Peer Ratings of Graduate Programs for Business

Abstract

The comparative rankings of graduate programs are of interest to academicians and students in almost all disciplines. Two studies of major proportions have been sponsored by the American Council on Education.' The areas they surveyed included the humanities, the social sciences, the biological sciences, the physical sciences, and engineering. Their rankings were done by means of peer ratings. Siegfried2 compared the ratings obtained in the first A.C.E. study by Cartter with selected publication output of economics departments. In the business area, Estes3 used the peer ratings approach to rank accounting programs. His study provoked a good deal of debate.4 Quite recently, the peer ratings method has been used to establish the general reputations of professional schools with a particular group,5 and page count in selected professional publications has been used to rank programs in business.6 This study was undertaken to determine the rankings for five functional areas of graduate study for business; three of these areas were traditional in business, and two of them may be considered as evolving. The traditional areas were accounting, finance, and marketing. The newer areas were management science/operations research and organization theory and behavior. The peer rating method was used with the rankings supplied by department chairmen. Chairmen are involved in curriculum, faculty recruiting, evaluation of students, and the like. Involvement in recruiting would put