ISB to set up a common research platform

The Indian School of Business (ISB) is in the process of creating a research platform that will allow faculty and scholars from various B-schools to work on common research projects.

Speaking to Business Standard, Charles Dhanraj, associate professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business and visiting faculty at the ISB, said the proposed body would have a corpus of Rs 50 crore. The institute is in talks with a couple of IT majors for financial support and would also approach venture capitalists for funding the programme.

“The research outfit will be formed in a few weeks but the results will start showing only after four years. It takes about two years for gathering data and making a draft thesis, which will then be reviewed by the peers,” says Dhanraj. This will also enable the faculty to get their research findings published in international journals.

The proposed body will have faculty and doctoral students from both overseas and Indian B-schools, including Indian Institutes of Management. As a prelude, ISB is conducting a faculty development programme next month. About 150 domestic and international business school faculty and doctoral students will meet and discuss their research agenda in the presence of a mentor. The conference will also identify certain themes for further research. ISB has received about 40 presentations and it is hoping that at least 50 per cent of these would be viable ideas for research.

“There is no focus on thought leadership. There is no new research happening. Unlike in western countries where it is mandatory for faculty to be engaged in research, teachers in India spend a majority of their time in just teaching,’’ he says.

Through this outfit, the western B-schools would help Indian faculty take up more research projects. At the same, Indian B-schools will lend an insight into what India is to international faculty, who will have to teach about the dynamics of developing nations like China and India.

“This will help in creating a level-playing field as the academic landscape of global business schools is fast changing. For instance, in the US, though the focus has shifted to reorienting financial resources for education progammes, the research culture there is still intact. In Europe, several new schools are coming up and they are looking to partner established foreign schools. In India, though most of the faculty are not engaged in research, the teaching segment is several notches ahead of others. With more IIMs in the offing, there is going to be a need for trained and skilled faculty,” feels Dhanraj.