QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULA OF AACSB MEMBER INSTITUTIONS

Since the discipline of quantitative methods varies more widely from institution to institution than any other discipline, a survey was conducted to establish a profile of the undergraduate quantitative methods curricula. The survey was made among member institutions of the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business in order to determine the current status of the structure and orientation of undergraduate programs in quantitative methods, faculty background and requirements, undergraduate course requirements for each of the major areas in business, and directions of future changes. This paper presents the survey results.     

THE DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF QUANTITATIVE METHODS DOCTORATES IN THE SOUTH

Of critical importance to educators, students, and their colleges and universities are the demand for and supply of new Ph.D.'s in the quantitative methods field. This study examines projected academic employment conditions, over the period 1977-1981, for such doctorates in the southern region of the United States.     

IMPROVING THE DELIVERY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND RELATED SERVICES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The utility of organizational behavior management (OBM) for improving the delivery of special education and related services in public school districts was investigated in three experimental studies. Each study employed a multiple baseline design to judge the efficacy of an OBM intervention on service delivery problems common to most public school organizations. The problems and OBM interventions were: (1) expanding the range of functioning of school psychologists through performance feedback; (2) training special service teams to develop valuable individual education programs (IEPs) with a behavioral, in-service training program; and (3) ensuring the implementation of a special education resource room program by means of program consultation. All interventions were implemented by public school program managers and staff. In each study, the particular intervention resulted in improvement in service delivery performance. Results of the studies are discussed within the context of the recently enacted legislation for the education of handicapped children and in terms of generality to mental health, business, and industrial settings.     

BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES AND THE QUANTITATIVE METHODS COURSE

The topic of behavioral objectives has recently received considerable attention in the academic community. This paper contains a comprehensive overview of issues and explores the relevance of using the behavioral objective framework for teaching quantitative methods (QM) to undergraduate business administration students. Included in the paper are (1) a discussion of the nature and meaning of behavioral objectives, (2) arguments for and against their use, (3) a rationale for their use in a QM course, and (4) a series of examples demonstrating the use of behavioral objectives in a quantitative course. The evidence-consisting of expert opinion from professionals who have successfully used behavioral objectives for teaching quantitative material, the logic of the arguments for behavioral objectives, consideration of arguments against objectives along with rebuttal to these arguments, and the available empirical studies-indicates that behavioral objectives do appear to offer considerable potential for improving QM teaching. The use of behavioral objectives is worthy of thoughtful consideration by QM teachers.     

ADMISSION STANDARDS FOR GRADUATE STUDY IN MANAGEMENT

This paper reports the results of a study undertaken to evaluate the validity of requirements for admission to Florida State University's Graduate Program in Management offered by its School of Business in the Cape Kennedy Area of Florida. A multiple regression study was made using as independent variables students' undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), Graduate Record Examination aptitude test score (GRE), and age (AGE) at time of admission. The dependent variable was graduate grade point average (GGPA). The study revealed a significant positive correlation between GRE and GGPA. The correlation between AGE and GGPA was also significant but was positive for values of AGE up to approximately 29 and negative thereafter. UGPA was not even marginally significant.     

MODELING THE ALLOCATION OF GRADUATE STUDENT FINANCIAL AID

Universities have always competed with one another for the relatively small number of highly qualified students interested in graduate education. This competition has been intensified recently by adverse demographic trends. This paper is concerned with the use of financial aid awards as a means of competition and with allocation of awards so that enrollments are maximized while satisfying academic standards and budget constraints. It also considers the randomness of actual aid disbursements and develops models of incremental aid allocation that increase enrollments but are within tolerance levels for budget overruns.     

RANKING THE SCHOOLS: HOW SCHOOL‐QUALITY INFORMATION AFFECTS SCHOOL CHOICE IN THE NETHERLANDS

This paper analyzes whether information about the quality of high schools published in a national newspaper affects school choice in the Netherlands. We find that negative (positive) school‐quality scores decrease (increase) the number of first‐year students who choose a school after the year of publication. These effects are only large for the college‐preparatory track, such that a school receiving the most positive score for its most academic track sees 16–18 more first‐year students enroll. We find that parents respond to the most recent and most prominently displayed information. The effects of information about school quality do not seem to be greater in regions with larger relevant newspaper circulation, suggesting that direct exposure to news about school quality does not explain the response to this information.     

Education CREATIVE THINKING AND INNOVATIVE EDUCATION IN THE DECISION SCIENCES

Creative problem solving is seldom addressed directly in the decision sciences literature. The first half of this paper reviews current thinking about creativity and its educational importance. The remainder addresses creative problem-solving processes and, in particular, the process developed by Parnes, Noller and Biondi [24] and Osborn [23]. This process has been integrated into an OR/MS problem-solving course which is described. Conclusions and implications for decision sciences education and practice in general are discussed.     

THE USES OF BUSINESS GAMING IN EDUCATION AND LABORATORY RESEARCH*

This paper reports an empirical investigation of business gaming in education and research. Subjects were approximately 200 junior and senior undergraduate students who were assigned to seven-man teams on the basis of scores on the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) leadership style questionnaire, and who played the Marksim business game during one academic semester. Relationships were explored between post-game perceptions of the game, team atmosphere and the leader, combinations of congruent and incongruent leadership styles, and measures of team performance. Also explored were relationships between several predictor variables (including grade point average) and measures of team performance. The results were generally disappointing in regard to business gaming as an educational tool. However, it seems that business gaming may hold promise for laboratory research in the behavioral sciences. The results of this investigation suggest that relationship-oriented and task-oriented leadership styles and combinations of these styles within hierarchically structured groups affect members' perceptions of the task and other aspects of the task environment but do not affect group performance, at least directly. These results may have significance for those interested in organizational design and the selection and development of leaders for first and second-level managerial positions.     

