A business analytics maturity perspective on the gap between business schools and presumed industry needs

Abstract

Business analytics is a fast-growing job market for business school graduates. Hence, researchers have made many calls to enhance business analytics training in business schools to meet the growing market demand for analyticssavvy employees. A growing set of business analytics courses have begun to address these calls. In this paper, we examine the maturity of business analytics offerings in business schools in the United States by analyzing current business analytics-related course offerings of the top 104 business schools (363 courses) and 20 unranked business schools (51 courses) in the United States. We analyze these data by examining the types of courses offered and rank the schools based on their maturity levels in terms of business analytics offerings. Our findings indicate that, to the extent that these schools reflect what is happening across the nation, business schools still have a long way to go before they reach higher levels of business analytics maturity and that they are not yet in an ideal position to serve the presumed industry needs. We offer actionable recommendations.