04
Faculty & Research - 2020
Sub Title
Learn about the ideas, innovation and inquiry driving academic excellence
Over the course of the year, we recruited eight new professors, taking the number of resident faculty in September 2020 to 168 – another record total. With 93 based in Europe, 69 in Asia, four in the Middle East, two in the USA, and 41 nationalities in total, our professors are also more international than ever before.
The quality of our research is arguably even more impressive than the quantity of our great minds. We are consistently ranked among the best institutions in the world for the quality, depth and volume of our research output. This year, INSEAD faculty published 133 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals, 52 working papers, nine books and 43 case studies. Placed at #6 in the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) Top 100 Worldwide Business School Research Rankings, the school maintained its position in the global top ten for academic contribution. In addition, INSEAD research rose two places in the Financial Times Global MBA ranking.
Our output of teaching materials continues to shine as brightly as our academic research, with the Case Centre Awards and Bestsellers lists dominated by INSEAD professors, including Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour Zoe Kinias, who won in the category “2020 Outstanding Case Writer: Hot Topic”. Her case study, written with EMC alumna Felicia Henderson, explores the challenges facing the CEO of Australian Property Group, Mirvac, as she leads the “mainstreaming” of flexible working across the organisation.
Today, “Mirvac (A) and (B)” and other INSEAD case studies are easier to access than ever, thanks to the launch in 2019/2020 of the INSEAD Publishing platform. Individuals and organisations can now purchase cases directly and instantly from INSEAD Case Publishing.
Professors Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne were ranked as the world’s most influential management thinkers at the practitioner-focused Thinkers50 awards in 2019/2020 – with Professors Erin Meyer and Gianpiero Petriglieri improving their rankings. In addition, three of the 30 rising thinkers in the “Radar Class of 2020” are INSEAD professors: Maria Guadalupe, Michael Y. Lee and Kaisa Snellman. Meanwhile, Henning Piezunka was named in the Poets and Quants Best 40 Under 40 Professors.
As the COVID-19 pandemic advanced across the world during 2019/20, so INSEAD’s professors responded with agility. We were particularly fortunate to have the in-house expertise of the Initiative for Learning Innovation and Teaching Excellence (iLITE), led by Professor Gianpiero Petriglieri and Dr. Annie Peshkam. Their research based advice helped our professors to boost the “socio- emotional” side of their teaching as they moved their classes online, thereby strengthening the learning of their students. Our faculty embraced their digital sides by adopting regular polling, simulations and online breakout rooms that served to augment the teaching and learning experience.
The creativity of our faculty proved that a global crisis really can be a learning opportunity, with many professors addressing the pandemic in their teaching and case writing. To date, INSEAD has published a series of case studies on the diverging responses to COVID-19 in five different countries: China, France, Singapore, Sweden and the USA (by Professors Kaisa Snellman and Andy J. Yap). Another, by Professors David Dubois and Joerg Niessing, with co-author Katia Kachan, is about analyticsdriven research at a company in the Middle East and was one of the earliest published cases to study real-life corporate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was soon followed by Professor Phanish Puranam’s timely account of GitLab, an “allremote” company, co-authored with Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Marco Minervini, and Research Associate Jean Wee.
In-depth research into the pandemic has also flourished, from Professor Morten Bennedsen’s study of governmental furloughing policies to Professor Stanislav Shekshnia’s investigation of board chairs’ reaction to the crisis. Professors Phebo Wibbens and Wesley Koo were quick out of the gate as the pandemic struck, publishing an open- access analysis of COVID-19 policies by effectiveness that was widely cited. Meanwhile, Professor Prashant Yadav and the Humanitarian Research Group shared their extensive knowledge on the modelling and prevention of highly infectious disease outbreaks. Further articles already in the publishing pipeline include Professor Theos Evgeniou’s models for personalised isolation and exit policies based on clinical risk predictions.
Other faculty members found themselves much in demand by the global media on the basis of serendipitous earlier research. Professor Andy J. Yap’s contribution to Bloomberg on panic buying, based on a 2016 paper, is just one example of the 642 pieces of media coverage of INSEAD thought leadership related to COVID-19, highlighting the timeless relevance of INSEAD’s research.
As well as publishing case studies and academic research, INSEAD produces several reports and country rankings every year, working with prominent corporate partners such as Google and Adecco. These are not only valuable resources for companies and policy makers as they emerge from the pandemic, they also promote the rigour and relevance of our research to a global audience.
In 2020, the Global Innovation Index focused on the question of who will finance innovation in the fallout from COVID-19, while the Global Talent Competitiveness Index examined global talent in the age of AI. Switzerland topped both country rankings, while New York was the top city for talent.
Another long-term report series on the Institutionalisation of Family Firms focused its attentions on Europe in 2020, having previously covered Asia Pacific and Latin America.
