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Archive for the ‘Management Researchers’ Category

IIM-Calcutta pips its peers in research projects

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The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) is leading the way in research project, pipping its peers IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and IIM-Bangalore (IIM-B).Of the top three IIMs, IIM-C published 40 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, and presented 25 papers at international conferences during 2010-11, according to the institute’s annual report. IIM-B, on its part, saw eight research and seven case writing projects being completed and published during the same period. In comparison, however, the oldest premier B-school IIM-A saw only one research project being completed as against 42 in 2009-10.

Such has been the struggle for improving research at its campus that in the annual report, Samir Barua, Director, IIM-A said, “Several new initiatives, including organisation of case writing workshops, were taken during the year to increase the number of cases being written by faculty of the institute.”

IIM-A has initiated a new performance system wherein research will be given equal weightage as teaching in annual appraisals of faculty members. In terms of consulting projects being completed, IIM-A scored against its peer with 105 in 2010-11. Its counterpart, IIM-B, saw 19 consulting projects being completed for the same period.

Even in terms of research projects being initiated in 2010-11, IIM-C pipped its peers with 13 new projects, followed by nine by IIM-A and eight by IIM-B. IIM-C also had more number of projects published on international platform as compared to its peer institutions.

“Our faculty members published around 40 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented around 25 papers at international conferences during the year. The institute funded 13 new research projects undertaken by faculty members and two projects received external funding support,” said Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman of Board of Governors at IIM-C.

Further, a new faculty promotion policy was implemented this year at IIM-C with the objective of further strengthening the research environment. During the year the IIM-C funded 13 new research projects. Of these, 12 projects were in the Rs. 100,000 category and one was in the Rs. 500,000 category. In addition to this, two other research projects were launched by faculty members through external funding.

“In line with the institute’s long-term vision we saw significant progress in our efforts to transform into a research-based organisation, in terms of growth in scholarly publications as well as case studies and teaching aids,” said Pankaj Chandra, Director of IIM-B in its annual report of 2010-11. IIM-B has already entered into an agreement with Harvard Business Publishing, under which the latter will distribute its collection of teaching cases.

Experts, however, believe that Indian institutes need to put in more efforts to improve quality to achieve international standards. “India’s research base already has some outstanding activity but, it appears, thinly spread; and while research generally is often ‘very good’ it is more rarely ‘internationally excellent’. The underlying patterns of excellence and an explanation for India’s ‘deficit’ compared to other countries requires further investigation,” said Jonathan Adams, Director, Research Evaluation, Thompson Reuters, had told Business Standard.

Indian universities, added Adams, produce a modest output of research that has really high global impact. By comparison, other growing research economies are producing not only more research but also more high quality research.

Source: Business Standard, September 13, 2012

Written by Jamshed Siddiqui

September 13, 2012 at 7:20 am

IIM-Ahmedabad tells faculty to research its way to glory

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The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), has directed all its professors to spend as much time on research as they do teaching. The IIM-A’s board of governors has also put in place a new performance measurement system in which research will be given as much weightage as teaching in the annual appraisals of its faculty.


“Research has become our main focus now,” Ajay Pandey, Dean (Faculty) at IIM-A told The Economic Times. “When the institute was set up (in 1961), India was nowhere in the global academic community. Also, nobody in the world was interested in India. The situation has changed. We now work with global organisations that have huge interest in Indian issues.”

An IIM-A faculty is also allowed to spend 53 days in a year for advisory and consulting work, which generates revenues for the institute. The new norms on research do not alter the time allotted for consulting. Earlier, research and related activities were considered only for promotions or for confirming teachers on probation. Faculty members will now need to do more research and get their work published in various journals, domestic as well as international. “If any research work is published in a top international journal, the faculty member would get higher credits. If a faculty member exceeds expectations, he will get higher credits…this will help them in their career,” Pandey added.

IIM-A has to focus on research if it wants to be one of the world’s top five institutes, said Nayan Parikh, President of IIM-A Alumni Association (Ahmedabad Chapter). “Research will also increase industry interface.” IIM-Ahmedabad PGPX was ranked 11th overall in the Financial Times, London, Global MBA Rankings 2012.

Research work is important
IIM-Ahmedabad, however, ranked 94 out of 100 B-schools when it came to research ranking. The research rank is based on the number of articles published by schools’ full-time faculty in 45 internationally recognised academic and practitioner journals. A study by London Business School’s ‘Aditya Birla India Centre’ professors Nirmalya Kumar and Phanish Puranam in 2011 suggests that IIM-A was ranked sixth in India, lower than ISB-Hyderabad, IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Bangalore, in publishing research papers between 1990-2009. The study was based on research by Indian B-schools published in FT top 40 journals. “Any institute requires intense research work to maintain and improve its position in teaching, in the academic field or in society,” Pandey said. “It is expected by all the sections that faculty at top institutes do good research. Research also helps faculty in teaching with depth in the classroom,” he added.

IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta have already stepped up emphasis on research. The former gave approximately 50% emphasis to research in faculty appraisals last year and the latter has allowed faculty to do more research and less teaching if they so desire. IIM-A faculty members published 19 books, six monographs, 57 journal articles, 25 book chapters and 103 articles in periodicals and dailies in 2010-11. The faculty also wrote 140 cases during the year for use in various courses.

The faculty, research staff and doctoral students of the institute also wrote 47 working papers, presented 159 papers and gave 121 lectures at various conferences and seminars. The institute is still compiling the data of research work for the year 2011-12. “IIM-A has always encouraged research. However, focus on research in academic culture of India and Asia has been inadequate for decades. There was a significant improvement in focus on research in the past decade,” said Bakul Dholakia, former IIM-A Director.

The new norms have their roots in the institute’s archives. A paper written during the tenure of IIM-A’s first full-time director Ravi Matthai (in the ’60s) had named teaching and research as the criteria for assessing the faculty. There is one problem though. While the number of students in the institute has almost doubled in the past few years the number of faculty has not increased. “IIM-A needs to double its faculty strength to realise its dreams,” Parikh said. IIM-A has around 85 faculty members and has been trying to increase it to 120 for the past few years.

Source: The Economic Times, July 3, 2012