Impact through scholarship: RSM leads Europe in FT Research Insights

The publication of the Financial Times’ Research Insights ranking on 3 November shows the top business school in Europe – and 14th globally – in terms of the resonance and relevance of its research is Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). This ranking considers broader characteristics of research and how it is used in the teaching of business and management, and its effects in practice and on policy.

The FT’s Research Insights ranking measures how business academics focus on researching and helping to implement ideas useful to business by looking at how the research is used by practitioners and other business schools and the relevance of topics to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also recognises the rigor and innovativeness of scientific work with its score for ‘positive citations’ that indicates the credibility of new work. The index for productivity takes into account the size of the faculty.

The impact of teaching and business teaching cases can be considered to be the biggest factor in the rankings because most academics make their greatest impact on their students. Therefore the FT Research Impact Ranking also has a score for institutions with authors who write the most popular teaching cases.

The impact of business cases

RSM received recognition partly for the impact of its teaching cases. A few months ago it was awarded top 10 position in The Case Centre Impact Index, the annual ranking of organisations based on the global reach and impact of their case writing. RSM’s business teaching cases are developed by RSM’s award-winning Case Development Centre; they aim to highlight the importance of leaders and managers engaging with societal and stakeholder challenges and are related to economic, environmental, or societal impact.

Prof. Inga Hoever, dean of research said: “Impact and engagement are based in the quality of our research and education, demonstrated by the components of positive citations and productivity in the FT Research Insights ranking. These components are complemented with the way our research is used – for example in policy and teaching cases.

“What makes me proud is that the ranking shows that we do excellent research that matters – academically, educationally, and societally. This is something we have been striving for consistently by promoting our comprehensive definition of research excellence that has scientific rigor at its core but uses it for questions that matter, and delivers results that others can work with, in academia and practice.”

More information

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

For more information about RSM or this release, please contact Pavlina Novakova, RSM corporate communications and PR manager, or Danielle Baan, science communications lead and PR, by email at press@rsm.nl.