In 2019/2020, we launched the China Initiative and the Centre for Organisational Research.
The China Initiative’s mission is to enhance research and teaching at INSEAD on the Chinese business landscape. Led by Professor Quy Huy and founded thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor, it is already a leading source of expertise on the myriad challenges and opportunities encountered by Chinese companies and senior executives, as well as foreign businesses operating – or planning to operate – in China.
The Centre for Organisational Research’s mission is to facilitate innovative research in organisational science at INSEAD, working with practitioners in Singapore and throughout Asia. Led by Professor Andy J. Yap, it has already involved research participants from the business community in studies on issues such as social interactions in the workplace and job interviews.
Even when campuses were forced to close, research continued as usual, thanks to the digital resources of INSEAD’s newly rebranded “Research and Learning Hubs”, digitally transformed library services, an investment that paid dividends in 2019/2020.
In keeping with INSEAD’s institution-wide commitment, the inauguration of the Bianca and James Pitt Chair in Environmental Sustainability in October 2019 was cause for celebration – all the more so as the first chair holder, Professor Atalay Atasu (PhD’07) is one of our own graduates.
Similarly, INSEAD’s faculty are playing a key role in spearheading school-wide action to promote equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in all its dimensions, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religion. As part of an EDI Core Team, a group of professors are applying their expertise to a broad range of activities such as staff training and programme marketing. Thus practice, teaching and research are coming together as a force for good.
The virtuous circle of scholarship, learning and institutional practice is set to become even stronger in the years to come, following the gift of €60 million from an alumnus to advance excellence in research. The anonymous donor rightly describes research as “the core of the school” and his words sum up its power to make a difference: “With this gift, I entrust INSEAD to continue to have a positive and lasting impact on many lives and business worldwide”.
Winner of 2020 Best Paper Award
ODC
Do we Have Time to Change Now? How Tensions in Valorizing Time Influence Planned Organizational Change, Academy of Management
Quy Huy
Winner of 2019 Sharpe Award
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
Are Buybacks Good for Long-term Shareholder Value? Evidence From Buybacks Around the World
Urs Peyer and Theo Vermaelen
2019 Best Paper Prize
Strategic Management Society Nomination | Strategic Management Society
Peering through the Glass Door: The Cultural Attributes of “New” Forms of Organization
Phanish Puranam
Winner of 2019 Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Responsible Research Award
INFORMS
Truthful Mechanisms for Medical Surplus Product Allocation
Atalay Atasu
2019 Top 50: Life and Biological Sciences
Nature Communications
Single-Dose Testosterone Administration Increases Men’s Preference for Status Goods
David Dubois and Hilke Plassmann
2019 Proposal Award, Stakeholder Strategy IG, Winner
Strategic Management Society
How Community Alignment Affects Bank Survival: Institutional Legacies and Resource Dependence
Ji-Yub (Jay) Kim and Henrich Greve
2019 Best Paper Award, Winner
Academy of Management
Microfinance and Entrepreneurship at the Base of the Pyramid
Jasjit Singh and Pushan Dutt
2019 Best Article Award, Winner
Academy of Management
Lay Theories of Networking: How Laypeople’s Beliefs About Networks Affect Their Attitudes Toward and Engagement in Instrumental Networking
Ko Kuwabara
2019 Strategy Distinguished Paper Award, Winner
Academy of Management
When to Put the Best to Rest: Star Human Capital and Firm Adaptation
Victoria Sevcenko
Renowned economist Philippe Aghion, also a professor at the Collège de France, researches the economics of growth. With Peter Howitt, he pioneered the so-called “Schumpeterian growth paradigm”, which has been widely used to analyse growth policies and the role of the state in economic growth. During his illustrious career, he has written many books and won many awards. He gained his PhD from Harvard University and has worked at prestigious institutions, such as Harvard, MIT and the London School of Economics.
Alixandra’s research explores how new technology is fundamentally reshaping consumer behaviour and well-being, through the ways in which they share images, video and information. She also studies moral judgements associated with new technologies and how consumers perceive the good deeds of others, such as charitable donations. She gained her PhD from Wharton and her research has been featured in the world’s mainstream media as well as top academic journals.
Oliver gained his PhD from Duke University and prior to that worked in asset and wealth management for Deutsche Bank. His research interests lie at the intersection of equity valuation and macroeconomics. Some of his recent projects explore how macroeconomic developments affect decision-making by managers and consumers – and the resulting consequences for companies’ profits.
With a background in investment banking and M&A in Paris and Madrid, Olivier completed his PhD in finance at HEC Paris. He joins INSEAD from the faculty of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His research interests include corporate finance and behavioural finance. His work has been published in the leading academic journals. He teaches in both, the MBA and PhD programmes.
