ISB Guide for Fellow program in Management (Ph.D.)

Question

I am starting the Ph.D. guide series to get you everything about Ph.D. programs at one place. As a matter of accuracy and authenticity, I will use only the school’s official website for any kind of information. This thread will help members at GMAT Club in getting unified information, instead of juggling multiple websites online.

Table of Content

1. Introduction
2. A Career in Business Academia
3. Why ISB FPM?
4. Areas of Specialization
5. Programme Requirements
6. Academic Training
7. Placements
8. Admissions & Eligibility
9. Application Procedure
10. Application Timelines
11. Financial Aspects/Scholarships
12. Campus
13. ISB Fellow Program FAQs

Introduction

Since its inception in 2001, ISB has become well known the world over as a centre of academic excellence with an impressive record of producing high quality research in all areas of management. In line with its aims as a vibrant, research-oriented institution, the school initiated the FPM in 2011 to transform promising young researchers into innovative problem-solvers and thinkers. The foundation for FPM is ISB’s talented and productive faculty, who are engaged in leading-edge research that is both academically rigorous as well as highly relevant to the needs of business. ISB’s faculty, who have received their PhDs from acclaimed institutions around the world and have widely published and presented their research, are uniquely positioned to mentor the next generation of academicians and researchers in virtually every area of management.

In addition to training future researchers, the FPM will also serve to enhance faculty productivity, motivation and creativity. Doctoral students will serve as research assistants and co-authors to faculty members, making it a win-win proposition for the students as well as their mentors. FPM will further strengthen ISB’s research focus and output and ensure that path-breaking research insights make their way into the classroom. This two-way flow of ideas between teaching and research is, without exception, a feature of all research-oriented schools the world over.

ISB Fellow Programme epitomizes the spirit of the School’s vision to be an internationally top-ranked, research driven institution that prepares future leaders for India and the world. While this programme certainly focuses on accelerating academic research and preparing ISB graduates for faculty positions at leading universities across the world, its vision stretches further. Ultimately, it embodies ISB’s commitment to quality and innovation at every level, thereby enabling to create and share knowledge that’s valuable to both academia and global business.

A Career in Business Academia

The best business schools achieve their high standing by combining research, teaching and management practice. The best teachers among business school faculty members are usually those who bring the latest management theories and techniques to life in the classroom. With the centre of gravity of business activity increasingly shifting towards the emerging markets, there is a growing demand for faculty whose research focus is on issues and challenges relevant to the emerging economies.

The ISB FPM curriculum aims to achieve a balance between cutting-edge academic research and an understanding of local realities in the emerging economies. Given the rapidly changing global scenario and its impact on business research and practice, the curriculum will be reviewed and upgraded periodically for theoretical rigor and practical relevance. For bright young researchers with inquisitive, creative and inspired minds and a powerful inclination to explore research issues in business, the ISB FPM is an attractive opportunity.

Why ISB FPM?

Challenging, comprehensive and global in scope, the FPM aspires to develop researchers and academicians of exceptional caliber. The proven research expertise of ISB’s faculty members and their dedication to supporting and mentoring doctoral students, are the powerful beams that sustain the programme. ISB boasts of a unique portfolio faculty model which consists of eminent resident and visiting faculty. They are highly sought after by businesses across the world for their knowledge and expertise on a wide range of issues. The current body of resident faculty has been handpicked from leading international business schools on the basis of their research excellence and teaching acumen.

Visiting faculty, drawn from top business schools across the world, bring new knowledge and perspectives into the mix, enriching it further. This dynamic research environment is made even more vibrant by the visiting scholars and research scholars whom the School hosts each year.

The area leaders from ISB and the founding associate schools, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, actively participate in curriculum design and research conferences, and assist ISB efforts to recruit the best faculty. ISB also has robust academic collaborations with the London Business School, Sloan School of Management at MIT, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. ISB’s association with world-class business schools ensures that the program is always in step with the latest innovations in global management education. Faculty exchanges, research collaborations, student exchange and curriculum development are various dimensions of ISB’s relationship with these schools.

Areas of Specialization

ISB offers the FPM in seven areas:

Accounting
Financial Economics
Information System
Marketing
Operations Management
Organizational Behavior
Strategy.

Candidates indicate their area of specialization at the time of applying for the programme. Once admitted the students will not be allowed to change their area of specialization. Based on the pool of applications and suitability of the candidates, a specific area may decide not to offer admissions to students in an academic year.

