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ABSTRACT

Microsoft Excel remains the primary spreadsheet software for numerical processing, computation, data analytics, and reporting in business schools across the United States. Given that Excel proficiency is a critical competency for business graduates, it also remains imperative that Excel skills are addressed as an essential component of the undergraduate business curriculum. Furthermore, Excel skills are also a critical issue in Information Systems education due to Excel's widespread use in end-user computing for business analytics and reporting. This study applies Bandura's self-efficacy theory to investigate how students' self-assessment of their Excel skills influences their confidence in solving business problems with Excel. A total of 113 undergraduate business students completed surveys which measured perceived Excel skills and self-efficacy. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the findings. T-tests results revealed significant gender differences in Excel usage. Furthermore, differences in Excel proficiency were found among students in face-to-face and online courses. Multiple regression analysis showed a positive correlation between higher self-rated Excel skills, job-related Excel performance, and overall self-efficacy in using Excel. The findings offer implications for educators to further understand and enhance students' Excel self-efficacy within the business curriculum as a principal tool for quantitative and analytical reasoning.

Keywords: Business data analytics, IS education, Job skills, Spreadsheets

1. INTRODUCTION

The demand for business graduates to readily use data analytics knowledge and skills to solve business problems has increased substantially in recent years (Cainas et al., 2021). Among the available tools for these solutions, Microsoft Excel (Excel) continues to be the most popular, ubiquitous, and effective data analytics tool since its introduction 40 years ago. Additionally, there is a high certainty that Excel will remain primary among the tools available in contemporary business analytics toolkits. The persistence and prevalence of Excel is a testament and reflection of the lasting importance of end user computing, and Excel continues to serve as a "go-to" data management and analytical tool within many functional (non-IT) enterprise units (Rebman et al., 2023). Being a broad category of quantitative activities, data analytics takes many forms; however, data analytics commonly begins and ends with end-user-focused desktop solutions such as Excel. Thus, Excel skills remain an essential personal competency for many quantitative and analytics functions within an organization. For this study, data...

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