UA Finance Doctoral Students Third Nationally In Research Publication

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ­ A recent study of the research productivity of finance doctoral students, as measured by their publication records, places The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration third among 78 leading business schools.

The 1999 study, conducted by researchers from Cleveland State and Concordia (Montreal) universities, placed only the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Chicago, first and second, respectively, ahead of UA. It was the highest ranking of any SEC university and ahead of such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, MIT and Penn State.

“This sort of recognition is extremely important,” said Dr. J. Barry Mason, dean of the College and Thomas D. Russell Professor of Business Administration. “Other studies show that the reputation of a business school is directly related to research efforts, particularly in finance research. To be placed so highly in financial research is important in recruiting new faculty and in attracting the caliber of doctoral student whose research will have an impact on the university, the college and the business world.”

The study, by Kenneth A. Borokhovich, associate professor at Cleveland State University, and Richard Chung, associate professor at Concordia University in Montreal, examined the publication records through 1996 of 796 students who graduated from 78 finance doctoral programs from 1987 through 1991.

The authors said previous studies show “the reputation of a business school is significantly related to the research productivity of its faculty members.” They also pointed out that within rankings by such publications as BusinessWeek and U.S. News and World Report, the higher ranked schools tend to be those with more business research publications.

The publication data was taken from the Economic Literature database, which covered articles in 317 finance, economics and accounting journals.

The publication efforts of 20 finance doctoral students from The University of Alabama were included in the data. The 20 students, who are now graduates, produced 92 articles. Other schools in the top 10 in the study were Florida State, LSU, Ohio State, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Nebraska.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration was founded in 1919. It has been consistently ranked in the top 3 percent of the nation’s business schools. The Techno-MBA program is ranked fourth by ComputerWorld, the MBA program is ranked 21st among regional universities for return on investment by Forbes Magazine, and the undergraduate program is ranked 50th by U.S. News and World Report. The graduate accounting program is ranked 17th in the latest rankings by Public Accounting Report, the most-often cited ranking of undergraduate and graduate accounting programs.