Accounting
The Fellow Programme in Accounting trains students to research contemporary issues in Accounting using the latest empirical research techniques. Students must possess intellectual curiosity, an appreciation of institutional detail and a strong aptitude for quantitative analysis. Prior training in accounting is not essential, although exposure to the implications of accounting (for example, as a user of accounting information) is preferable. Faculty research interests include economics of the auditing profession, corporate governance, earnings management, accounting conservatism, voluntary disclosure and executive compensation. Accounting faculty members have published their research in leading accounting journals.

Financial Economics
The Fellow Programme in Financial Economics will train students in a wide range of sub-disciplines within this area. Finance faculty have wide-ranging interests spanning corporate finance theory, empirical research in corporate finance, market microstructure, microfinance as well as financial econometrics. The faculty have published in top-tier finance journals in diverse areas such as the design of IPO mechanisms, promotions and internal labour markets, the links between bankruptcy codes and innovation, and information revelation in future markets. Candidates with undergraduate or postgraduate training in economics, mathematics, engineering, statistics, and other quantitative disciplines have an ideal background for doctoral studies in this arena.

Information Systems
The faculty in the Information Systems (IS) area at ISB come from the top business schools in the world such as Carnegie Mellon, University of Texas, University of Rochester and Stanford University. They use quantitative tools such as game theory and econometrics, and extensively use economics and strategy as reference disciplines to study topics in software product planning and pricing, human capital development in knowledge-intensive organizations such as IT services firms, electronic commerce and internet advertising, organization and value of outsourcing relationships, impact of IT on firm value and on society, and the organization and value of social networks.

Several top academicians from universities such as NewYork University, University of Minnesota and the University of Connecticut visit the IS area regularly to collaborate on research. The IS area also hosts an international academic conference in Information Systems every year. This conference regularly attracts the best of the researchers from the United States. This strong focus on research activities provides a broad exposure to students who are exploring research topics to define their areas of interest. Further, the constant availability of faculty with strong publication records in the top research journals of the world ensures in-depth mentorship.

Marketing
Marketing is an interdisciplinary field that draws upon theory and methodology from a variety of knowledge areas, including psychology, sociology, mathematics, statistics and economics. The discipline is fundamentally concerned with the description and prediction of decision outcomes that involve all aspects of the firm - customers, competitors, distributors and business regulators. Marketing uses an eclectic mix of methods and theories to understand buyers’ perceptions and preferences, allocate marketing resources and develop game theory models for marketing strategy. The Fellow Programme in Marketing Management at ISB is designed to train students for careers in academia. Members of the Marketing faculty at the ISB hold PhDs from top universities and are actively engaged in academic research.

Operations Management
The Fellow Programme in Operations Management is designed to train students to use quantitative tools and analytical frameworks from several disciplines to study managerial problems in areas such as supply chain management, service delivery, product development, transportation, retail and manufacturing. The programme combines diverse analytical disciplines such as game theory, econometrics, optimization, mathematical programming, probability and statistics, stochastic processes, the theory of algorithms and operations strategy to immerse students in an intellectually stimulating environment conducive to high quality research.

Faculty members in this area have doctoral degrees in operations management/ operations research from premier universities such as USC Marshall School of Business, UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of Texas at Austin, Cornell University, McCombs School of Business, UT Austin, and Georgia Tech. They have varied research interests in several areas/industries and are frequent contributors to internationally recognized, top-tier academic journals.

Organizational Behavior
The Fellow Programme in Organizational Behavior is designed to emphasise the importance of individuals and teams as integral to modern organizations. Area faculty have won awards for reviewing, and regularly present their research in top international conferences. Research interests of faculty members include organizational citizenship behavior, contextual work performance, positive (e.g. creativity, whistleblowing) and negative (e.g. white-collar crime, corruption) deviance in and of organizations, teams, personality, interpersonal conflicts and relationships at work, and negotiations.

Faculty members in organizational behavior have PhD degrees from top universities such as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Iowa, Michigan State, and National University of Singapore.

