The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration has 274 researchers who teach, develop courses, conduct empirical studies, write books and articles. In addition, many of the researchers are in charge of the administration of study programmes, departments and research programmes and participate in the public debate; they conduct research activities in cooperation with foreign research institutions, the business community and the public sector; they participate in fact-finding work and consultancy services as well as continuing education activities at CBS and elsewhere; they work as teachers in Master of Business Administration and PhD study programmes in Denmark and abroad; they work with the editing staff of national and international trade journals; and finally, they organise conferences and workshops and are on the board of various professional associations.

Although only some of these activities may be regarded as research in the traditional sense of the word, i.e. creating new knowledge and exposing this knowledge to the international research community through conferences and various publications, they are all dependent on research. Research is therefore the engine driving all the other activities.

Research is an engine creating relations. Producing research results of interest to other people means communicating. Communication is intensified through research, thereby increasing the dialogue on research processes and research results. This in itself creates further research results and strengthens research activities. The quantity and quality of research is improved through this positive spiral, thereby creating new relations to other research environments.

But that is not all… An increase in the quantity and quality of research also increases the competence of the researchers, improving their teaching capability. The result is better courses; increasingly up-to-date programmes; more perspective on the issues of the discipline; better students. It also increases the number of international visitors and visiting lecturers. And it results in a higher degree of variation in courses and a lot of influence from the globalised world. Word gets around that the Faculty has something to offer, and consequently more international students apply. Exchange agreements are made with universities in other countries based on the reputation of the Faculty and its position in international research. Thus, Danish students quickly link up to the internationalisation trend and they are encouraged to play an active part in global education.

This also impacts the research process itself. The quality researchers may claim as part of the international research community enables them to develop better research projects – not least projects conducted in cooperation with private and public enterprises. Access to good international sparring partners and the certainty that local research environments at least possess a quality rendering them interesting to other researchers, increases the quality of local research projects.

Especially quality in research – and the interest in empirical issues – makes it possible to develop interesting master studies of high quality (e.g. Master of Business Administration, Master of Management Development, Global eManagement, Master of Public Administration) which will only survive if they give access to international-calibre knowledge, including lecturers from abroad.

Research is also an engine because it is the foundation of both the production and the dissemination of knowledge. It is the foundation of the Faculty’s endeavours to obtain visibility in the international research community, thereby accentuating the shape of individual researchers and research environments: It creates better results and a better background for generating new results in terms of education and dissemination.

This is a difficult question. The below figure shows Faculty production in recent years.

Figure 1: Types of Faculty publications 1999-2003

In a way, this is an example of adding apples and pears. Each graph covers both articles and books, and no distinction has been made between ’good’ and ’not so good’ channels of publication. The Figure illustrates that the number of foreign-language (especially English) increases over the period, which is excellent, whereas Nordic-language publications decreases. The number of ’Other publications’ is also increasing. This is a somewhat mixed category, but often it refers to general contributions to newspapers and trade journals. It is OK to produce contributions to publications of this kind, but obviously they are not as important as proper research publications. The number of working papers and proceedings fluctuates round a stable level, which is not bad at all. Such publications may be important to get in touch with colleagues around the world, but they are not final publications even though many of them are given as references in papers published by other researchers. It seems that working papers and proceedings are gradually being substituted by proper research production, which is promising as it means that the research work will then be finalised.

The research productivity of individual researchers varies greatly – at least when measured by the number of publications per employed researcher. The medium of publication also varies greatly. This means that our researchers reach a wide audience in terms of research issues and themes; in terms of ’level’ as well as methods. There is a high degree of heterogeneity, the advantage being the many links to the surrounding world. It also reflects the size of the faculty – 274 researchers can only equal heterogeneity.

On average, each researcher accounts for almost 1.5 foreign-language publication, 1 Nordic-language publication and just under 1.5 working paper/proceeding. A slightly higher output would be ideal. Indeed, the Faculty aims to develop an even higher publication rate by encouraging department progress through academic planning and sound recruiting. An increased publication rate is particularly important because it is a prerequisite for objective dialogue.

The CBS Faculty of Economics and Business Administration offers an environment of research and higher education using research as an engine to circulate ideas and people in an international world. Research enables the Faculty to be a player in the international research community; it calls attention to competence and attracts interesting institutions and persons to Denmark from all over the world. For the Faculty, research is an international activity creating exposure and consequently interest and relations, international standards and perspectives, not only in research per se, but also in courses and business partnerships.

Figure 2: Faculty research figures 1999-2003

Research is part of all Faculty activities and, therefore, it should be developed and supported. International publications are pivotal because they indicate whether Faculty researchers are actually capable of finding an outlet for their ideas. International collaboration on projects is also important; visiting researchers are attracted by the Faculty’s reputation, and participation in the organisation of international conferences and workshops is evidence of the Faculty’s involvement in international ’communities of practice’.

