ABSTRACT: International executive education is becoming a material source of revenue for universities, driven primarily by increased student demand and profit‐seeking objectives. Educators who are hired to teach in specialized programs are under pressure to provide world‐class content that is practically oriented to the daily work life of the executive student. Anecdotal evidence suggests a shorter half‐life for executive educators who fail to make concise connections between practice and theory. For these reasons, the course content of a financial accounting course offering both traditional accounting theory and relevant skill development via a supplemental case tool that emphasizes financial statement analysis including (1) the ability to locate key financial information, (2) calculation of key fundamental ratios, (3) interpretation of key financial components and note disclosures, and (4) the ability to understand industry trends and norms is crucial to the provision of relevant executive education. Learning outcomes measuring perceived beliefs of 79 executive students in three different financial accounting classes in the People's Republic of China are presented. The results strongly indicate that the perceived beliefs are statistically different in pre‐ and post‐assessments. This generalized approach can ameliorate the delivery of executive education and offer an alternative teaching pedagogy for an international executive M.B.A. financial accounting module that favors a financial statement analysis approach over the traditional transactions‐based model.
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1 November 2009