Strategy
The Fellow Programme in Strategy prepares students to engage in research that addresses fundamental problems relating to business strategy. The strategic management track trains them to analyze a firm’s response to its environment and competitors and to carry out research that enables an understanding of the foundation of competitive advantage. It allows students to acquire expertise in a variety of disciplines that will enable them to carry out cutting edge research in areas such as competitive strategy, innovation, global strategy, organization theory and entrepreneurship. Faculty members hold PhD degrees from prestigious institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, Indian Institute of Management, London Business School and Ohio State University. They are frequent contributors to top-tier publications

Programme Requirements

Typical Stages of Progression

Years in the FPM	Milestones
Year 1	• Complete core courses and area specific elective courses • Complete the first research paper
Year 2	• Complete area specific elective courses • Write FPM Comprehensive Exam by the end of year 2, as per area requirement
Year 3	• Complete Comprehensive research paper
FPM Candidacy	• Based on the satisfactory performance in course work, first research paper, comprehensive paper, comprehensive exam, the student is admitted to FPM candidacy
Year 4	• Identify Dissertation Chairperson and Dissertation Committee Members • Identify a dissertation topic, complete preliminary research work on the topic, and work on a dissertation proposal • Defend the proposal by mid of fourth year
Year 5	• Continue work on dissertation • Based on the dissertation defense, completion of subsequent revisions, the Dissertation Committee’s recommendation, and the Graduate Student Committee’s approval the candidate is conferred the title “Fellow in Management

Academic Training

Doctoral-level training includes doing course work where in you take the prescribed core and specialized courses, doing research with faculty members, helping the faculty members in their teaching and taking up other tasks assigned from time to time. Apart from course work academic training includes:

1. Attending the Annual Doctoral Consortium / Workshop on Teaching organized by Centre for Teaching, Learning and Case Development at ISB
2. Provide teaching assistance to visiting and resident faculty
3. Conducting tutorials / teaching a session
4. Research Assistant-ship under a Resident Faculty or in a Research Center or Institute

Residency Requirements
This is a full-time programme and requires 5 years of full-time study, closely working with faculty supervisors and pursuing independent research interests. Hence students cannot take up any work assignment during this period.

Certification
On the successful completion of the programme requirements and recommendations of the FPM Committee, ISB will grant the Fellowship to students.

Placements

FPM develops and grooms inspired and dedicated individuals to explore research issues in business. Besides nurturing their foray into the research arena, the FPM also moulds budding young researchers into effective teachers. ISB provides committed support to all FPM students throughout the programme so that they gain meaningful teaching experiences before formally embarking upon their careers. FPM students work in the capacity of teaching assistants, mentors, and other roles which involve imparting knowledge to their peers or juniors, either in a group or one-to-one setting. ISB aims to place students in top research schools across the world.

While ISB put in efforts to do so, there is no guarantee of placement. Unlike in other degree programs, such as B. Tech. or MBA, placement after a doctoral program depends entirely on the quality of the research work done by a student in the dissertation. Therefore, it is largely up to the student to work hard and produce high quality research to get the desired placement.

ISB responsibility is to facilitate this by providing world class education, training, mentor-ship, access to global faculty, and an excellent academic environment overall. So far, ISB has successfully placed its Doctoral candidates at prestigious schools.

Admissions

ISB aims to bring together individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds, nationalities and educational experiences. The common denominators are superior academic credentials and a consistent display of intellectual prowess. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential. Applicants must have a strong interest in pursuing a research and teaching career in
academia. Above all, candidates need to possess both the ability to engage in high quality research and the commitment to be an academician at an international level.

Eligibility

1. Undergraduate/ Post graduate degree
Applicants should have 4-year undergraduate or a postgraduate degree from an accredited academic institution in areas such as business, economics, engineering, computer sciences, mathematics, physics or the arts. Irrespective of the Feld of study, applicants must possess a strong academic record and display creativity, self-motivation and ingenuity in their prior academic and work experience.

2. Test requirements
All applicants are required to take one of the following tests by the time of submission of application. Applications will not be considered without a valid test score.

Graduate Record Examination General
(OR)
Graduate Management Admission Test
(OR)
Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by IIMs
(OR)
Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) conducted by UGC NET.

Application Procedure

• All applications should be submitted online at http://www.isb.edu/fpm.
• An application fee of INR 5,000 should be paid while submitting the application online.
• A complete application must include:
• Latest Curriculum Vitae with a recent photograph
• Statement of Purpose
• Certified copies of all university degrees/ diplomas
• Official transcripts of grades
• Three letters of recommendation from faculty or scholars on the applicant’s academic ability and potential for research and teaching
• Valid GMAT/GRE/CAT/JRF qualified score report of UGC NET
• TOEFL score report (for applicants whose language of instruction at the undergraduate level is not English)

Application Timelines

Please note the following details for admission to the programme commencing in

S. No.	Description	Date
1.	Application opens	September
2.	Application closes	January
3.	FPM Interviews	March
4.	FPM Offers	April
5.	Programme Commences	Mid-August

Online Info sessions
To dwell more on the nitty-gritties of the programme, ISB will be hosting online info sessions (webinars) for the ease of prospective applicants. The schedule for the webinars will be announced on the website.

