Importance of Research in Management Education

Research is a central part of the academic mission of many business schools and a collective endeavor of all management education institutions at large. Research shapes the thinking of research professors and advances the public body of knowledge that is conveyed in the classroom. Because of the collective and global nature of the research endeavor, dominant research paradigms ultimately determine the educational content of business schools around the world. Any successful attempt to transform the educational process must therefore consider the types of research that are necessary to support such transformation and analyze whether current paradigms and research practices are appropriate to produce the required body of knowledge.

The frameworks, facts and tools that are taught in business school not only impact the technical training of students, but also their values. Management theories are embedded with values pertaining to the very definition of management as a profession, its objectives, priorities and sources of accountability. Because the Principles of Management Education portray a new vision about the role of management in society and the values that must govern it, it is of paramount importance that we critically evaluate not only the availability of useful frameworks and tools but also whether the values embedded in currently dominant frameworks and theories are consistent with the newly espoused values.

Over the course of the next five decades, best management colleges in Indore went on to make substantial progress in building the prescribed body of knowledge by adopting rigorous research methods from allied disciplines (from the social sciences to economics, mathematics or statistics) and applying them (at times in a trans-disciplinary way) to answering critical management questions.