INSEAD Europe Campus - By night
INSEAD Europe Campus - By night

The Role of Research in Business School Education

INSEAD Europe Campus - By night
INSEAD Europe Campus - By night

Business needs thought leadership
In the great universities of the world, including the world’s top business schools such as INSEAD, there is an interesting marriage of research and teaching. Why should those professors who teach students in undergraduate, masters, and professional programmes also be active in research, when most of these students will not follow a research career ? Why would there be a synergy between research and teaching within universities ?

 

INSEAD research is a complex ecosystem with two sides
On one hand, we have professors who combine research and teaching, research fellows who engage only in research, and doctoral students who produce their own research and assist in the classroom. On the other hand, we have MBA students, participants in shorter open-enrollment executive programmes, companies who come for tailored courses, governments and private foundations that fund basic research, and organisations looking for research on specific topics.

 

Research facilitates novelty in the classroom
When teaching, professors draw not just from their own research, but also the research of thousands of colleagues around the world. However, the contribution of research to teaching goes beyond innovation. The research process is all about studying a complex world, picking it apart into manageable pieces, creating conceptual frameworks for understanding it, and carefully measuring what affects what. And this is same approach to the world that we take into the classroom, so that we can help participants make decisions in their complex worlds. Participants come to INSEAD to acquire knowledge that even 4+ years of work experience cannot accomplish, such as (a) frameworks and generalisable principles that help them organise their thoughts about a complex world in order to make high-level decision; and (b) ideas about new ways to run businesses and be productive.

 

And how does teaching aid research?
I am an economist, and not even a particularly applied one, yet several of my papers at INSEAD came directly out of classroom experiences. Even thinking about how to teach “basic” material has given me new ideas on how to model economic phenomena. I have also gotten new research ideas from the experiences and challenges related to me by the participants and from companies I interact with through teaching.

 

Research is a fundamental component of the PhD Programme at INSEAD
Our doctoral degree trains students in cutting edge research methodologies to enable participants to contribute to a global body of knowledge that informs how business is and should be conducted. Because of the international, cultural and geographical diversity at INSEAD, we also offer a unique interdisciplinary approach when it comes to research. Professors and PhD students collaborate across disciplines, across areas of specialisation, and across campuses.

 

INSEAD has nine research centers and seven initiatives addressing a broad range of issues and industries
In Paris, INSEAD also has a behavioral research Centre where over 40,000 people have participated in studies. INSEAD has also launched an eLab initiative which represents INSEAD’s commitment to management excellence in the digital economy. These research centers bring together faculty members who have agreed to support a common research agenda. In many cases, they may provide unique opportunities for INSEAD PhDs to work alongside the INSEAD faculty from different academic departments.

 

Faculty and research at INSEAD
As Dean of Faculty and Research, I am responsible for setting the conditions for research and teaching excellence. Our strong culture of research at INSEAD includes corridor conversations, research seminars, research assistance, mentoring, the PhD programme, and much more. Our faculty considers teaching another fulfilling and interesting activity rather than a chore. They feel lucky to have a profession with a varied set of tasks that range from a little quiet time in the office, a lot of research interaction on campus, presenting work at other schools and at conferences, teaching, designing our programmes, meeting with participants, and helping other stakeholders. Their research includes both fundamental disciplinary research and applied research and case studies targeted to our teaching programmes. Thus, at INSEAD you benefit from our entrepreneurial intellectualism and from the interaction with a culturally diverse and academically distinguished set of faculty.

 

ProfesseurIlian MIHOV (Bulgarie)
Doyen de l’INSEAD Professeur d’Économie Professeur titulaire de la chaire Novartis de management et d’environnement
Le Professeur Ilian Mihov a été nommé Doyen de l’INSEAD le 1er octobre 2013. Avant sa nomination en tant que Doyen de l’INSEAD, le professeur Mihov occupait le poste de Doyen par intérim depuis mars 2013. En qualité de Doyen du corps enseignant et de la recherche, Ilian Mihov était chargé, depuis 2011, du recrutement des nouveaux professeurs et du développement de plus de 140 enseignants de l’INSEAD. Ilian Mihov possède un doctorat de l’Université de Princeton et une  l’Université de Caroline du Sud où, en 2006, il reçoit la distinction intitulée « Distinguished Young Alumnus » (éminent jeune ancien élève).

 

Timothy Van Zandt, Insead Dean
Of Faculty And Research