Figure 3: Faculty student and study-programme figures 1999-2003

Research is also included in internationalised study programmes as it is only possible to attract international students when part of an international network of universities, often based on research reputation. Exchange agreements presuppose research ballast and that educational activities are performed in English.

Figure 4: Research funds 1999-2003 broken down by external and internal funds

Finally, internationalised research contributes to preparing the Faculty for improved partnerships with the business community. Internationalisation is important to cooperation partners because of the inherent quality and because it is possible to exploit ideas developed elsewhere in the world without delay. Quite often, international research-based networks are the means of ensuring international participation in projects, including projects involving Danish companies. Especially internationalised research enables the Faculty to demonstrate their competence which is of interest to potential partners.

Thus, research includes both input and output – it is the process by which the Faculty is constantly preparing to be a serious partner, both in a narrow sense with regard to knowledge production and in a broader sense, thereby acquiring competencies to develop courses and partnerships and to participate in the public debate in a qualified way. The Faculty must have international representation in order to create value-added research.

The Faculty departments conduct research activities in three fields, all of which concern private and public enterprises:

ad (1) Research in the internal relations of enterprises
The internal relations of enterprises concern the development of structures and processes enabling the enterprise to establish an organisation, a set of management mechanisms and systems, products, a number of resources and competencies and not least an overall strategy. All departments are involved in several of these internal relations because they are interrelated in the individual enterprises.

Although each department has its own research profile, individual research projects will be linked with various themes of interest to several departments. In addition, each department will develop its own international research partnerships, conferences and publication channels, all of which integrate several of the above-mentioned aspects. Thus, it is difficult to sustain a strict categorisation of research in terms of departments. This also implies that Faculty department boundaries are not very strict and that cooperation extends across these boundaries.

Research in the internal relations of enterprises is organised on the basis of the following 3 general topics:

Enterprises are always part of an environment and they require customers and external resources.

Research in the relations between enterprises and their surroundings is organised on the basis of the following 3 general topics:

The environment of enterprises is not only a negotiated community, but also structurally conditioned.

Here, research is organised on the basis of the following three topics:

Further information, see the websites of the individual departments and the CBS experts directory: Experts@CBS

In its development contract with the Danish Ministry of Science, CBS has formulated four focus areas to which the Faculty is also a contributor. The four focus areas are: Management Research, Informatics, Corporate Communication and Innovation. These areas are characterised by their broad academic spectrum and, to a varying degree, they involve the research environments of most of the Faculty departments. During the life of the development contract, the focus areas have given rise to several major interdepartmental research projects and centres.

Management Research in a broad sense constitutes one of CBS’ international positions of strength. Research in this area is doing very well in terms of quantity and quality, in both national and international comparison. Outcomes include publications in international top journals, hosting international conferences, participation in European and international research projects and hosting a national interdepartmental Research Centre for Management, Organisation and Competence Development (the LOK Research Centre) financed by the Research Council. Of the Faculty’s total national and international publications, approx. 17% concern this focus area.

In 2002, the Faculty conducted an international evaluation of a sub-area of Management Research: Knowledge Management. The evaluation report of 2003 emphasised the international standard of the research, but indicated that further development required some strategic choices regarding research organisation and focus. In the light of this, in 2003 the Faculty decided to sustain and develop the decentrally anchored research activities, including the diversity of methodologies and research issues.

Figure 8: Publications and external funds 1999-2003

Faculty research in this focus area aims to sustain and develop a business-oriented IT profile based on interdisciplinary and IT-integrated projects. Other priorities include research in IT management in public and private enterprises, the use of IT in production and production management, and increased technical development of IT and IT systems.

In accordance with its plan to evaluate Faculty department research, the Faculty launched an international interdepartmental evaluation of this focus area in 2003. The Department of Informatics and four other departments are involved in the evaluation which is expected to be completed in the spring of 2004.

Figure 9: Publications and external funds 1999-2003

This particular focus area is based on the development of information technology and the new media which have turned up in its wake. This development signifies that the function-based enterprise is subject to pressure and that the ability to master both internal and external communication becomes an important competitive parameter. In order to be able to strengthen knowledge production and provide a better service to enterprises in their handling of these new challenges, the Faculty established i.a. the interdepartmental Center for Communication Studies.

Figure 10: Publications and external funds 1999-2003

Innovation is the latest CBS focus area. For several years, research in innovation has formed part of the research portfolio of various Faculty departments. In addition to intensifying research in innovation, including promoting the development of new interdepartmental research projects, it is a goal in itself to render the existing research and teaching efforts more visible. Through a clear communication profile clarifying its innovative competencies, CBS wishes to appear as a relevant partner to the business community and to public authorities.

Figure 11: Publications and external funds 1999-2003

A significant part of international and national publication is the result of achievements in many of the Faculty core areas not covered by the four focus areas. Publication in these areas declined in 2003 compared with previous years, and external funding stagnated against 2002.

Figure 12: Publications and external funds 1999-2003

Ole Stenvinkel Nilsson, Dean