The AACSB Innovations That Inspire initiative shines a spotlight on a variety of ways that business schools are changing the face of management education.
From October 15 through November 20, 2015, AACSB member schools were invited to share ways in which they have challenged the status quo. Nearly 300 innovations were submitted from more than 200 institutions across 35 countries—an array of inspirations that illustrates an impressive commitment to engagement, innovation, and impact.
Of these innovations, the ones highlighted within are not a ranked list, nor do they represent a "best of" listing. Rather, they exemplify some of the ways business schools are taking a forward-looking approach to education, establishing cutting-edge ties with industry, and even championing revolutionary initiatives for the betterment of higher education as a whole.
In the coming months, AACSB will continue to feature more schools and innovations that demonstrate an impressive range of creativity and a commitment to quality.
Filter by Categories
Connect—Outreach and Engagement
Create—Research and Scholarship
Lead—Strategy and Administration
Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
Connect—Outreach and Engagement
Lancaster University, Lancaster University Management School
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
Enabling local growth across 15 regions, Lancaster University Management School played an unprecedented role in implementing governmental policy through the design, delivery, and evaluation of a £32 million national program.
Read More
Manchester Metropolitan University Business School
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
In partnership with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Manchester Metropolitan team devised two unique honors degree programs in tax, one designed for students to graduate into the profession, and a second for senior policy staff.
Read More
Open University, Business School
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
Open University Business School invests significantly in creating free online learning resources. This now includes investment in supporting journeys from informal to formal learning.
Read More
S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
The S.P. Jain Institute involved faculty, staff, students, and alumni in a timed, zero-cost social media campaign around authenticity—the core of the institute.
Read More
Sakarya University, Faculty of Management
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
The Faculty of Management aims to place the foreign students studying at Sakarya University as interns in several small- and medium-sized export companies in the city of Sakarya.
Read More
SolBridge International School of Business
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
The student SolBridge Debating Society serves as an instrument for promoting social change, empowering students as change agents and developing a leadership and entrepreneurial spirit within the individual.
Read More
Universidad del Pacífico, School of Business Sciences
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
The Academic Exchange Program (PIE) is a collaboration program in which Peruvian public university faculty aim to strengthen their teaching and research capabilities in the fields of business, economics, and public management.
Read More
University of Delaware, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
The JPMorgan Chase Innovation Center is an on-campus facility providing on-campus jobs and applied research opportunities for students with University of Delaware faculty and JPMorgan Chase employees.
Read More
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler Business School
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
The Leadership App is a state-of-the-art course app for UNC Kenan-Flagler’s comprehensive and one-of-a-kind MBA Leadership Immersion program.
Read More
Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria Business School
Category: Connect—Outreach and Engagement
Victoria Business School has established six Partnership Professorial Chairs focusing on contemporary issues that are of critical importance to its local and regional stakeholders.
Read More
Back to the Top
Create—Research and Scholarship
Massey University, Massey Business School
Category: Create—Research and Scholarship
The Research Translation Competition demonstrates research relevance to external stakeholders. It builds staff capacity and confidence in communicating research to a non-specialist audience.
Read More
University of Calgary, Haskayne School of Business
Category: Create—Research and Scholarship
Piers Steel at the Haskayne School of Business is one of the founders of metaBUS, a groundbreaking research tool with the capacity to transform the speed of social science research.
Read More
University of Queensland, UQ Business School
Category: Create—Research and Scholarship
An innovative two-page template provides novice researchers with a simple, methodical tool to confidently "pitch" a new research proposal to an academic expert.
Read More
Back to the Top
Lead—Strategy and Administration
California State University, Northridge, David Nazarian College of Business and Economics
Category: Lead—Strategy and Administration
The David Nazarian College has created a large-scale automated follow-up system that provides benchmarks on student earnings, employment, and industry over a 10-year period.
Read More
The University of Oklahoma, Michael F. Price College of Business
Category: Lead—Strategy and Administration
As a component to restructuring its associate dean and executive staff into three dedicated areas, the University of Oklahoma incorporated the Office of Economic Development into the Price College of Business.
Read More
Wake Forest University, School of Business
Category: Lead—Strategy and Administration
The school deployed an individualized faculty evaluation approach by incorporating a six-path model that energizes and rewards faculty excellence irrespective of path and increases instructional quality and research productivity.
Read More
Back to the Top
Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
Colorado State University, College of Business
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
ACTIV82LRN is an online application that allows students to engage in social learning by answering questions, while viewing and evaluating the answers of fellow students.
Read More
ESSCA School of Management
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
ESSCA’s innovative course is focused on developing entrepreneurial spirit through a triple-blended learning approach that fosters close and progressive interaction between students and freshly graduated entrepreneurs.
Read More
The George Washington University, George Washington School of Business
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
Through its Capital Markets Program, the GW School of Business collaborates with the Milken Institute and the International Finance Corporation Treasury to train mid-level African professionals.
Read More
HEC Montréal
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
HEC Montréal created an experiential business history course comprised of a 12-day, 500-kilometer cycling trip where students see first-hand the forces behind Quebec’s industrial development.
Read More
Iowa State University, College of Business
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
Iowa State University has established an international live case study that simultaneously allows students to observe a complete supply chain while traveling abroad.
Read More
Kennesaw State University, Coles College of Business
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
The Kennesaw State University Doctor of Business Administration was the first AACSB-accredited doctoral program designed to provide a research doctorate for non-traditional students. Over 80 percent of graduates pursue faculty positions.
Read More
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Escuela de Administración
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
The Changemaker Academy of Social Innovation seeks to train the next generation of social innovators to collaborate in the sustainable development of the planet.
Read More
Singapore Management University, Lee Kong Chian School of Business and School of Accountancy
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
The SMU-X Initiative is an experiential approach to learning that encourages students to step out of silos to collaborate in an interdiscplinary and hands-on way.
Read More
St. Mary's College of California, School of Economics and Business Administration
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
St. Mary’s has created a new Digital Driver’s License faculty program to ensure that SEBA faculty members teach as well online as they do in the traditional face-to-face classroom.
Read More
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
TRIAXES brings together students from business, engineering, and design departments. Students design, develop, and market a new product, hence diving into a real entrepreneurial venture.
Read More
University at Buffalo, State University of New York, School of Management
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
The school created space exclusively for management undergraduates that facilitates varied learning styles and helps students build a sense of community with faculty, staff, and each other.
Read More
University of Pretoria, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
GIBS introduced a core module that aimed to expose students to the political, social, and economic challenges experienced locally before embarking on their international immersions.
Read More
The University of Texas at Dallas, Naveen Jindal School of Management
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
Professional Online Portfolios (POPs) empower students to showcase their core knowledge, leadership potential, and engaging personality to both potential employers and the world.
Read More
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin School of Business
Category: Teach—Pedagogy and Learning
Introducing new language at the Wisconsin School of Business sparked new conversations and shifted school efforts from delivering classroom teaching to inspiring student learning.
Read More
Back to the Top