-
Annual report 2022

Research and academic activity

In 2022, BI has continued to deliver research-based teaching that is practically relevant for students about to enter the working life.

We have organised our academic activity into nine departments (read more at bi.no/forskning). For an outline of the research projects that BI is the institutional owner of or participating as a partner in, see an overview in the national research database, Cristin.

In 2022, BI continued to work on further developing our ten research centres, BI Research Centres, which represent cutting-edge research. These deliver the highest quality research, publish in scientific journals we consider the most prestigious in their disciplines, and have an ongoing and high degree of externally funded research activity and capacity. The centres have a national and international focus in cooperation with our academic partners, business and society. A separate external evaluation of all ten centres will start in autumn 2023.

Through our academic work, BI aims to make a mark in the international research arena while developing the students' professional competence and skills through teaching with a high learning value. Relevance and influence on practice must be ensured, among other things, through extensive contact with working life. Teaching should be research-based and practically relevant for students entering working life. BI's research strategy has explicit goals and means of action. Recruitment of outstanding academics to scientific positions with a strong research output will remain prioritised. Recruiting for teaching positions will also be necessary to ensure sufficient teaching capacity in the future.

Since BI has received approval to start a master's programme in law, the environment at the Department of Law and Governance must be strengthened considerably. Therefore, many calls have been made at professor level for people who will develop the programme portfolio and teach these subjects from autumn 2023.

BI Resarch Assessment

Every five years, an external peer review of the research and academic environments at BI is carried out. The BI Research Assessment (BIRA) aims to provide guidelines for our strategy to become a leading business school in Europe by evaluating research activities, the management's prioritisation of resources and the extent to which we manage to cultivate an environment that promotes excellent research. An external committee was set up in 2021, and a final report with recommendations was ready in June 2022.

The most important recommendations from the committee are:

  • Incentivise research production by freeing up time for research and establishing clear promotion criteria.
  • Ensure and communicate equal and clear insurance conditions for all faculty across the departments.
  • Design a long-term and clear strategy to meet the challenges of teaching capacity through recruitment and the right professional composition.
  • Further internationalisation by delivering more courses in English, focusing on recruitment from the international labour market and keeping the international faculty at BI.
  • Develop a clear strategy and establish an evaluation process for the research centres, and ensure that this is communicated across all institutes and centres.
  • Benchmark BI against international institutions that it's natural that BI compares itself to.

In 2022, BI further invested in increased research quality through recruitment, publications in top journals, externally funded research, administrative infrastructure and incentive schemes for research. BI also wants to map how our research affects the world around us. As a result, we will increasingly encourage researchers to initiate projects that shed light on important and relevant issues in society and business.

Externally funded research

Last year, BI had externally funded research projects with a total turnover value of just over MNOK 49.3 compared with almost MNOK 35.3 in 2021. This is a positive increase because the pandemic displaced many of our research activities. BI's increased focus in this area, emphasising programmes under the auspices of the Research Council of Norway and EU, has yielded positive results.

The number of applications has maintained the same high level as the previous year. However, the proportion of applications with BI as project owner was 58%, somewhat lower than in 2021.

BI researchers joined a management group for two projects in the COST network. For the first time, a BI researcher was granted an application for a CAS project (The Center for Advanced Study at The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters).

BI has also invested in administrative infrastructure by strengthening the Research Administrative Department (FA) with resources and expertise. FA is BI's central administration for research support, consisting of three main areas of responsibility: externally funded research support, handling of research data and BI's doctoral programme.

Publications and publishing points

We consider the preliminary results of our academic scientific production in 2022 to be very positive. BI aims to increase international research, scientific publications and our rate of published articles in the world's leading scientific periodicals.

The proportion of publication points related to scientific journal articles increased further in 2022*. The share of publication points related to level 2 publications also showed good development. The number of prestigious scientific journals (ABS4* and ABS4) also increased compared to the previous year.

*All publication figures for 2022 are preliminary (as of February 2023). The final figures will be published in April.

Endowed professorships

BI receives financial support from companies and other donors to fund our endowed professorships. In 2020, funding for an endowed professorship began, sponsored by the foundation Skipsreder Tom Wilhelmsens Stiftelse. Professor Randi Lunnan holds this endowment position. In 2022, Skipsreder Tom Wilhelmsen's foundation chose to continue funding his endowment professorship for a new 5-year period.

In addition, BI Professor Ragnhild Kvålshaugen holds an endowment professorship funded by the Norwegian BAE industry (Building, Construction and Real Estate)

Executive in Residence

In 2019, BI hired its first Executive in Residence, a measure to connect people with relevant experience from working life more closely with academic communities and students at BI.

To connect business and academia more closely, BI has employed several Executives in Residence in recent years. They have expertise in various fields, helping to ensure that experience and practical competence are closely linked to the research environment and the students at BI.

In 2022, these included:

  • Berit Svendsen, Head of Vipps International – Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
  • Jostein Tvedt, chief strategist at Danske Bank – Department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship
  • Tom Remlov, former opera and theatre director – Department of Leadership and Organisational Behaviour
  • Sindre Støer, Head of Verdipapirforetakenes Forbund – Department of Law and Governance
  • Odd-Harald Berg Wasenden, partner in the law firm Arntzen de Besche – Department of Law and Governance

BI’s doctoral programme

Our doctoral programme is a driving force in developing our faculty, and we are prioritising an increase in the number of individuals in the programme. We have also increased our focus on admission quotas and steady follow-up of PhD candidates throughout the study period in recent years. In 2022, 6 thesis presentations were carried out, a decrease from the previous year.

PhD thesis presentations in 2022

  • Thomas Størdal Gundersen: Supply Heterogeneities and the Oil Market
  • Ingvild Andersen: Reconnecting Leader-Member Exchange and Social Exchange Theory
  • Christian Winther Farstad: Leaders for art’s sake? Potentials and requirements for developing cross-functional leadership in the field of art
  • Magnus A. H. Gulbrandsen: Essays in Household Finance and Macroeconomics
  • Sverre S. Ubisch: Essays on Positioning, Categorization, and Performance
  • Olga Ungureanu: Marketing Communications for New Product Launches. A Multiple Stakeholder Perspective