Top Business Schools in Mumbai
Backdrop
By a conservative estimate, there are more than three thousand management institutes of different types in India, offering postgraduate management programmes. Many of them are plain vanilla institutes; some are specific and sectorfocused. The duration of the programmes offered varies from one to three years, including those meant for working executives. An inter-se comparison of any type amidst so many institutes is always fraught with hazard and prone to error. For example, in a country like India even the locational advantage or disadvantage of a business school can create a serious impact in terms of corporate interface, and hence its ultimate positioning. Many of the existing rankings done by various agencies/ magazines depend primarily on the data supplied by the institutes, validation of which is difficult. Further, different institutions are of different make: some are pure teaching oriented, some are more of research institutions and some are hybrid. The perceptions of the stakeholders also vary significantly; while the students primarily look at job opportunities and learning experiences, the corporate look at attitude more than skills. Therefore, rankings based on objective data (assuming these are validated) may not always be realistic.
Current Study and Research Methodology
Because of the limitations of the available objective data in the Indian context, this study has its base in perception. It is believed that perception-based study might give more insights rather than analysis of data that may not be true or even if true, may not be relevant. For example, huge and posh infrastructure may not necessarily contribute to desired learning outcomes in a business school context. Similarly, there is always a debate who are more suited to make good teachers in the context of a business school: pure academic teachers holding doctoral degrees or industry practitioners.
Based on the above theme, the current study is aimed to be different from other studies and has its research based purely on perception of users. The perception study is based on perceptions from following three groups of stakeholders:
1. Current students
2. Recently graduated students
3. Potential students (seeking admission to MBA)
The logic of the above is simple: the existing students (of business schools) and recently pass out MBAs will be the best judge of the efficacy of a business school in terms of services by the school. They would be the best judge to rank inter-se various institutes based on their experience and also that of their peers. The aspirant students also must have done substantial research as regards various aspects of the business schools to choose from.
Research Design A. SAMPLE SIZE
The sample size was 800, comprising of:
1. Current students: 500
2. Recently pass out students: 150
3. Potential students: 150
The sample was drawn from across 20 institutions (of different types) in Mumbai and Thane.
B. METHODOLOGY
1. Questionnaire and focus group discussion in some cases to arrive at the response.
2. All business schools may not be equally strong in all specializations. Hence the questionnaire asked the respondents to rank the business schools in different specializations. For this purpose, the specializations chosen were the usual ones offered by the major institutes that include Finance, Marketing, Human Resource Management, and Operations.
3. The scope of study is limited to Mumbai (including Thane) based business schools.
4. In the city of Mumbai, there are two types of business schools: those primarily of all India character and not affiliated to University of Mumbai like SPJIMR, NMIMS. TISS, etc. and the others that are affiliated to Mumbai University and primarily depend on allotment of MMS seats by University, though some of these institutes also have their own autonomous PGDM programmes. It is therefore not fair to rank them together. Therefore, the current ranking aimed to rank them separately.
5. The questionnaire had therefore two separate questions:
i. Asking the respondents to rank top-five business schools in the city of Mumbai (out of all business schools) in four different specializations mentioned above.
ii. Asking the respondents to rank top-five business schools (out of schools that have MMS programmes) in four different specializations mentioned above.
6. The list of all business schools was given to the respondents as a ready reckoner, in case they want to refer.
7. Respondents were also asked if they would like to name any school under “emergent business school” category outside the top-10 listing.
Based on the above, the top-five business schools are clubbed in the alphabetical order on both the categories separately.