If you log onto Knowledge today, you will see a number of changes to the site. We've started adding articles and podcast interviews with INSEAD faculty, while maintaining links to recent publications.
We would appreciate your comments and feedback on the changes in the months ahead but we hope you'll find the articles stimulating and useful.
Riding rapid economic growth in India and China
With the rest of the world beating a path to India and China to cash in on the rapid economic growth in those countries and tap low-cost manufacturing (China) and services (India), countless business opportunities have opened up.
As INSEAD Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise Patrick Turner explains, this has attracted two groups of entrepreneurs: local residents who are eager to launch companies of their own; and entrepreneurs from overseas, often from the US, who see new opportunities emerging back home.
Networking is vital for successful managers
Managers today juggle more responsibilities than ever and for many of them networking becomes an afterthought. Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour says that’s a potentially fatal career mistake.
“What you know is who you know,” she says and warns that managers who neglect to build their networks risk failing or remaining stuck in middle management.
Tech innovation: Emerging players in the Middle East
When you think of the regions of the world that are pushing ahead with technological innovation, you would not necessarily think of the Middle East straightaway. But according to a recent global innovation index, countries there are starting to make a name for themselves in tech circles.
INSEAD Professor in Business and Technology, Soumitra Dutta has just compiled this index, which places the United Arab Emirates in 14th place, with Israel 18th in the world and Kuwait ranked 30th.
Create the right sort of buzz about your products
How important is word of mouth, more popularly known as buzz, for the success of your new products? Some companies rely on product placement in movies or the endorsement of a sports star or pop singer to help create a buzz about their particular brand.
According to INSEAD Professor of Marketing Amitava Chattopadhyay, however, companies may have more control than they previously thought possible regarding the buzz about their new products – they just have to take a more systematic approach.
IPOs: How to evaluate failure risk
To what extent can we predict whether a new stock exchange listing or initial public offering (IPO) is going to fail? This is a question of major significance for investors and the firm’s employees alike as the rate of delistings has increased dramatically over the years.
A study by INSEAD Assistant Professor of Accounting and Control Liz Demers and co-author Philip Joos of Tilburg University, however, finds that the risk of failure may not be fully priced into new listings as of the offering date.
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This month INSEAD Knowledge is also highlighting the school's case studies for which it has just won an unprecedented seven out of nine European Case Awards and crowned this success by also winning the Overall Award.
It is the tenth time that INSEAD has won the Overall Award in the 17-year history of the ECCH European Case Awards. No school has ever been this successful in a single year.
An INSEAD business case study by Professor Pierre Chandon and Vadim Grigorian, INSEAD MBA 2000, about fashion brand Diesel won the Overall Award.
The case, called Diesel for Successful Living, focuses on the selection of a branding strategy for the denim maker’s new line of upscale clothing. Looking at Diesel’s product line, the case addresses critical issues such as how to manage a portfolio of brands and evaluate alternative strategies for launching a new brand. Additionally, it illustrates key steps in the marketing of fashion and luxury brands, most notably brand extensions.
The Overall Award enables INSEAD to reclaim the Sumantra Ghoshal Award for Excellence in Case Writing that the school held two years ago.
The award, named after the visionary management guru Sumantra Ghoshal, recognizes one case each year for its exceptional content and overall impact.
INSEAD Professor Pierre Chandon, winner of the Overall Award, also won the Marketing category again this year and Professor Jonathan Story was honoured for a second consecutive year in the Economics, Politics and Business Environment category.
Complementing the Overall Award, INSEAD faculty members received seven of the nine Case Awards in the following categories:
*Economics, Politics and Business Environment, Case writer: Jonathan Story, Title: India - The World's Largest Democracy: Hindu Elephant or Asian Tiger
*Finance, Accounting and Control, Case writer: Regine Slagmulder, Title: Sainsbury's Supply Chain Performance Measurement
*Human Resource Management/Organisational Behaviour, Case writers: Charles Galunic and Ingmar Bjorkman, Title: Lincoln Electric in China
*Knowledge, Information and Communication systems Management, Case writers: Theodoros Evgeniou and Kishore Sengupta, Title: Kent County Council - Implementing IT for E-government
*Marketing, Case writers: Pierre Chandon and Pedro Pacheco Guimaraes, Title: Unilever in Brazil - Marketing Strategies for Low-Income Consumers
*Production and Operations Management, Case writers: Luk Van Wassenhove and Daniel R. Guide, Jr., Title: Managing Product Returns at Hewlett Packard
*Strategy and General Managment, Case writers: Jean-François Manzoni, Kathryn Hughes and Jean-Louis Barsoux, Title: Nissan's U-Turn: 1999-2001
INSEAD will receive the awards in September at a ceremony in Paris.