Methodology adopted by Times B-School to provide the list of top B-Schools in India

The methodology adopted by Times B-School was to come up with the list of top business institutes in India. The research was conducted by considering past data and records also. The survey has been conducted by “i3 Research Consultants” using the following stated methodology. The fieldwork was done from the beginning of the 4^th week of December 2017 to 1^st week of February 2018.

The methodology has 3 major modules:

Desk Research
Factual Data Collection
Perceptual Survey

These modules are followed by scientifically developed analysis and ranking process.

Module 1: Desk Research- Listing of institutes

In this module listing of colleges was done. The colleges were found out by using internet, magazines etc. various sources used for generation of the list:

List of previous surveys
Discussion with experts in the field to add/remove any institutes name.

Module 2: Factual Data Collection

The data collected at this module focus on the following things.

Selection process
Affiliation / accreditations / collaborations
Learning components:

Curriculum
Faculty
Pedagogy

Future orientation

Global exposure
Industry interaction / live projects / corporate internship
Potential to network/alumni outreach

Infrastructure/facilities
Placement

Module 3: Perceptual Survey

In this module, a set of questions are prepared and is asked to selected respondents like HR professionals, faculty, management students, aspiring students, parents of aspiring students etc.. Depending upon their responses the ranking of colleges is decided. A sample survey of 1550 was done across 16 cities (4 cities in each zone).

Analysis: Final Ranking of B-Schools

To finalize the ranking a robust approach is used. Following steps are taken:

-Perceptual score

Various parameters were considered and weightage was provided for each parameter. They used a regression model to evaluate the importance of each parameter.
Calculation of raw score and weighted score for each parameter
Calculation of overall score for each school using weightage

-Factual score

Information collected corresponding to similar parameter as in perceptual survey
A detailed scoring system was developed for each parameter
After scores were assigned to different parameters, raw scores were calculated
Raw scores were weighted by their importance to arrive at weighted score
Final score was calculated as in the perception survey

-The final score for B-School was a weighted average of Perception score and Factual score – equal weightage has given to both.

-Rank of all those colleges where calculated which provided their factual data. Colleges which did not give their Factual data were excluded from the list.