Faculty & Research

The school’s remarkable success over the last decade has been powered by the research, teaching and leadership of INSEAD’s faculty. Their current strength – in numbers and academic excellence – promises an even more successful decade to come.

Another of our most influential professors was the recipient of an internal honour, becoming the first holder of the Kurt Björkland Chair in Innovation and Growth. The new endowed position was inaugurated in November 2022 and awarded to economist, Professor Philippe Aghion, who is known worldwide for his work on economic growth driven by innovation.

Research is the engine that drives not only INSEAD’s reputation but also our growth. The ideas generated by our vibrant intellectual community of faculty and researchers, led by Dean of Research, Professor Lily Fang, strengthen our status as a thought leader for global business and lay the foundations for the success of our programmes, events and communications.

This focus continued this Academic Year with the establishment of two new initiatives: the INSEAD Sustainable Business Initiative and the Negotiation and Conflict Management Collaborative. Existing centres and initiatives such as the INSEAD Gender Initiative, the INSEAD Africa Initiative, and the James M. and Catherine D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality have also served as meeting points and platforms to connect our faculty and researchers internally, and to synergise our work with the world outside, helping to address some of the world’s most pressing issues.

We have also received research funds from many generous donors, focusing on areas as diverse as: Sustainability and virtual reality case studies; ESG finance; embedding the UN SDGs in business education; and research into issues of gender parity in the workplace. This funding has increased our output of relevant and rigorous award-winning research and further enhanced our research reputation, more broadly.

Above all, a transformational gift of €40 million in endowed funds from an alumnus in 2020 not only reflects the recognition of INSEAD research, but shields the annual research and innovation budget needs from the school’s business fluctuations.

Academic Year 2022–2023 was a particularly busy year for conferences, symposia and summits on our campuses. These not only showcase our own research, but also bring together some of the world’s best thinkers to spark new ideas. In partnership with Wharton, INSEAD jointly hosted the two-day Responsible Research in Business Management Conference in June 2023 on the Europe Campus, which in the same month also welcomed delegates to the Hoffmann Institute's Business and Society Summit.

Another highlight was the 12th Tri-Annual Choice Symposium on our Europe Campus. This year, some 350 leading scholars from around the world spent 3.5 days in 26 different workshops, taking a multidisciplinary deep-dive into some of the big questions of the day, ranging from combatting misinformation to the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse, to sustainable and healthy food.

Other events covered a variety of topics such as: accounting; behavioural perspectives on corporate governance; consumer choice; the creative industries; entrepreneurship; finance; information and learning in decision making and operations; and international economics.

In addition, the Marketing and Sales Excellence Initiative held a number of bootcamps and discovery events, both in person and online, during the year. The Africa Initiative supported the school’s annual Africa Business Conference. And the digital@INSEAD Team ran a ‘Future Forum’ in Paris on how Web3 will transform the fashion and luxury industry.

To consolidate the Research and Learning Hub’s mission to support academic excellence, the digital collection has grown to add valuable resources. The physical spaces, formerly known as libraries, remain havens for peaceful reading and reflection – including the Tanoto Research and Learning Hub in Singapore, which started a planned renovation project during the Academic Year.

This exciting new venture, launched in March 2023, is the first subscription-based platform of its kind from a top business school. Combining content, community, curation and credentials, the INSEAD Learning Hub democratises the INSEAD learning experience – and puts it in everyone’s pocket.

The mission of this global initiative is to transform management education – and particularly the 100-year-old case study method – through immersive, tech-enabled experiences. Research proves that learning acquired through immersion in virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR) is more engaging and memorable – and therefore more effective than traditional methods.

For several years now, the Immersive Learning Initiative has been developing immersive case studies, known as 'VR experiences'. In 2023, we launched the INSEAD XR portal. The innovative platform hosts the world’s most extensive collection of learning experiences using VR technology, coupled with a comprehensive, scalable, cost-effective and user-friendly solution for bringing these immersive learning experiences to classrooms, worldwide.

We now have a library of 20+ VR experiences, covering a wide range of management topics and which transport participants to locations ranging from Abu Dhabi to Zanzibar – and even as far as Mars. Using industry-standard headsets, case studies can be delivered on campus, off campus and online.

Already, 40+ faculty members are involved, and five other schools are using our materials. In 2022–2023 alone, we reached 5,000+ learners.

The Immersive Learning Initiative Team is based on the Middle East Campus. The team works with faculty to develop new materials and supports the use of existing experiences. In addition, they run and host pioneering events. In 2022–2023, these included the first ever regional VR Immersive Teaching Workshop in October and the first Annual Meeting of the Global XR Management Community in June. An amazing year for the Initiative culminated in the news that Academic Director, Professor Ithai Stern, was to receive the Strategic Management Society’s prestigious Educational Impact Award for 2023.

Headquartered on the Middle East Campus, digital@INSEAD is a global initiative dedicated to exploring and understanding digital technologies, as well as their applications and impact on business, management and society. To stay at the forefront of the global digital transformation, the initiative is building and engaging with a global community of students, alumni, faculty, researchers, policy makers and practitioners across academic areas and industries. In an era of unprecedented and accelerating technological and social change, we are helping to shape a more inclusive, responsible and sustainable digital future.

In addition, the team contributed to growing the INSEAD case studies collection on digital transformation and organised extracurricular MBA projects, competitions and treks. In November 2022, the sixth edition of our product management competition, the Product Games, held in partnership with Accenture, challenged 44 student teams from 22 business schools to build a product leveraging non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as a force for good.

In March 2023, we launched INSEAD's first crack-the-case strategy competition on sustainability and digital transformation – also supported by Accenture. During the summer of 2023, we organised the seventh edition of the Summer Start-Up Tour with nine student teams visiting over 20 countries to meet founders, venture capitalists and incubators across a wide range of sectors, including FoodTech, ClimateTech and AI.