Measuring Factors Effecting MBA Students' Academic Performance by Using Categorical Regression Analysis: A Case Study of Institution of Business Economics, Istanbul University

Education institutions worldwide have always given a great emphasis on the factors governing the performance of their students. There have been many studies that sought to examine this issue and most of these studies have focused on pointing out the hard work, demographic variables (education, income, age, marital status), self-motivation as factors that have a significant effect on the MBA student's academic performance. Besides these factors, some social (student-class mates relationships, student-lecturer relationships), individual (work experience, skills) and organizational (location, work atmosphere, technology facilities) factors are assumed to have effect on MBA student's academic success. The aim of this study is to determine some factors effecting MBA Students' performance at Institution of Business Economics of Istanbul University. Accordingly, demographic, social, individual and organizational factors are studied. A survey is conducted to collect the data. Categorical Regression Analysis (CATREG) is applied as Statistical Method. CATREG is an optimal scaling method and can be used when the dependent variable and also the independent variables are any combination of numeric, nominal and ordinal. Categorical regression quantifies categorical data by assigning numerical values to the categories, resulting in an optimal linear regression equation for the transformed variables. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.