Chicago’s Booth School of Business has been ranked the top institution globally for producing research with the greatest influence on management, according to an assessment by the Financial Times. It is followed by other leading US institutions, including Stanford, Columbia, MIT, and Harvard, which produce research that extends beyond academic circles to influence real-world policy and societal objectives.
INSEAD, located in France and Singapore, and London Business School in the UK, are the leading institutions outside the US, securing positions just below elite American schools like Northwestern, Wharton, Berkeley Haas, and NYU.
The Financial Times’ assessment goes beyond traditional criteria focused solely on academic publication metrics. Instead, it takes into account faculty contributions to research that influences policy and practice, responding to increasing demands from students, educators, and organisations for greater accountability and a stronger societal impact.
Booth’s Dean, Madhav Rajan, emphasised the importance of supporting impactful work over mere publication counts. “Many universities only focus on the number of publications. That’s crazy: it’s a system you can game. We actually read the papers. We want impact, to ensure it’s work we want to support,” the Financial Times quoted him as saying.
Professor Andrew Hoffman of Michigan’s Ross School of Business voiced concerns that academic research often lacks practical relevance. “We ask questions that are theoretically driven and of little to no interest to business people,” Hoffman remarked, highlighting the disconnect between academic publications and industry needs.
Key considerations in the rankings include the inclusion of research published in top journals from the FT50 list, the frequency of citations across various academic and policy documents, and the societal relevance of content aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
In addition to research impact, the evaluation also considers teaching contributions, including books and articles widely assigned at other universities and the development of popular teaching case studies. The FT analysis seeks to offer a comprehensive view of faculty
