Faculty & Research

INSEAD faculty have always been at the heart of the school’s mission to bring together people, cultures and ideas, with the goal of transforming business and society. And there is no doubt that orchestrating these encounters became more difficult for our professors in the virtual world of the pandemic. The full reopening of our campuses in 2021/2022 thus marked an upsurge in the unique intellectual energy that our faculty generate for INSEAD.

In addition to face-to-face teaching, events included the first in-person Faculty Retreat in four years, held in June 2022 in Fontainebleau. An unprecedented occasion in the same month was a conference in celebration of the 90th birthday of Emeritus Professor Bob Ayres, who joined INSEAD in 1992 and is considered as one of the fathers of industrial ecology. It is an honour to count a true pioneer of sustainability scholarship among our faculty.

Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, creators of the highly influential “Blue Ocean Strategy” model featured once again in the 2021 Thinkers50 ranking of business thought leaders. They were joined in the rankings by colleagues, Erin Meyer and Gianpiero Petriglieri (both from the Organisational Behaviour research area). In addition, Hilke Plassmann (Marketing) was made a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2022 

^{* Rising to 166 resident faculty and 40 women faculty on 1 October 2022, when two new affiliate professors joined}

Although INSEAD’s vibrant community of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral students and research professionals succeeded in maintaining both quality and quantity – and even discovered new avenues of investigation – during the Covid-19 years, there is no doubt that the chance to reconvene on campus in 2021/2022 sparked new inspiration and new insights. Over the months, the INSEAD research environment was greatly reinvigorated by the renewal of lively debate and exchange of ideas.

Groundbreaking scholarly discovery with a practical, international focus continues in many fields – from the value of emotional intelligence to the impact of AI and machine learning, from the circular economy to the challenges of hybrid working, and from the war in Ukraine to the world’s most innovative countries. As usual, many INSEAD-authored academic articles were nominated for prestigious awards. Winners included: Abhishek Borah (Journal of Marketing), Olivier Dessaint (Review of Financial Studies) and Wolfgang Ulaga (Academy of Marketing Science).

Among the year’s many pedagogical publications were several new “immersive learning” case studies, delivered through virtual reality (VR) headsets, of which there are now over 30 examples. This makes INSEAD a true world leader in an important field of teaching innovation. Much more than a passing trend, VR promotes active and interactive modes of learning that are proven to increase understanding and knowledge retention.

As usual, the school was among the leading recipients of awards for more traditional case studies (see graphic), all available through the INSEAD Case Publishing website.

It is vital that INSEAD research is not just rigorous but also directly relevant to real-life challenges and practices. This requires closeness to business, with much of the school’s collaboration with companies driven by the work of our interdisciplinary centres and initiatives. There were 18 in operation during 2021/2022, all focusing on areas of strategic importance to both INSEAD and business.

Two of the 18 – The INSEAD–Sorbonne Université Behavioural Lab in Paris and the Centre for Organisational Research in Singapore – are “research enablers”, open to faculty from any academic area and involving real people in experiments and surveys. 2021/2022 saw the publication of 21 peer-reviewed articles in leading academic journals based on data previously collected at the Behavioural Lab. This year saw the Centre for Organisational Research expand its pool of Singapore-based research participants by 49% to 2,280 professionals from all walks of life.

Similarly, the Initiative for Learning and Teaching Excellence (iLITE), is a powerful “teaching enabler”, which also carries out research into pedagogical best practices. It provided vital support for faculty during the enforced transition to virtual programme delivery. Now that professors and students are fully reunited on campus, the team is building on the innovations and lessons learned during the pandemic and looking to understand the specific demands of teaching hybrid programmes.

Also focused on developing solutions to issues facing business and society, the Healthcare Management Initiative once again organised the MBA Master Strategist Day. This annual event gets the entire MBA cohort to work with a real-life not-for-profit organisation facing real-world challenges. This time the initiative collaborated with the Almouneer Diabetic Eye Clinic chain in Egypt, and asked MBA students to develop potential strategies for the organisation’s expansion.

Further knowledge exchange was made possible at the 10th Annual PhD Student Consortium hosted by the INSEAD–Wharton Centre for Global Research and Education. The Centre also held six joint research seminars and supported faculty in publishing seven articles in leading academic journals with 12 further research collaborations in progress.

The INSEAD Corporate Governance Centre was also busy, publishing two global survey reports on sustainability governance in partnership with Boston Consulting Group and Heidrick & Struggles. In terms of new teaching resources, the Global Private Equity Initiative produced a new case study describing the ESG journey of Pro-invest Group, an asset management and investment firm, and the INSEAD Africa Initiative ran a programme on Valuation and Risk Management in Banking in Rwanda.

Finally, The Rudolf and Valeria Maag INSEAD Centre for Entrepreneurship continued to promote innovation and enterprise among our community through their start-up bootcamps and their biannual INSEAD Venture Competition (IVC). The 44th IVC received a record 187 submissions from 530 participants with Nalati Restaurant & Event taking the Grand Prize.

The Knowledge team returned to campus in 2021/2022 to launch a brand-new website, complete with a transformed logo and streamlined, contemporary design. This marked the first step in the revamp of all the INSEAD websites.

The content is now much easier to read, as well as being more accessible on both desktop and mobile devices. This year also saw the implementation of a new editorial strategy to both expand the format and range of articles provided and allow us to tap into faculty expertise with comment articles on trending global topics. Another highlight of the year is the ongoing collaboration with the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society, which resulted in ten new articles in the wide-ranging ‘Crossroads: Business and Society’ series.

The team’s translation of INSEAD research for a practitioner audience had the same clarity and perfect pitch as ever. As a result, Knowledge continues to take INSEAD insights to an ever-wider audience, as confirmed by the year’s usage statistics and high levels of engagement.

Media Coverage

INSEAD faculty and spokespersons have contributed to top media outlets including BBC, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, CNBC, Financial Times, Forbes, South China Morning Post, Les Echos, Le Figaro,The Business Times Singapore, The Economist, The New York Times, Nikkei, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, to share their latest research and opinions. These partnerships strengthen INSEAD’s position as a thought leader in business, economics, and societal spheres while reinforcing the school’s mission and values.

Key stories that drove faculty media coverage included research and commentary on relevant business topics (management education, remote work, digitalisation, crypto crisis, technology layoffs, AI), environmental issues (climate change), geopolitical events (war, civil crises), and economic and societal trends (diversity, equality and inclusion, healthcare, interest rates, growth and outlook, inflation and cost of living).