Are female business students here to stay? Understanding retention variables that contribute to first-year business students

Abstract

High-level decision-making for companies typically occurs in the boardroom. The ability to reach the upper echelon is riddled with levels of inequality for women. Yet there is evidence to suggest companies run by women have higher rates of employee retention, equitable policies, and a higher fiscal bottom line. One way to assist women to the corporate boardroom is through an undergraduate degree in business, but within a rural, land-grant, open-enrollment, flagship institution in the West, there is a clear disconnect with first-year female business students enrolling and being retained from year one to year two of their academic career. Using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models, this study aims to understand the trends associated with retention within the Jake Jabs College of Business & Entrepreneurship at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Using data from an in-house survey from the fall of 2021, an exploratory factor analysis was run to uncover latent variables and reduce data reduction to create a simplified model. To further understand factors that assist or deter students from returning to their second year four logistic regression models were run through R-Studio. Results indicate the factor Gender (specifically female) was statistically significant in the 3rd model as well as the interaction variable Gender:FirstGeneration (specifically female first- generation) held moderate statistical significance. Females who also identify as first-generation students are having different lived first-year experiences than those who are male and first and continuing generation students. This study suggests administrators and policy makers look closely into female business students first-year experience within the Jabs College of Business, as well as investigate students who identify as first-generation with specific attention looked at through curriculum, professors, sense of belonging, diversity experiences, and levels of satisfaction.