authors.

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In order to answer our first hypothesis, we use a two-sample t-test. The results of the test are provided

in table 3.

Table 3: Results of t-test

Foreign MBA Regular MBA

ITEM No of Obs Mean SD No. of Obs Mean SD T-test
Final MBA Score 125 61.41 6.01 129 64.71 5.94 0.0000
Final MBA Score (17-19 batch) 57 60.09 6.18 59 63.27 5.36 0.0019
Final MBA Score (18-20 batch) 68 62.51 5.69 70 65.92 6.19 0.0005
Source: Computed by authors

The results suggest that there is statistically significant difference in performance for the 2017-19 and

2018-20 batches individually as well as both the batches taken together. The performance in Regular

MBA (RMBA) program is better compared to the Foreign MBA program. A possible reason for the

difference may be that the foreign collaborative MBA exams are more assignment oriented as

compared to the regular MBA exam. As students in the Indian undergraduate system are not used to

assignment-based assessments, the average performance is likely to lower, however further research

will be required to validate the same. In order to have better clarity, we proceed to the results of the

regression model. The results of the regression model are presented in table 4.

We have used two regression models in our analysis. In the first model, we consider only the type of

graduation degree and the graduation score apart from the control variables. While in the second

model, we include the 10th and 12th scores apart from the other variables as used in Model 1. As

expected, the R-square value for Model 2 is higher than Model 1 because of more explanatory

variables. However, the R-square value in both the models are relatively low. Only 11.39% and 25.66%

of the variability in Final MBA score (dependent variable) is explained by the independent variables.

The results do confirm that past performance positively influences the final MBA performance. The

coefficients of the graduation, 12th and 10th scores are statistically significant in both the models. The

coefficients of the dummy variables (d_tech and d_others) suggest that technical students’

performance is lower compared to undergraduate business (BBA and B. Com) students. While, the

other undergraduate students (BSc and BA) perform better than business students. However, the

coefficients, in both the models, turn out to be insignificant. So, we have to conclude that the

graduation degree is immaterial.

Table 4: Results of regression model

Model 1 Model 2

d_yr (2017-19 as base) 2.803224 2.573661

0.7328382 *** 0.6947507***
d_mba (RMBA as base) -3.131843 -3.400728
0.7208689 *** 0.6841921***

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d_tch -0.9330566 -0.4259592

0.9715057 0.9386973
d_oth 0.8819207 0.5795865
1.296868 1.260872
Graduation Score 0.1616516 0.073594
0.042593*** 0.0443808*
HS Score 0.1329061
0.0343676***
10th Score 0.0856812
0.0362477**
_cons 52.59489 42.32907
2.905489 *** 3.312013

R-square 0.1139 0.2566

Source: Computed by authors

These results of the regression analysis are in line with the findings of Yang & Lu (2001) and Silvana et

al. (2016), whereby the undergraduate academic performance is an important predictor for the

graduate academic performance. In fact, all the previous academic performance (10th, 12th and under-

graduation) turned out to be significant, confirming the claim that past performance of student is

important. However, our objective of trying to determine the best undergraduate degree for an MBA

program remains inconclusive. Alternatively, the regression results suggest that the final performance

depends a lot on how well student study or absorb the MBA learning, irrespective of whether they

come from business stream or technical stream.

A major limitation of the study is that we do not consider other information about the students, such

as age, gender, and prior work experience. An inclusion of these factors could have, definitely,

improved, the predictive ability of the regression models.

CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS

Our study on the MBA students’ academic performance throughs out a number of interesting

observations. The results of the regression model with respect to the past performance and its impact

on MBA performance is consistent with the existing literature. Ahmadi, Raiszadeh, & Helms (1997)

and Yang & Lu (2001) have noted undergraduate performance positively influences MBA

performance. We have extended this argument to include the school level and high-school level

performance, which has never been considered before. Our findings suggest that past academics at all

levels does matter. Moreover, the fact that about one forth of the variation in MBA performance is

explained by our regression model (model 2) is really encouraging.

Researchers such as Anderson, Benjamin, & Fuss (1994), Durden & Ellis (1995), Borde (1998), Cheung

& Kan (2002); Ekpenyong (2000) and Christensen et al., (2012) have found that the specific knowledge

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in a particular stream does have an impact on MBA performance. However, in our analysis we do not

find such evidence. Both these findings have serious implication for admission process. MBA

institutes should focus on the quality of intake by admitting students with consistent past

performance. We also notice that student’s performance is more consistent at the MBA despite having

higher variability in performance in lower classes. There is also statistically significant difference in

performance between the 2017-19 and 2018-20 batches for both regular MBA and foreign collaborative

MBA. Moreover, the performance in Regular MBA program is better compared to the Foreign MBA

program. These set of findings suggest the importance of quality in program delivery.

Other factors such as GMAT scores (Zwick, 1993; Talento et al., 2008), age (Peiperl and Trevelyan,

1997; Cigdem and Mustafa, 2013) work experience, skills (Cigdem and Mustafa, 2013) human values

honesty, loyalty (Krambia‐Kapardis & Zopiatis, 2008) extracurricular activities (Damnjanovic et. al.,

2020) have also being explored. Including such factors in future studies may provide valuable

insights. Our finding is, therefore, limited by the exclusion of the above-mentioned factors. Moreover,

the study is based on data from one MBA institute and warrant caution in the interpretation of results.

We finally conclude that addressing the factors as identified in our study would not only help address

improve the academic quality of MBA graduates but will make them more employable, thereby

benefitting the corporate sector, economy and the society at large.

FUTURE RESEARCH
Some of the limitations mentioned above could potentially be examined in our future studies. Similar

to the GMAT used by International B-Schools, in the Indian context the main qualifying exams are

Common Admission Test (CAT), Management Aptitude test (MAT), which could be used as criteria to

check the influence on the performance. However, given our end objective was MBA performance,

one could potentially evaluate if the pedagogy could be one of the critical influencing factors.

Especially with the education industry impacted by the pedagogic disruption (Synchronous Online

learning) in lieu of Covid-19, it may be interesting to check the impact on the performance of the

current batches of students.

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