IIM-A to publish case studies

Not restricting the institute’s knowledge creation activities within the campus, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is set to create a publishing platform for case studies of B-schools across the country. The premier institute will conduct editing and quality check before publishing the case studies through its platform.

Using its editorial quality and international standards, IIM-A aims to become a conduit for publishing case studies for other institutes. “There are several institutes across the country who have produced some of the most brilliant works in terms of case studies but don’t have a platform for showcasing these works. So far, we, at IIM-A, made use of the international platform that we have to publish our own case studies. But now we intend to provide a similar platform to these institutes. We will put in our editorial and other quality checking aspects into these case studies before publishing them through our channels,” says Samir Barua, director of IIM-A.

Barua adds that IIM-A’s value addition to case studies of other institutes will be in terms of quality check and publishing. “We will be sort of case clearing house for these institutes. While we haven’t identified any institutes so far, hopefully we will have this network by the end of the year wherein we can invite institutes to get their case studies published through this channel. Of course, the credit will that be of the original author only,” he points out.

The move is already being welcomed by the sector. “There are lot of tier-II and tier-III institutes who can use this platform for showcasing their case studies. In our country, except for some top 50 institutes, hardly anyone writes case studies. The initiative by IIM-A will do give such institutes a boost,” says Suresh Ghai, director of KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies.

“The problem in India is that companies usually don’t come out and help institutes to write case studies on them unless it is some premier institutes like the IIMs. The institutes, therefore, have to depend more on secondary data rather than primary. With IIM-A acting as a conduit, it will be much easier for institutes to write case studies and get them published,” Ghai adds.