Business education in the tech-driven globalized economy

Abstract

This exploratory research was aimed at identifying skill demand in the changing economy and evaluating the effectiveness of the adaptation strategies carried by top-ranked business schools against the identified skills. First, the research identified 7 highly demanded skill sets using natural language processing and analyzing job posting from Google Glassdoor, an HR platform. Second, the research identified two distinct adaptation strategies used by the Top 25 European and Top 25 U.S-based schools ranked by the Financial Times. Third, the research evaluated the strategies using online surveying methodology with the alumni of the aforementioned schools. In the first stage, the identified 7 highly demanded skill sets included data, team/collaboration, creativity, flexibility/cross-functionality, tech/digital, strategy, international communication. A difference was observed in the distribution of the skills for different education and position levels. In the second stage, two extreme adaptation strategies were identified as implemented by the schools: “Online Generalists” and “Offline Specialists. On this continuum, the U.S schools appeared to be tilting towards “Online Generalists”, whereas European schools were inclined towards “Offline Specialists”. However, the groups also shared several similarities in their responses. In the final stage, alumni’s evaluation of the two school groups against the demanded skills revealed significant difference only with respect to international communication skills, for which the EU cluster slightly outperformed the U.S one.