This volume is a milestone on our journey toward developing a more comprehensive understanding of the underpinnings of corporate financial performance. Weare concerned with both the factors that cause the financial performance of some firms to be better than others at a point in time and those factors that influence the trajectory of firm financial performance over time. In addressing these issues, we consider theoretical and empirical work on financial performance, drawn from several literatures, as well as present the results from our own empirical study. The review of the theoretical and empirical work is contemporary; the major portion of data comprising the empirical study was collected in the early 1980s as part of the Columbia Business School project on corporate strategic planning, but some data sequences extend into the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Our goals are to improve understanding of firm financial performance by developing a more integrated framework and to develop a research agenda based on what we have learned. This volume consists of four chapters, 12 appendices that provide detailed technical support and development for various portions of the discussion and an extensive set of references. It interweaves results from published literature in various fields with our original empirical work and develops an integrative approach to the study of firm fmancial performance.

Business and management education has an important impact on business practice throughout the world. To a very large extent, possession of the MBA degree is a passport into the upper reaches of management, and CEOs of many major corporations have earned an MBA. It is a reasonable inference that the education received by these leaders and managers during their MBA experience has an important impact on the way that businesses throughout the world are led and managed and that major corporate decisions are made. The heart of the MBA education is the curriculum, and curriculum design is perhaps the most important strategic function for a business school faculty to undertake. In order to understand the many issues concerning this contemporary curriculum review, this book examines three related contextual domains. First, it details the long-term growth of business and management education. Second, it examines the major theoretical and empirical literatures on organizational evolution and decision making, paying special attention to decision making in institutions of higher education. Finally, the book describes the previous major curriculum review at Columbia Business School in the late 1950s and the subsequent changes that formed the curriculum that was changed in 1992. This book demonstrates what can be achieved by an institution that sets high standards for its business education, and assists faculty and administrators in other schools of business and management as they contemplate revision of their curricula. In addition, it provides a prime example of curriculum design effort in one of the leading institutions worldwide. Finally, it will be of interest to scholars in several different fields, notably, higher education curriculum review, organizational decision making and long-run organizational evolution.

This volume is a milestone on our journey toward developing a more comprehensive understanding of the underpinnings of corporate financial performance. Weare concerned with both the factors that cause the financial performance of some firms to be better than others at a point in time and those factors that influence the trajectory of firm financial performance over time. In addressing these issues, we consider theoretical and empirical work on financial performance, drawn from several literatures, as well as present the results from our own empirical study. The review of the theoretical and empirical work is contemporary; the major portion of data comprising the empirical study was collected in the early 1980s as part of the Columbia Business School project on corporate strategic planning, but some data sequences extend into the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Our goals are to improve understanding of firm financial performance by developing a more integrated framework and to develop a research agenda based on what we have learned. This volume consists of four chapters, 12 appendices that provide detailed technical support and development for various portions of the discussion and an extensive set of references. It interweaves results from published literature in various fields with our original empirical work and develops an integrative approach to the study of firm fmancial performance.

Business and management education has an important impact on business practice throughout the world. To a very large extent, possession of the MBA degree is a passport into the upper reaches of management, and CEOs of many major corporations have earned an MBA. It is a reasonable inference that the education received by these leaders and managers during their MBA experience has an important impact on the way that businesses throughout the world are led and managed and that major corporate decisions are made. The heart of the MBA education is the curriculum, and curriculum design is perhaps the most important strategic function for a business school faculty to undertake. In order to understand the many issues concerning this contemporary curriculum review, this book examines three related contextual domains. First, it details the long-term growth of business and management education. Second, it examines the major theoretical and empirical literatures on organizational evolution and decision making, paying special attention to decision making in institutions of higher education. Finally, the book describes the previous major curriculum review at Columbia Business School in the late 1950s and the subsequent changes that formed the curriculum that was changed in 1992. This book demonstrates what can be achieved by an institution that sets high standards for its business education, and assists faculty and administrators in other schools of business and management as they contemplate revision of their curricula. In addition, it provides a prime example of curriculum design effort in one of the leading institutions worldwide. Finally, it will be of interest to scholars in several different fields, notably, higher education curriculum review, organizational decision making and long-run organizational evolution.