EXPERIENCES WITH THE USE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE IN EDUCATION

This paper discusses four experiments and experiences with the use of supply chain management software, in this case the CAPS Logistics software, at different levels of undergraduate and graduate education at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. We hope that the readers will get an idea of the commitment and resources necessary to integrate supply chain software into the classroom as well as the potential rewards.     

ON THE INEFFECTIVE EDUCATION OF DECISION SCIENTISTS

There is general agreement that the training of decision scientists during the past ten years has left much to be desired. This note presents nine rules relating to the fundamental reasons for the failure of training programs, along with suggestions for improving the present state of affairs.     

OIL AND THE MACROECONOMY: A QUANTITATIVE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

We model an open economy where macroeconomic variables fluctuate in response to oil supply shocks, as well as aggregate demand and supply shocks generated domestically and abroad. We use several robust predictions of the model to identify five fundamental shocks underlying the fluctuations of the (real) oil price, the US activity and the global business cycle. The estimates show that supply shocks generated in the global economy explain the largest fraction of the oil price fluctuations, about four times more than canonical oil supply shocks. The correlation between oil prices and the US activity varies with the type of shock.     

PERFORMANCE OF THE EXPECTED UTILITY METHOD AND TWO OTHER NORMATIVE METHODS IN INSURANCE DECISION MAKING*

In an experiment, thirty-six professional insurance men employed the utility method, the worry method, and the comparison method in two insurance problems to determine the appropriate insurance coverage. It was found that the best act with the utility method almost always was no insurance, whereas the best act with the other two methods tended to be complete insurance. The utility method best act rarely agreed with the subject's actual preferred act, while the comparison method best act usually was the same or almost the same as the actual preferred act. While the worry method suggests that the subjects typically are risk averse, the utility functions obtained tend to show that the subjects typically are not risk averse.     

ASSIMILATION TIME AS A FACTOR OF PERFORMANCE IN QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

The schedule, length, and number of class meetings have tended to be dictated by tradition, space availability, and instructor convenience. A significant factor which must receive attention is the assimilation time of the student. With the increased emphasis on quantitative analysis as well as the expansion of the boundaries of course content, the ability of the student to successfully absorb and digest the material must be considered. The authors have statistically studied assimilation time as a performance factor in a mathematically-oriented course. Their conclusions indicate that the length and number of class meetings can be modified to a degree with equifinality, but administrators and instructors should empirically verify the best mix for their specific needs.     

A STRATEGY FOR INTEGRATING QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES INTO THE BUSINESS CURRICULUM*

Quantitative methods courses play an increasingly significant role in the programs of Schools of Business. However, maximum utilization of the concepts can occur only when these quantitative techniques have been integrated into the various functional areas via a faculty knowledgeable with such techniques and their applications. Lacking sufficient stimuli, this integrative process is observed to be one of an evolutionary nature. This article presents a strategy for stimulation of this process.     

PUBLIC EDUCATION AND PENSIONS IN DEMOCRACY: A POLITICAL ECONOMY THEORY

A dynamic political economy theory of fiscal policy is presented to explain the simultaneous existence of public education and pensions in modern democracies. The driving force of the model is the intergenerational conflict over the allocation of the public budget. Successive generations of voters choose fiscal policies through repeated elections. The political power of elderly voters creates the motive for adults to support public investment in the human capital of future generations since it expands future pension possibilities. We characterize the Markov perfect equilibrium of the voting game in a small open economy. The equilibrium reproduces salient features of intergenerational fiscal policies in modern economies.     

SELF-SAMPLING: A UNIQUE AND EFFECTIVE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Self-sampling, which is similar to work sampling, is a measurement technique where participants categorize their own activities. The ratio of observations in an activity category to the total observations provides an estimator of the population proportion of time spent on that category of activity. This paper summarizes how self-sampling works and describes an example involving business school faculty.     

QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES IN MARKETING: AN ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING AND USAGE PATTERNS

This paper presents the perspectives of quantitative techniques in academics and practice. Based on the findings of an empirical study, the academicians and practitioners emphasize different techniques and prefer different journals for keeping abreast. This reveals the areas for curriculum improvement to orient the program toward the practitioners.     

A COMPARISON OF WEIGHTING METHODS IN POWER PLANT SITING*

The insufficient attention that too often is paid to the characteristics required of attribute weights prevents multiattribute decision rules from accurately representing preferences. The weighting summation or linear model requires weights to be proportional to the relative value of unit changes in their attribute value functions. Only then will weights accurately reflect the trade-offs decision makers are willing to make. A number of methods of choosing weights are critiqued from this perspective. Applications of weighting methods in power plant siting are surveyed, and a siting study of western Maryland is presented. Two weighting methods were used, one deriving weights from trade-offs made by decision makers and the other asking decision makers to choose weights on a scale of 0 to 10. The locations picked by the two methods differ strikingly.     

FIELD EXPERIMENTS WHICH COMPARED THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DESIGN METHODS*

The influence of “method” on the design of services was investigated in three organizational settings. Models of “Systems,”“Behavioral,” and “Heuristic” design approaches were used to plan several service programs. These plans were compared using measures of their “quality,”“acceptance,” and “innovation.” Service plans designed by the Systems approach were found to have high quality (p < .05), and service plans designed by the Behavioral approach were found to be innovative (p < .05). These findings are employed to provide guides to select a Design Method and to suggest some research issues.