AACSB International

Business schools are change-agents, creating environments where out-of-the-box thinking thrives. Through Innovations That Inspire, AACSB highlights ways that business schools—within its greater Business Education Alliance—are globally transforming face of higher education.

The 2019 Innovations That Inspire challenge invited members of AACSB’s Business Education Alliance to identify ways they are inspiring new approaches to thought leadership and increasing its impact through the co-creation of knowledge—a key opportunity of AACSB’s Collective Vision for Business Education.

The highlights of this year’s challenge represent 21 examples of how business schools are producing new curriculum, research, programs, and thought leadership. Their collaborative efforts are multidisciplinary, dynamic, and impactful, and AACSB is honored to recognize them.

	Alba Graduate Business School, The American College of Greece Innovation Title: Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) Based on an annual survey of HR executives, the Recruitment Confidence Index measures anticipated changes in attracting and recruiting personnel and provides a think tank for HR executives in Greece. Read More
	Asian Institute of Management Innovation Title: ACCeSs@AIM Championing industry-government-academia partnerships through research and development and “techpreneurship,” ACCeSs@AIM seeks to help grow businesses, improve developing Asian economies, and build the Philippines’ data analytics capacity. Read More
	Creighton University, Heider College of Business Innovation Title: The BlueBox Project Through the BlueBox Project, students and faculty develop and deploy open-source educational materials through electricity- and solar-powered computers and charging stations located in remote regions worldwide. Read More
	Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo Innovation Title: Innovating the Applied Research Model Since 2015, FGV EAESP has systematically worked to consolidate their applied research management model in order to value researchers focused on this activity and maximize the impact of research on organizations and society. Read More
	George Mason University, School of Business Innovation Title: Business for a Better World Initiative Mason’s BBWI addresses the world’s “wicked” challenges through innovative curricula, cutting-edge cross-disciplinary research, and robust private-public partnerships, empowering leaders to create a better world. Read More
	Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business Innovation Title: Legal Analytics Lab The Legal Analytics Lab is developing a world-class research program in the use of text mining and machine learning to detect patterns, predict outcomes, and derive insights related to compliance, regulatory, litigation, and transactional risk. Read More
	HEC Montréal Innovation Title: Digital Innovation for Humanitarian Logistics To help aid organizations better plan their responses to humanitarian crises, researchers and graduate students work in collaboration with them to develop innovative decision-making tools that enable robust, cost-efficient, and timely relief solutions. Read More
	Hult International Business School Innovation Title: Beyond Translation: Relevant Research in Practice Driven to develop research that impacts business and society, Hult has transformed its research culture in a way that stimulates the creation, dissemination, use, and benefit of applied and relevant research across Hult’s global faculty. Read More
	Monash University Malaysia, School of Business Innovation Title: Gerontechnology Laboratory (GT Lab) The GT Lab was established to deepen awareness and understanding of the health and well-being, active aging, and safe working and living of older adults through assistive technology-based research. Read More
	Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management Innovation Title: Elderly Unemployed Vocational Activation Strategy This strategy aims to set incentives for public employment services, businesses, and researchers to form local alliances and develop new effective measures that help integrate Poland’s over-50 unemployed population into the regular labor market. Read More
	Rice University, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business Innovation Title: Rice Business Wisdom Translating the most exciting research from Rice Business scholars into writing that is concise, compelling, and free of charge, Rice Business Wisdom shares Rice intellectual capital with ambitious employees and leaders of businesses, families, and communities. Read More
	Rowan University, Rohrer College of Business Innovation Title: Building Bridges Between Disciplines Through Studio 231, a learning laboratory and makerspace, Rowan University connects students and faculty from disciplines across campus to work on early-stage research and commercialization projects. Read More
	Santa Clara University, Leavey School of Business Innovation Title: No Produce Left Behind: Measuring Farm-Level Food Loss To tackle the twin problems of on-farm food loss and local food insecurity, multidisciplinary student teams worked with faculty and staff members to develop reliable estimates of unharvested, edible produce that help food banks provide nutritious food assistance as well as reduce the environmental impacts of farming. Read More
	Simon Fraser University, Beedie School of Business Innovation Title: Embedding Project The Embedding Project is a global public benefit research project that helps companies advance their sustainability efforts by embedding social and environmental factors across their operations and decision-making. Read More
	Singapore Management University, Lee Kong Chian School of Business Innovation Title: Ensuring Societal Impact Through Business Research LKCSB actively promotes societal impact from business school research through a coordinated and collaborative approach combining internal funding calls, concept development feedback, securing of corporate and public partners for co-creation, and seed funding for big ideas. Read More
	Toulouse Business School Innovation Title: Strategic Research Analysis Corporate Project The SRA Corporate Project is a academic-industry collaboration where students and faculty work together with a firm on a research-intensive question initiated by practitioners' needs and resulting in research reports and publications. Read More
	The University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business Innovation Title: ‘Working Toward Shared Prosperity’ Dialogue Michigan Ross partnered with the Aspen Institute to convene a dialogue among academics and practitioners in business, labor, government, and nonprofits to translate research findings about employment and prosperity equity into useful insights for practice.  Read More
	University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management Innovation Title: Medical Industry Leadership Institute The Carlson School of Management’s Medical Industry Leadership Institute aims to shape the future of the medical industry and drive innovation through cutting-edge leadership education, research, and market development. Read More
	University of South Australia, UniSA Business School Innovation Title: Partnered Research for Global Brand Impact UniSA Business School’s Ehrenberg Bass Institute for Marketing Science operates a unique corporate sponsorship program that engages marketers globally, funds fundamental research, and delivers in-market impact through industry-ready, evidence-based services and tools. Read More
	UNSW Sydney, UNSW Business School Innovation Title: UNSW Sandbox Method for Transformative Research The UNSW Sandbox Method is a translational, multidisciplinary research methodology for co-creating business and social impact that aims to bridge the academic-practice gap and provide a platform for high-impact research. Read More
	Villanova University, Villanova School of Business Innovation Title: Lab for Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research The Laboratory for the Advancement of Interdisciplinary Research provides a physical space for VSB faculty and students to conduct research studies using experimentation, surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other primary sources. Read More

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