Thought Leadership

Prioritizing Local Relevance in the Global Business School Network

August 5, 2019

What if we took a group of high performing managers from Canadian paper mills and placed them in the Hawassa Industrial Park in Ethiopia. Would they succeed? Regardless of whether you answered yes, no, or maybe, your responses to questions like this one can reveal a lot about the work we’re doing at the Global Business School Network (GBSN). Since we were created by the World Bank 17 years ago, our vision has been for the developing world to have the management talent it needs to generate prosperity. We want to achieve that vision by “improving access to quality, locally relevant management and entrepreneurship education for the developing world.” As my experience grows with GBSN, so does my respect for the local relevance part of our mission. Here are three ways that we are prioritizing local relevance in our work.

The Beauty of Online Education

August 5, 2019

For a third year GBSN Member, The Open University Business School hosted two faculty fellows from Strathmore University and the Narxoz Business School. Dr. Ainura Kaldarova from Narxoz Business School in Kazakhstan recently visited the OU after successfully applying through the Global Business School Network (GBSN) faculty fellowship. This offers academics from institutions in developing countries the opportunity to learn about the OU’s approach to distance and online learning. Here Ainura recalls her month-long stay in Milton Keynes as an International Fellow.

Chairman’s Corner: Leading in a World of Innovation Acceleration

July 1, 2019

While the acceleration of innovation presents a formidable challenge for most business school leaders, it also presents an exceptional set of opportunities for the few who dare to innovate and change. The few who are inspired to re-imagine the future and take risks. The few who are disciplined to execute with determination and resilience. So how should business school leaders react to these accelerations in the pace of innovation?

Meeting Blockchain’s Potential: An Interdisciplinary Research Approach

June 6, 2019

Blockchain, a technology that has decentralized the financial markets has been running the world’s first cryptocurrency for 10 years now, has made us rethink and redefine trust. It is also a technology still in development that needs testing and research in order to fulfill its potential.

The Craft of Doing Research

June 6, 2019

In the framework of my PhD project, I undertook a research stay at Middlesex University Mauritius (www.middlesex.mu) at the beginning of 2019. In return for the university’s hospitality, I agreed to develop a research workshop series and thus to contribute to the university’s research goals. Together with Adeelah Kodabux and Denisha Seedoyal-Seereekissoon (current PhD students at Middlesex University Mauritius), we designed five workshops on the “Craft of Doing Research.” The workshops were targeted at current and future PhD students from Middlesex University Mauritius to provide valuable inputs on designing research projects successfully. Thanks to the support of the Global Business School Network, four of the five sessions were conducted by experienced scholars from different GBSN member universities.

10 Questions with GBSN CEO, Dan LeClair

June 4, 2019

Lisa Leander, Membership Senior Advisor, sits down with GBSN’s recently appointed CEO, Dan LeClair to reflect on his first few months leading the network.

Emerging Markets Reshaping Globalization

April 29, 2019

The Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University publishes the Emerging Market Multinationals Report (EMR) written by Lourdes Casanova and Anne Miroux,  which monitors the rise of Emerging Multinationals and reflects on the growing role of China and Emerging Markets in this new phase of globalization.

The Economic and Business Impacts of Artificial Intelligence: Reality not Hype

April 29, 2019

The debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is characterized by hyperbole and hysteria. The hyperbole is due to two effects: first, the promotion of AI by self-interested investors. It can be termed the  “Google-effect,” after its CEO Sundar Pichai, who declared AI to be “probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on.” He would say that. Second, the promotion of AI by tech-evangelists as a solution to humanity’s fundamental problems, even death. It can be termed the “Singularity-effect,” after Ray Kurzweil, who believes AI will cause a “Singularity” by 2045.