Areas of Specialization of Doctoral Programme

Members of the Economics group have wide ranging research interests covering a very broad spectrum of topics. The areas where this group has research interest are: a) Industrial organization, theory of the firm, applications of decision theory and game theory b) Macroeconomics and macroeconomic policies, monetary economics, banking, central banking, growth and structural change, employment and labour markets, political economy, industrial policy, pharmaceutical industry and intellectual property rights, c) Open economy macroeconomics, crisis and contagion, International trade and international financial flows d) Economic development, sustainable development, development strategies, economics of households and various applications of social informatics e) Time series econometrics, microeconometrics and financial econometrics f) Regulation and strategic management

The Finance and Control group has faculty members with varying research interests in the areas of accounting and finance. On the accounting side, there are faculty members who examine issues related to the impact of a firm’s financial reporting decisions on capital markets and the role of management control systems on improving cost efficiencies. The finance faculty research issues in corporate finance such as mergers and public offerings of debt and equity, in investments such as mutual fund performance and in banking such as their lending behavior during recessions. In addition, interdisciplinary areas related to corporate governance and corporate social responsibility are also actively researched by several faculty members, as it relates to issues in accounting and finance. The research methodology used is quite diverse, ranging from empirical data analysis of archived data to running controlled experiments. There are several doctoral courses that are offered by the Finance and Control group. The courses offered during the last two years included seminar courses in empirical accounting research, empirical finance, money and financial markets, corporate finance and advanced econometrics. In addition to these, the Finance and Control group is the proud host of a state-of-the-art laboratory to conduct research in finance. The Financial Research and Trading Lab (Finance Lab) supports research in financial markets with a focus towards developing innovative financial products and is equipped with twelve Bloomberg terminals, a trading exchange simulator (XSTrade) with real time data feed from five markets - NSE- Cash and F&O, BSE-Cash, NCDEX and MCX as well as the Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) platform to access Compustat, CRSP and other databases that is used in academic research worldwide. Thus, the Finance Lab provides an unmatched opportunity to the doctoral students to have access to a host of national and global database not easily available elsewhere in India.

The Human Resource Management Group focuses on the study of critical issues in managing human resources at various levels of analysis - at the micro employee-employer level, at the firm/organizational level, and at the macro labor market level. Thus, the Group offers several courses that look into human and firm behavior in response to various HR policies, analyzes HR policies in a given business context, as well as examines the functioning of labour markets in a social, economic, and comparative context. Some the areas where in recent years the group faculty has focused their research includes strategic HRM, strategic and operational role of HRM flexibility, employee performance management, HRM in services, role of HRM in IT project management, compensation and benefit management, comparative industrial relations and so on. Doctoral Courses offered in last two years: 1. Advanced course in human resource management in services. 2. Labour economics 3. Strategic Human Resource Management 4. Seminar course on Research in Human Resource in Management 5. Compensation and Reward Management

Management Information Systems group offers doctoral research programme under three broad areas: Information Systems/Technology Management and Inter-disciplinary areas: This stream includes both micro (individual and group level) and macro (organizational and societal level) areas in the interface of systems, technology and management. Information technology oriented basic research with functional applications: Research on application of basic research in information technology to management problems includes areas such as artificial intelligence, expert systems, information security, combinatorial optimization, neural networks and fuzzy systems. Emerging Information Technologies: The development of new technologies and the widespread use of the Internet and web 2.0 technologies as a viable business medium has thrown open a whole host of challenges that, while derived from traditional issues in business and management, have their own idiosyncrasies and need to be faced on their own terms.

The Marketing Group consists of 9 faculty members, besides two faculty who are currently on leave. The research interests of the current faculty includes the following: qualitative research consumer behavior, and consumer culture theory, critical marketing, relationship marketing, retail marketing, quantitative methods and modeling consumer behavior, sales and distribution management, marketing at the bottom of the pyramid, B2B marketing, product and brand management, and strategic marketing. The methodologies in which research is conducted include analytical modeling, quantitative methods such as structural equation modeling, experimental methods, qualitative methods, and critical thinking. The faculty in the marketing group have published extensively in reputed international journals including, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, Marketing Theory, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Information Technology, and Journal of Marketing Management. Doctoral Courses offered in last two years: Seminar in Consumer Culture Theory, Advanced Market research methodology, Advanced Seminar in Consumer Behavior

The Operations Management group at IIMC is the hub of all research and teaching activities related to the design, planning, control and improvement of operations in manufacturing and service, private and public sectors. The group is known for its high quality teaching and research covering all levels of managerial decision-making, from systems design and technology choices to day-to-day scheduling and performance measurement. A sample of current research interests of IIMC Operations Management faculty includes supply chain management, inventory management, reverse logistics, revenue management, dynamic pricing, risk management, manufacturing excellence, operations strategy, capacity and production planning, control of processing networks, stochastic modeling, optimization, vehicle routing problem, mathematical and statistical techniques and contracting and incentive mechanism design. The Operations Management group brings together a variety of industrial experience and diverse academic disciplines. All the members of the group operate as a team through their teaching, joint research activities and social events! The group members actively interact with other disciplines including Marketing, Finance and Control, Information Systems, Economics and Organizational Behavior to offer elective courses, conduct multi-disciplinary study projects, training programmes and research work. Operations Management faculty has developed effective partnerships with many renowned local and international academic and industrial organizations

The Public Policy and Management (PPM) Group is a multidisciplinary group of active researchers and teachers from diverse social science backgrounds. The Group addresses challenges of policy innovation, governance for public service delivery, relationship between government and industry, and legal and regulatory issues through high quality academic research, teaching and consultancy for policy analysis and programme evaluation. The Group’s faculty are involved in shaping the understanding of key contemporary debates in public management, with specific focus on the social and political context of development in India, management of institutions for urban and rural development, business solutions for poverty alleviation, international geopolitics, legal and regulatory aspect of business, international trade and intellectual property rights, public-private partnerships, and citizen's engagement and emerging models of shared governance. The Group’s tailored coursework at the doctoral level allows students to undertake policy analysis and comprehend the nuances of multi-level interaction between government, business and society in the national and international environment. The Group’s doctoral programme aims to develop leaders for tomorrow who can address the increasing complexity of issues of public policy and management by interweaving concepts and tools from various social science disciplines.

The evolving global economy presents managers with a variety of opportunities and challenges. Top management teams must engage with the overall direction of the enterprise, the pursuit of opportunities, the co-ordination of resources, the development of competencies, and the conduct of competitive action. The Strategic Management Group at IIM Calcutta is interested in understanding the roots of differential firm performance and the dynamics of choice and change for enterprises. The eclectic research and teaching interests of the group faculty and doctoral students cover diverse areas including corporate strategy, international business, business strategy, entrepreneurship, management of public sector enterprises, organization theory, sustainability, strategy-as-practice, and strategy execution. Members of the Strategic Management Group engage closely with the world of practice through consulting assignments and executive education.