IIMB has been at the forefront of taking initiatives to enhance the quality of management education and research in India. The institute is constantly looking at evolving patterns in education and has instituted a committee to evaluate the future of management education to help in designing curriculum that is aligned to the current and future requirements of the industry. In the last decade, the focus on research has paid rich dividends with many faculty publishing in leading international journals every year.
MOOCs: IIMB is the first management school in India to have taken cognizance of online learning as a potential disruptor and set up the MOOCs centre in 2014. As of 2019, IIMB offers 40+ online courses on three different platforms – EdX, IIMBx and Swayam. MOOCs crossed a user registration figure of 1 million in early 2019 originating from 192+ countries. MOOCs is also used as a blended form of a learning platform that combines online and offline learning mechanisms.
Entrepreneurship Area: IIMB is the first IIM to set up an area dedicated to Entrepreneurship and is also the first IIM to offer a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship. There is a centre that is dedicated to startups and incubation called NSRCEL that was set up in early 2000s. NSRCEL has made a huge impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing wings to many young dreamers and helping nurture the entrepreneurial spirit in India.
Pre-Doc Program for the disadvantaged sections: IIMB instituted a pre-doc program in the memory of the first director Mr. NS Ramaswamy that allows students from disadvantaged sections of society to avail of a funded one year pre doctoral program that prepares them for a journey in research. This program equips the students with tools to help them apply for the Ph.D. anywhere in the world. This is a pioneering initiative in India and IIMB has taken the lead to help improve the diversity and inclusivity quotient amongst the teaching fraternity.
Centres of Excellence: There are currently 12 centres of excellence at IIMB that focus on different aspects of management thought and action. There are also multiple initiatives and labs focused on data analytics, consumer insights, behavioral lab, real estate research, etc.
IIMB Management Review (IMR) is a quarterly journal brought out by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Addressed to management practitioners, researchers and academics, IMR aims to engage rigorously with practices, concepts and ideas in the field of management, with an emphasis on providing managerial insights, in a format that is accessible to a wide audience. To this end, IMR invites manuscripts that provide novel managerial insights in any of the core business functions.
The sole criterion for publication is contribution to the extant management literature. Although all manuscripts are welcome, our special emphasis is on papers that focus on emerging economies throughout the world. Such papers may either improve our understanding of markets in such economies through novel analyses or build models by taking into account the special characteristics of such economies to provide guidance to managers. Full-length research articles (up to 10,000 words) on all the business functions, aspects of policy and management pedagogy form the core of the journal; at present, focussed discussion and interview papers, and book reviews are also featured.