Dalgas Have 15
DK-2000 Frederiksberg
Head of Department: Sven Bislev
Telefon: +45 3815 3815
Fax: +45 3815 3840
E-mail: ad.ikl@cbs.dk

In 2002, two new major IKL research ventures were launched: The LOK International Corporate Branding project, directed by Majken Schultz, financed by the Social Science Research Council and Lego Company; and the Center for Corporate Values and Responsibility, directed by Mette Morsing, and initiated in cooperation with the LPF Department. The project and the centre are planned to last for at least three years, conducting research in areas that are already important elements of IKL's profile, and working closely with business partners.

The Globalization, Governance and World Order project, in which IKL researchers worked together with colleagues from Aarhus University, was finished in 2002. Among the outputs in 2002 were several articles published in journals and one major book, "Towards a Global Polity" (Routledge), edited by Morten Ougaard together with Richard Higgott of the University of Warwick Globalisation Centre. Another project, a DANIDA-funded venture involving cooperation with UNCTAD, was also completed in 2002 and produced an important book: "Managing the environment across borders - a study of TNC affiliates' environmental practices in China, Malaysia and India" (Samfundslitteratur), edited and written in part by Michael W. Hansen.

In brief, research at IKL is characterised by an international approach and cultural, communicative and social aspects of the broad field of business economics. It can be divided into three overlapping areas:

Area 1: Organisation, culture, identity and strategy
Today's organisations live in a transparent world. Their actions and expressions are globally visible - to market participants, to political players, to current and prospective employees and other stakeholders. Organisations must learn the management of meaning: to address cultures, knowledges, rationalities and values in and around the organisation. A business must find a starting point in a set of values and meanings, and be prepared to negotiate those in an endless dialogue, internally as well as externally.

This development towards a management of values and cultures is studied by IKL researchers who work with corporate branding, value management, corporate social responsibility, organisational culture and intercultural management. A large part of this research is about international aspects of those issues, and about cross-border transfer of values, concepts, impressions and expressions.

The Management, Organisation and Competence (LOK) project looks at international dimensions of corporate branding: In today's globalised business world, few corporate brands can survive without an explicit international strategy. The Center for Corporate Values and Responsibility studies the emergent discourse and practice of corporate social responsibility, and the numerous versions of that movement, in Denmark as well as globally.

The Nordic project on post-merger integration processes looks at the organisational and cultural problems involved in integrating four large banks into one. Developments in public management are studied in the Globalisation project referred to under Area 3.

Area 2: Communication, marketing and media
At one time, "corporate communication" was about message design - about managing the practical, symbolic and aesthetic aspects of different communication media. In today's knowledge society, communication is seen as an inherent aspect of all kinds of organisational activities. Organisations, private companies as well as public institutions, communicate information about themselves to their internal and external stakeholders through strategy, value statements, annual reports, HR activities, reputation management, investor relations, etc. Also in the wider society, communication of images, values, large amounts of information and all sorts of influences and requests have become an important strategic function and a vast business area.
At IKL, researchers are developing and processing knowledge about corporate communication, market communication, mass communication and political communication - looking at content and effects as well as techniques and management. Some of the projects overlap projects in area 1: the Nordic post-merger project and the project on political communication. Other projects are about intercultural marketing, and still others about mass media: fashion magazines, international news reception and business media.

IKL researchers participate in cooperative ventures like the Modinet project (media democracy in the network society) and the CBS Center for Corporate Communication.

Area 3: Globalisation, business and society
Over the last couple of decades, there has been a growing academic interest in the issue of globalisation, and increasing public concern with its social implications and effects. The increasing movement of people and money across national borders, the daily encounters with foreign cultures, the reordering of local, national and religious identities, the constant exposure to global media, the reordering of collective identities and attempts at regulating national and international issues in new ways, are global challenges. They not only effectively disturb the routines of most societies; they also testify to the increasing interconnectedness of the world and highlight the need for profound theoretical and practical innovation.

Research at IKL emphasises the multidimensional character of globalisation. We explore its political, economic and cultural aspects at the supranational, national and local levels, and across the public and private spheres. The concept of globalisation is theoretically contested and in itself too vague for most analytical purposes, but it is useful as a framework of analysis and an inspiration for research in many areas.

Despite globalisation, national differences and national cultures still persist. All cross-border transactions - acts of competition and cooperation - encounter the difficulties of comprehending different mentalities. The job of making cultures comprehensible to each other is an endless task, as the universe of different cultures is vast and immensely dynamic. 12 IKL researchers are, to varying degrees, concerned with such "area studies" in research and teaching. Those areas are: The UK, USA, France, Spain, Mexico, Germany and Japan. The Globalising Universities project focuses cross-nationally: it investigates differences among CBS students from various nations in their values and their perceptions of university institutions.

An important feature of globalisation, however, is that some cultural notions do travel across boundaries - management theories and discourses, in both private and public sectors, are among the most prominent. The projects on global business regulation and media and democracy touch upon these issues, as did the Globalisation project.

The concept of a Third World is in itself an expression of globalisation - of a world that is connected, but divided and unequal. For decades, efforts to improve Third World development have focused on political and economic measures. The Business in Development project explores the possibilities of harnessing a private sector business dynamic to advance development efforts. Several other projects look at business development and business conditions in various Third World areas.

Research strategy
A CBS Department serves several masters: The business community is our object of study and the target group of applied research. The government is our owners, providers of most of our research capital and is our education customers, influenced by the entire political system. Most students are clients or users, and increasingly, some students are also customers. Finally, there is an academic community playing the role of partners, competitors and professional critics.

Our strategy is to produce good results for all these stakeholders, i.e. good and relevant research, useful study programmes attracting students, etc. Our specialisation is expressed in the three areas of research, but we also have to work and cooperate much more widely, especially in our study programmes. Research resources are very scarce, and we protect them by organising our efforts as efficiently as we can and by supplementing resources by fundraising. Both measures are strategically important, and we work hard to optimise our internal division of labour as well as external relations, and to acquire outside funds.

Research results
Our published research results can be found in the CBS library Research@cbs.dk database. The quantitative development is illustrated by the following graph:

There is a steady rise in the number of foreign-language publications (line with diamonds), while the number of working papers (triangles) and Nordic-language publications (squares) is diminishing.

Research relations to practice
Most publications are of an academic nature, and only some of the more applied and practical interventions are recorded in this way: We take part in public debates, make speeches and presentations to businesses and a wider public, write newspaper articles, give interviews, etc. In some of our research projects, we cooperate directly with business practitioners and firms, addressing issues of specific interest to our partners. These IKL activities gathered momentum in 2002. The Center for Values and Responsibility and the Nordic post-merger project are cases in point. The LOK corporate branding project is done in collaboration with the University of Virginia McIntyre Business School and includes a branding network of several leading global companies, such as Boeing, Shell, LEGO Company, Sony Consumer Electronics, ING and Novo Nordisk.

The below graph shows our consumption of research funds broken down by sources. It demonstrates a steadily upward trend in our ability to acquire external funding from Research Councils, etc., and a slight increase in funds from other sources.