Two marketing researchers, at New York University and the University of Florida, have published a study that contradicts earlier findings that business schools shortchange students by focusing on academic research instead of practical business skills.

The new study, published in the September issue of The Journal of Marketing, is based on data from 57 business schools over 18 years.

Peter N. Golder, an associate professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Debanjan Mitra, an assistant professor at Florida’s Warrington College of Business Administration, found that when faculty members publish more research, the starting salaries of their graduates increase, recruiters view the schools more favorably, and the schools’ rankings by their peers bump up a slot.

The earlier report, published in 2005 in the Harvard Business Review, concluded that business schools were “institutionalizing their own irrelevance” by emphasizing scientific research at the expense of useful business skills and ethics training. That article was written by Warren G. Bennis and James O’Toole of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

“The most surprising result from this study was that more academic research actually leads to higher student salaries, a finding that directly counters Bennis and O’Toole’s opinion that students, more than any other constituency, are most shortchanged by business schools’ focus on academic research,” Mr. Golder said. “Academic research builds reputation in tangible and intangible ways, and we now have the evidence to support the case.” —Katherine Mangan