Interesting Correlation Between Mission Priorities and Geographical Emphasis

One of the areas that AACSB explores through its Annual Business School Questionnaire (BSQ) is the relative emphasis that each institution places on teaching, intellectual contributions, and service as part of their mission. In 2008–09, AACSB added a question to the BSQ to measure mission priorities by regional, national, and international emphasis. Schools must plan and determine where to focus their resources. For instance, are schools focusing more resources on reaching regional markets versus international markets? And, how does their geographical focus relate to the amount of emphasis that is placed on teaching, intellectual contributions, and service?

Based on the data AACSB collects, 31% of the schools that responded focus regionally and have a high emphasis on teaching, medium emphasis on intellectual contributions, and low emphasis on service (as represented by group A below). The second most common finding was that 13% of the participating schools reported have an international focus and place equal emphasis on teaching, intellectual contributions, and service (as reported by group E below). Interestingly, there were no schools that reported placing a high emphasis on intellectual contributions, medium emphasis on service, and a low emphasis on teaching (as reported by group D below).

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

General and Scholarly Orientation Codes

A
Teaching (High Emphasis), Intellectual Contributions (Medium Emphasis), Service (Low Emphasis)

B
Intellectual Contributions (High Emphasis), Teaching (Medium Emphasis), Service (Low Emphasis)

C
Teaching (High Emphasis), Service (Medium Emphasis), Intellectual Contributions (Low Emphasis)

D
Intellectual Contributions (High Emphasis), Service (Medium Emphasis), Teaching (Low Emphasis)

E
Equal for Teaching and Intellectual Contributions, Service (Low Emphasis)

F
Teaching (High Emphasis), Equal for Intellectual Contributions and Service

G
Equal for Teaching, Intellectual Contributions, and Service