A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource management, and quantitative methods.
Types of business school
They include schools of business, business administration, and management. There are four principal forms of business school.
- Most of the university business schools are faculties, colleges or departments within the university, and teach predominantly business courses.
- In North America a business school is often understood to be a university graduate school which offers a Master of Business Administration or equivalent degree.
- Also in North America the term "business school" can refer to a different type of institution: a two-year school that grants the Associate's degree in various business subjects. Most of these schools began as secretarial schools, then expanded into accounting or bookkeeping and similar subjects. They are typically operated as businesses, rather than as institutions of higher learning.
- In Europe and Asia, some universities teach only business.
Notable business school firsts
- 1759 - The Aula do Comércio in Lisbon was the world's first institution to specialise in the teaching of commerce. It provided a model for development of similar government-sponsored schools across Europe, and closed in 1844, when it merged with Instituto Industrial de Lisboa to become Instituto Industrial e Comercial de Lisboa. After the division of that organization, and several changes of names, it became the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão of the Technical University of Lisbon
- 1819 - The Ecole Supérieure de Commerce of Paris (now ESCP Europe) was founded. It is the oldest business school in the world.
- 1881 - The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania was founded as the first business school within a broader university
- 1898 - Handelshochschule Leipzig (aka Leipzig Graduate School of Management), the first business school in Germany, was founded.
- 1898 - The University of St. Gallen established, the first university in Switzerland teaching business and economics.
- 1898 - The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business was the first business school to offer a PhD program and an Executive MBA program. It is the first business school to have a Nobel laureate on its faculty: George Stigler won the prize after retiring from the school in 1981. It is also the first business school to have six Nobel laureates on its faculty.
- 1898 - The College of Commerce at the University of California, Berkeley, later renamed the Haas School of Business, was founded as the first business school at a public university
- 1889 - The predecessor of Manchester Metropolitan University Business School was founded as the first school teaching commerce in the United Kingdom.
- 1900 - The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College was founded as the first graduate school of business in the US, offering the first master's degree in business administration, titled the "Master of Commercial Science"
- 1907 - The École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal (HEC Montréal) was founded as the first business school in Canada
- 1909 - Stockholm School of Economics or Handelshögskolan i Stockholm was founded as the first institution dedicated to business and economics in Sweden.
- 1910 - Harvard Business School was the first business school to offer a degree called the "MBA"
- 1911 - Helsinki School of Economics or Helsingin kauppakorkeakoulu was founded as the first Finnish-language institution dedicated to business and economics in Finland.
- 1918 - The University of Edinburgh set up the first faculty for the study of business and commerce in Scotland
- 1921 - Nanjing University (then named National Southeastern University and later renamed National Central University and Nanjing University) moved the Faculty of Business originated in 1917 from Nanjing to Shanghai to establish the university business school, which was the first professional Chinese university business school. Later the school became Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Nanjing University Business School was refounded, as well as the School of Management at NCU in Taiwan.
- 1941 - ESAN - Escola Superior de Administração e Negócios the first business school in Brazil was founded.
- 1948 - The University of Western Ontario was the first University outside the United States to offer an MBA
- 1955 IBA was established by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The Wharton School provided professors and assistance, to what would become the finest and most prestigious business school in Pakistan.
- 1957 - INSEAD, near Paris, France, became the first European institution to offer an MBA program.
- 1958 - Fundação Getúlio Vargas was the first business school founded in Latin America to offer an MBA-type qualification
- 1964 - National Chengchi University offered the first Chinese MBA program.
- 1964 - INCAE Business School or Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas was founded by Harvard Business School
- 1966 - The National Institute of Development Administration or NIDA was the first graduate school that offer an MBA program in Thailand
- 1973 - The École des Affaires de Paris (EAP) (now ESCP-EAP) was the first business school with campuses in three countries
- 1991 - The IEDC-Bled School of Management was the first business school to offer an MBA program in Eastern Europe.
- 1992 - The Thunderbird School of Global Management was the first business school to have campuses on three continents.
- 2005 - MBA MAHAN , was the first business school in IRAN.
Business school degrees
- Associate's Degree: AA, AAB, ABA, AS
- Bachelor's Degrees: BBA, BBus, BComm, BSBA, BAcc, BABA, BBS, and BBusSc
- Master's Degrees: MBA, Masters in Business and Management (MBM), MM, MAcc, MMR, MSMR, MPA, MSM, MHA, MSF, MSc, MST, Masters in Management Studies (MMS) and MCOMM. At Oxford and Cambridge business schools an MPhil, or Master of Philosophy, is awarded in place of an MA or MSc.
- Post Graduate: Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM), Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Business Management, Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Management
- Doctoral Degrees: Ph.D., DBA, DHA, DM, Doctor of Commerce (DCOM), FPM, PhD in Management or Business Doctorate (Doctor of Philosophy)
Business school use of case studies
Some business schools center their teaching around the use of case studies (i.e. the case method). Case studies have been used in graduate and undergraduate business education for nearly one hundred years. Business cases are historical descriptions of actual business situations. Typically, information is presented about a business firm's products, markets, competition, financial structure, sales volumes, management, employees and other factors affecting the firm's success. The length of a business case study may range from two or three pages to 30 pages, or more.
Business schools often obtain case studies published by Harvard Business School, INSEAD, other academic institutions, or case clearing houses (such as ECCH). Harvard's most popular case studies include Lincoln Electric Co. and Google, Inc. .
Students are expected to scrutinize the case study and prepare to discuss strategies and tactics that the firm should employ in the future. Three different methods have been used in business case teaching:
- Prepared case-specific questions to be answered by the student. This is used with short cases intended for undergraduate students. The underlying concept is that such students need specific guidance to be able to analyze case studies.
- Problem-solving analysis . This second method, initiated by the Harvard Business School is by far the most widely used method in MBA and executive development programs. The underlying concept is that with enough practice (hundreds of case analyses) students develop intuitive skills for analyzing and resolving complex business situations. Click here for more information on the HBS case method. Successful implementation of this method depends heavily on the skills of the discussion leader.
- A generally applicable strategic planning approach . This third method does not require students to analyze hundreds of cases. A strategic planning model is provided and students are instructed to apply the steps of the model to six to a dozen cases during a semester. This is sufficient to develop their ability to analyze a complex situation, generate a variety of possible strategies and to select the best ones. In effect, students learn a generally applicable approach to analyzing cases studies and real situations. This approach does not make any extraordinary demands on the artistic and dramatic talents of the teacher. Consequently most professors are capable of supervising application of this method.
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