ABSTRACT
Business education has its origins in the late nineteenth century in the United States. Currently 250,000-plus undergraduate degrees and 100,000-plus graduate degrees in business are awarded in the United States every year by more than 1,200 accredited colleges and universities. In recent years, the United States has seen a 10 percent annual growth in nondegree executive education programs, with revenues exceeding $3 billion (Pfeffer and Fong 2002: 78). Similar trends are seen worldwide-business education has spread rapidly in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The rapid growth and proliferation of business schools has led to the emergence of some schools of dubious quality-and business education has come under scrutiny. Pfeffer and Fong (2002), in their controversial paper “The End of Business Schools? Less Success than Meets the Eye,” contended that graduates with a business education are no more successful than leaders without the degree, for success is a function of what a person can do. Does it then make sense for the potential students to bear the cost of an MBA education that often tops $175,000, including tuition and lost salaries? Similar issues were raised in a recent paper from the consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton that derided “cookie-cutter” MBA programs that were producing look alike MBAs and not meeting businesses needs (Doria, Rozanski, and Cohen, 2003).
