Global B-schools come calling for case studies

After executive education, case study generation draws international management schools to India

Come September, the Indian School of Business (ISB) will have its exclusive collection of case studies at Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard University, US.

ISB is not the first institute to join this league. The Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) already has a collection of 60 case studies in HBP's catalogue. HBP publishes management content for academics, students and professionals. For the academic year 2012, HBP sold more than a crore of cases. Its revenue went up to $165 mn from $152 mn in 2011. Non-US revenue makes for 31 per cent of HBP's total revenue.

"We want to establish the ISB brand for India cases. When people look for India cases, we want them to look at the ISB and the ISB-Ivey collection. We want to have the largest share in the number of India cases being used by B-schools world wide," said Arun Pereira, clinical associate professor of management education, and executive director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Case Development at ISB.

ISB produces about 30 cases every year, written only by ISB faculty (both visiting and resident).

CAMPUS CASE

• Richard Ivey School and HBP have joined hands with ISB and IIM-B
• In 2012, over 120 universities from 40 countries used IIM-B cases
• IIM-B’s target is to publish 30 new cases every year
• ISB sold 15,000 cases in 40 countries last year
• IIM-B has 60 case studies in HBP’s catalogue
• During a two-year management course, students may use 800-1000 case studies
• Publishing houses buy case studies, distribute them to various B-schools and pay royalty on the published cases

IIM-B, on the other hand, partnered with Harvard Business Publishing India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Harvard Business School Publishing Corp, in 2011 to supply 24 case studies from the institute every year. Many Ivy League universities such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Yale used IIM-B cases in the 2012-13 academic year.

"Last year, more than 120 universities from 40 countries used IIM-B cases distributed through HBP," said professor Dinesh Kumar, chairperson of research and publications at IIM- B.

Other than IIM-B, 21 more B-schools have their case studies collection at HBP, including INSEAD, Ivey Publishing, Kellogg School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Tsinghua University and University of Hong Kong.

A case study is a detailed account of any company, industry, or project over a given period of time. The content may include information ranging from company objectives, strategies, challenges, results, legal frameworks, recommendations, etc. Case studies may be brief or extensive, ranging from four pages to 30 pages or more.

Case studies are widely used across B-schools to teach students how to assess business situations to facilitate decision-making. During the course of any two-year management programme, students may use as many as 800-1,000 case studies.

Publishing houses, which buy Indian case studies, distribute these to various B-schools they have academic relationships with.

B-schools, on the other hand, are paid royalty on the published cases.

HBP, however, is not the only organisation interested in Indian case studies. Last year, Canada-based Richard Ivey School of Business collaborated with IIM-B and ISB to develop joint case studies.

ISB also holds the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition aimed at expanding the pool of case studies on Indian organisations. In its fourth edition now, the event is supported by Ivey Publishing (the publishing arm of Ivey Business School), the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS).

Ivey Publishing mentors publish the top cases from this competition. Ivey is the largest source of Indian cases. Ivey Publishing adds one India based case every week to the India case collection the collection has gone up from 50 cases in 2009 to 345 currently. Total Indian business school faculty trained by Ivey to write and teach with cases in India since 2009: about 550 by end May 2013

 

In India, IIM-Ahmedabad is the leader among Indian B-schools in terms of the number of cases generated and published, followed by IIM-B.

While statistics on the case study market in India is hard to come by, B-schools say the growing trend is to have more of their own Indian cases as students demand the same.

"In any course, the entire emphasis is on bringing in your own case(s) and take them globally," says Pankaj Chandra, director, IIM-B. "This trend will grow further as it is a very strong pedagogy for B-school teaching."

In India, IIM-Ahmedabad is the leader in terms of the number of cases generated and published, followed by IIM-B.

B-schools expect the number of cases published from India to double in the next year-from the present 40 to 80. However, barring the top 10-15 B-schools, participation from most B-schools in the country in case study generation and publication is said to be thin.

"A lot of institutions in the country generate 'case-lets' (a few pages written on a certain topic or a company). That does not qualify as a case study. Many B-schools need to do a lot of work on this front," said the director of an IIM on condition of anonymity.

B-school professors say this interest from international B-schools in India is only set to grow as many are interested in knowing and learning what's happening in India.

"As businesses become stagnant in the West, the developed world is looking at emerging markets. When growth is in this part of the world, decisions are being made about issues of this part of the world. It is a natural progression and there is going to be more and more interest in India," adds Pereira of ISB.