Bangalore: Although much criticized, the scholarly research activity at business schools appears to add considerable economic value to the future salaries of the MBA students, said a study in the current issue of Academy of Management Learning and Education. The study titled, "Does Business School Research Add Economic Value for Students?", was co-authored by Jonathan P. O'Brien of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Paul L. Drnevich and Craig E. Armstrong of the University of Alabama, and T. Russell Crook of the University of Tennessee. It said that the average salary of MBAs from the top 100 schools of three years post-graduation is about $115,000. The researchers estimate that the salary premium resulting from an optimal research program amounts to about $24,000 per year. The study was conducted in 658 schools. According to the researches, the schools, concentrated on researches, generally do a better job in helping their students obtain and sharpen their knowledge, skills, and abilities, which pays financial returns to the students through their future jobs. The findings are the outcome of an analysis of the relationship of research productivity at American and other business schools and the salaries of MBAs three years after receiving their degrees. On the other hand, the salary data were obtained in the period 2001 through 2008 by the Financial Times as part of its annual ranking of the top business schools worldwide. Data on research productivity were obtained from a social science citation index for the eight years coinciding with the period the post-MBAs were enrolled in business schools. The investigators were at pains to separate the possible effects of research productivity from those of other factors that are likely to influence post-MBA salaries, such as schools' reputations and schools' financial resources. To control for the latter the researchers employed a measure of schools' operating budgets per full-time faculty member, and to control for the former they divided the schools into three tiers -- tier 1 consisting of the top 50 schools in the FT rankings, tier 2 consisting of the schools ranked 51 to 100, and tier 3 consisting of all other schools. The study also shows that MBAs from tier-1 schools average about 27 percent more salary per year than those from tier-3 schools, and that MBAs from top-budget schools earn about 30 percent more than those from schools with average budgets.