Faculty salary as a predictor of student outgoing salaries from MBA programs

The authors' purpose was to investigate the predictive value of faculty salaries on outgoing salaries of master of business administration (MBA) students when controlling for other student and program variables. Data were collected on 976 MBA programs using Barron's Guide to Graduate Business Schools over the years 1988-2005 and the Princeton Review's The Best 295 Business Schools 2014 edition. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted with student and program characteristics as control variables, faculty salary as the predictor variable, and average outgoing salary as the dependent variable. In general, higher faculty salaries were associated with higher starting salaries for MBA students upon graduation. Potential explanations and limitations are discussed.