Hyunjin researches the management of data and algorithms to improve strategic decision-making and competitive advantage. Her field experiments have involved close collaboration with Fortune 500 companies as well as small tech start-ups. Prior to entering academia she co-founded and managed an early-stage venture capital fund and worked for McKinsey & Company. She holds Bachelor’s and PhD degrees from Harvard and an MSc from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.
Stephanie holds a PhD in marketing from Stanford University and joins us from the faculty of Singapore Management University. Her research examines the psychological processes that allow consumers to maintain an image of themselves as virtuous despite giving in to the temptations of vices such as eating unhealthy food, overspending or saying “no” when asked to donate. Her work has been published in leading academic journals.
Pierre’s research interests include macro-finance, asset pricing, household finance and real estate. His recent work has covered topics such as home ownership and social housing. He has received several awards for his work and gained a PhD in Economics from New York University’s Stern School of Business, which he joined following his studies at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, in Paris.
In the last ten years Chiara has worked with governments, multinationals and more than 1,500 entrepreneurs. She seeks to understand how entrepreneurial firms use systematic decision-making and experimentation to innovate and grow. She also researches the effects of emerging practices, including accelerators, hackathons and crowdfunding. She has a PhD from Bocconi University and is the co-founder of Strategy Insight Lab, which has directly helped 250+ entrepreneurs to innovate and grow revenues.
Now in its 20th year, the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance is perhaps the broadest and deepest partnership between two business schools anywhere in the world. It is underpinned by faculty exchanges, joint PhD activities and collaborative research, as well as the thriving MBA exchange. Despite the pandemic, 2019/2020 was an academic year of considerable growth, with publications up 50 percent on previous years and 14 new research projects. In October 2019, the 8th Annual Doctoral Consortium took place as normal with a total of 29 participants. By the end of the year, we were planning an all-virtual follow-up event to be held in November 2020.
The Alliance Sorbonne Université is another multi-faceted partnership involving several leading French institutions and a multi-million-Euro endowment for research originally funded by – but now independent of – the French government. Thanks to this remarkable resource, INSEAD faculty are currently involved in joint research projects in health economics, artificial intelligence, computation and data sciences, and environmental transition.
The INSEAD-Sorbonne Université Behavioural Lab in central Paris also falls under the remit of the partnership mentioned above. Its innovative experiments – in such fields as marketing, neuroscience, organisational behaviour and even philosophy – had to move online in 2019/2020. The partnership’s Business Foundation Certificate continues to go from strength to strength. In the fall of 2020, we enrolled 45 students, all recent Master or PhD graduates in technical fields.
The best news, however, is reserved for our own PhD programme. Following a recent agreement between INSEAD and the Sorbonne Université our doctoral students will, in future, have the possibility of gaining a double degree, recognised by the French government, from both institutions.
Although the main focus of the partnership with Tsinghua University is the dual-degree TIEMBA (executive MBA), there is no doubt that INSEAD benefits from this close relationship with one of China’s greatest universities in many ways. The deep classroom insights and presence in the Chinese capital feed directly into our research and have helped us considerably in the creation of our own China Initiative in 2019/2020.
The figures are proof, if any were needed, that the combination of rigorous, relevant academic research with professional journalism and timely updates is a powerful tool for taking INSEAD’s insights to an ever-wider audience.
This formula truly came into its own during the pandemic, as our global audience turned to us to make sense of the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses. During the first wave, traffic increased by about 40% compared to monthly averages the previous year – and remained at least 10% higher for the rest of the year, indicating a lingering growth in audience share.
As of November 2020, we had amassed a library of over 60 research-based articles and blog posts related to the pandemic to support practitioners in their work.
However, our annual top ten is an eclectic mix of crisis management and innovation.
1. How to Spot When an Employee Is Secretly Struggling
Thomas Hellwig, Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour
2. The Psychology Behind Coronavirus Panic Buying
Andy J. Yap, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Academic Director, Centre for Organisational Research
3. Overwhelmed? Adopt a Paradox Mindset
Ella Miron-Spektor, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
4. You May Be More original Than You Think
Ella Miron-Spektor, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
5. How Leaders Can Cultivate Patience in an Impatient World
Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, INSEAD Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change
6. Five Qualities for Leading Business in the 21st Century
Lucy Quist (INSEAD MBA ‘05J), International Business Leader, Author and INSEAD Board Director
7. Four Strategic Priorities for the Post-COVID-19 World
Quy Huy, Professor of Strategic Management
8. How Discomfort Makes us More Creative
Li Huang, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour
9. What Newly Remote Teams Need, Right Now
Phanish Puranam, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Strategy and Organisation Design at INSEAD, and Marco Minervini, INSEAD Post- Doctoral Fellow
10. The World’s Most Talent Competitive Countries 2020
How artificial intelligence is shaping talent competitiveness around the world