Assessment
Candidates will be assessed on the basis of Academic Performance, GMAT / GRE / CAT / JRF qualified score report of UGC NET. Statement of Purpose, Faculty Recommendation Letters, Research Potential, Career Plans, Personal characteristics required for an international academic career, intellectual ability, motivation communication and writing skills etc Decisions are based upon an evaluation of all of these aspects, relative to those of the other applicants. Following submission of complete application, shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the next steps in the admissions process

Financial Aspects/Scholarships

To enable focus on studies, without having to worry about financial pressures, the following financial aid is offered subject to periodic review and revision by ISB:

Programme Fees
Full Tuition Fee Waiver except for sponsored candidates

Laptop Allowance
One-time reimbursement of INR 100,000/- to cover expenses of laptop, docking station and any other computer accessories

Scholarship
A monthly scholarship of INR 65,000/- to cover living expenses. The usual duration of the scholarship is for five years subject to satisfactory performance. In line with many other international institutions ISB might offer an additional year of funding at the discretion of the Faculty Advisor, Dissertation Chair and the FPM Director for selected students who have not been able to complete their dissertation in five years. Students on leave are not eligible for financial aid.

In case, the student is sent to other schools on exchange programmes, at the request of the student, s/he may be granted additional stipend at the recommendation of the FPM Committee. An additional stipend of INR 25000 per month will be given for accommodation.

Medical Insurance
It is mandatory for all FPM students and their dependents to have medical insurance. ISB will provide Health Insurance to FPM student, his/her spouse and 2 children. Students are allowed to include their parents or in-laws (any two) to the policy if the student is willing to pay the premium.

Campus

The ISB Hyderabad campus lies on a beautiful site with large boulders, open Felds, land-scaped areas, open Fields with greenery and cluster of trees. The campus architects have retained and highlighted the existing rock formations and the tree canopies, combining the elegant buildings and facilities with the scenic landscape. ISB’s impressive infrastructure makes for a superior learning environment.

The ISB Hyderabad campus spread over 260 acres, is internet enabled with state-of-the-art air-conditioned lecture theatres, an excellent library, video conferencing and other worldclass facilities. The heart of the campus is the Academic Centre, which houses the lecture theatres, classrooms, faculty offices, services and auditorium. The Academic Centre provides an ideal study environment with air-conditioned lecture theatres, classrooms, breakout rooms, a large library, meeting rooms, coffee bars, and dining facilities. It has state-of the-art infrastructure with a 408-seat auditorium and a communications network that ensures instant global connectivity. The FPM is currently offered at the Hyderabad campus only.

The ISB Mohali campus spread across 70 acres in the Knowledge City is equipped with state-of-the-art learning infrastructure - lecture theatres, a 500 seater auditorium, high-definition video conferencing facilities to enable collaboration across locations, seamless access to digital and online library resources, student cafeteria, and more. The campus is designed to meet the LEED Gold sustainability criteria. The Student Villages at both Hyderabad and Mohali comprises fully air-conditioned serviced apartments, with elegant contemporary furniture and fittings, a kitchenette, television with cable connection and other modern conveniences. ISB offers a conducive environment for families living on campus. Dining, housekeeping, courier and banking facilities are provided, in addition to a wellness center, grocery store, travel desk and bookstore.

The School ensures that basic needs of students are addressed, allowing them to focus entirely on learning. ISB has excellent recreational facilities - a swimming pool, fitness centre and courts for badminton, squash, table tennis, lawn tennis, volleyball and basketball. There is also a play area for children and a toddler’s room.

Research and Learning Resources
The Learning Resource Centre (LRC), a towering structure in the middle of the Academic Centre, hosts the library and IT facility offices. The e-resources and online databases currently available at the LRC are among the best in any academic facility. The LRC’s collection spans nearly 41,000 books, 150 print journals, 50 online databases (including over 2,000 e-journals), and 5,700 AV resources besides having access to the databases – Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters Eikon through NSE-ISB Trading Lab.

ISB Fellow Program FAQs

Click here for ISB Fellow program FAQs

Good Luck!

ISB Guide for Fellow program in Management (Ph.D.)

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