About the College of Business

Become the Leader in Christian Business Education

Develop business leaders who embrace the values and virtues of Jesus.

Specifically, the mission of the college is to encourage the adoption of five targeted values and virtues of Jesus. To the extent that the mission is accomplished in a student or others, that person will become more Purposeful, Bold, Credible, Creative, and a higher level Servant. The college mission is inspired by the following:

"And David shepherded them with integrity of the heart; with skillful hands he led them.” (Psalm 78:72)

• A purposeful leader is determined and disciplined, striving to achieve an organization’s most important and meaningful objectives, while being a good steward of the resources with which he or she has been entrusted.  (Luke 14:28; Matthew 25:14)
• A bold leader is strong and courageous, seeking to be influential and willing to challenge the limits of conventional thought.  (Deuteronomy 31:6; 1 Corinthians 16:13; 2 Timothy 1:7)
• A credible leader is truthful and trustworthy, displaying both competence and confidence. (Matthew 6:21; 1 Corinthians 13:6; Luke 16:10-12)
• A creative leader is imaginative and adaptive, embracing change and creating opportunities from that change. (John 8:1-11; Luke 10)
• A servant leader is humble, compassionate, and approachable, encouraging others to be their best through the personal example they set. (Philippians 2:3-11; Matthew 5)

Learn how our college stacks up to similarly accredited institutions.

To give you an unbiased evaluation of its quality standards, the college uses the independently developed and administered Peregrine Exam to measure performance on a set of business subjects and skills commonly taught in colleges of business. The scores produced allow the college to compare the performance of its students on the exam against learning goal standards to the performance of students attending similar colleges.

College of Business graduating seniors also complete a detailed survey as well as a comprehensive student satisfaction inventory. These are repeated annually to track key benchmarks. The captured data and critical feedback are used to make decisions, just as students are taught to do. Thus, we practice what we teach! Finally, the college is interested in how its graduates are doing after they graduate. To that end, Lipscomb's Career Development Center updates the college regularly on undergraduate job placement rates following graduation.

Here are some of the objectives set as learning goals—the “30,000-foot” overview of the education undergraduate business students receive. Graduates will demonstrate:

1. High levels of business acumen in: marketing, finance, accounting, management, economics, global dimensions of business, the legal environment of business and business integration/strategic management
2. Effective communication skills
3. Skill to work effectively in team environments
4. Understanding of the characteristics of ethical behavior
5. Capacity to use quantitative skills and information systems skills for decision making.

How is the College of Business doing? Pretty well.

Regarding Job Placement after Graduation:

• 100% students successfully placed after graduation in 2016-2017 in two out of four major areas of study: Accounting and Finance. Management and Marketing placement rates exceeded 80%.

Want more detailed information? Here’s a longer report of our quality indicators:

Undergraduate QI Report

Learn how our college stacks up to similarly accredited institutions.

To provide an unbiased evaluation of graduate program College of Business quality standards as possible, the college uses independently developed and administered assessment programs to measure performance on a set of business subjects and skills commonly taught in graduate programs and to determine levels of satisfaction with their programs of study. The scores produced enable the college to compare the performance of its students on the exam to the performance of students attending similar colleges. Following are some of these results

Iliad Assessment

Incoming graduate business MBA students are administered the Iliad Assessment as part of orientation (pre-test) and again as they graduate (post-test) to measure improvement in a variety of areas.

The Iliad Assessment exercise is designed to access personal and interpersonal skills in a number of job-relevant situations. Iliad allows the College of Business (CoB) to help students develop leadership skills. It also assists the CoB in evaluating the curriculum and in continuously improving its programs.

Results

• Overall, the average student moved from the 52^nd to the 55^th percentile in skill sets, with strong score increases for initiative and communication.
• In terms of raw skill scores, Lipscomb’s average student reflected improvements across three of the five skill sets: initiative, organizing, and communication.
• For Iliad’s InBasket activity, Lipscomb’s average student reflected increased scores across all four performance areas: work pace, attention to detail, prioritization, and writing quality.
• Scores for the average student reflected an increase in the score for ethical sensitivity.

Thunderbird Global Mindset Inventory

The goal for students in our graduate MBA program, which requires an international experience for most graduate students, is to develop a global mindset, have a multi-cultural perspective regarding the business enterprise, and to acquire the leadership skills necessary to be a successful leader in a global organization. The Thunderbird Global Mindset Inventory is administered to students both prior to, and after returning from, a global business travel experience.

Results

• Students’ global business savvy increased significantly as a result of the global travel experience and related activities, which included enhanced pre-trip sessions and global company visits that emphasized each Thunderbird element.
• Post-trip global business savvy increased by fifty percent over pre-trip measurements.  Savvy was defined and based on the knowledge of global industry, global competitive business and marketing strategies, how to transact business and assess the risks of international business, and supplier operations in other parts of the world.
• Post-trip interpersonal impact increased by twenty percent over pre-trip measurements, and post-trip cosmopolitan outlook increased by twenty-five percent over pre-trip measurements.

Here are some learning objectives that the college measures — the “30,000-foot” overview of the education College of Business graduate students receive. Graduates will demonstrate:

• Effective communication skills.
• Ability to critically and analytically evaluate complex business problems.
• Knowledge of the components of ethical behavior when making business decisions.
• Business acumen and specialized skills required to succeed in their chosen profession and in accordance with the particular graduate program in which they complete their studies.

Want more detailed information? Here’s a longer report of our quality indicators:

Graduate QI Report