Finance & Control

The Finance & Control group comprises faculty members with diverse research interests in the fields of accounting and finance. On the accounting side, faculty members examine issues related to the impact of a firm’s financial reporting decisions on capital markets and the role of management control systems in improving cost efficiencies. The finance faculty researches issues in corporate finance, including mergers and public offerings of debt and equity, as well as investments, such as mutual fund performance. In addition, several faculty members actively research interdisciplinary areas related to corporate governance and corporate social responsibility, which also relate to issues in accounting and finance. The research methodology employed is diverse, ranging from the analysis of empirical data to the conduct of 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, IIM Calcutta is the proud host of a state-of-the-art Finance Research and Trading Laboratory (FRTL) that facilitates research. The FRTL is equipped with a Bloomberg terminal, NSE Cogencis, and other databases. It also features high-performance workstations for analysing large datasets and handling complex computations.

Human Resource Management

The HRM faculty members are actively engaged in research and management consulting, addressing both foundational questions in HRM and emerging challenges in the world of work. Topics of interest are explored at both Employee-Employer Interface, and phenomena at the Organizational and Macro-level. Recent faculty research topics include sector-specific HRM issues (e.g., healthcare, IT-BPO), Strategic HRM, Performance Appraisal, Control and Resistance, Power Relations, Work-Life Balance, Employee Voice, Organizational Identity and Justice, Career Choice, Organizational Response to Crisis, The Future of Work, Digital/Platform Economy, AI-driven HR strategy, Global Production Networks, Labour Markets, Dignity at Work, Precarity, Informality, Moral Economy, Challenges in Management Education, among others.

The HRM faculty members regularly publish in top-tier journals of repute. Executive PhD scholars would be encouraged to collaborate with faculty members in research, which would involve them in writing research papers and presenting their work at prestigious international and domestic conferences.

Courses offered by the group are closely aligned to its research interests and activities. A rigorous array of advanced doctoral courses are offered to equip practitioners with foundational knowledge, methodological depth, and an understanding of interdisciplinary research. Key courses focus on topics of Strategic HRM, Industrial Relations and Labour Laws, Research Methods in Human Resources and Employee Relations, Management Control and Resistance, Labour in the Gig Economy, Artificial Intelligence in HRM, Work and Employment Relations, Labour in Global Value Chains, Writing Differently in Management, Careers in Management Research, among others.

Management Information Systems

The Management Information Systems (MIS) group offers the Executive PhD, a doctoral research programme for senior executives, focused on the strategic management of digital technologies and information systems in contemporary business and societal contexts. Anchored in the broader discourse of digital transformation with an aim to foster inter-disciplinary inquiry, the programme explores both micro-level (individual and group) and macro-level (organizational and societal) phenomena at the intersection of people, process and technology. Key research domains include, but are not limited to, technology assimilation and value realization; digital products, entrepreneurship and business models; design thinking; social and organizational network analysis; artificial intelligence and machine learning; behavioral dynamics of intelligent systems - including investigations into the ethical risks and unintended consequences; cybersecurity and the economics of information, and the societal implications of digital technologies such as e-Government systems, mobile payment platforms, and healthcare systems. The programme offers rigorous training in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, theoretical foundations in information systems, and emerging developments in the field, equipping participants to undertake high-impact research relevant to industry and society.

Marketing

The Marketing Group consists of 8 faculty members. The research interests of the current faculty include: consumer behaviour, relationship marketing, retailing, modelling consumer behaviour, sales and distribution management, rural marketing, marketing at the bottom of the pyramid, B2B marketing, product and brand management, pricing, and strategic marketing. The research employs a variety of methodologies, including analytical modelling, quantitative techniques like structural equation modelling, experimental approaches, and qualitative methods. The faculty in the marketing group have published extensively in reputed international journals, including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Retailing, European Journal of Marketing, Marketing Theory, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Marketing Management.

Operations Management

The Operations Management (OM) group offers the “Executive PhD”, an applied doctoral research programme for senior executives to solve practical problems in effect benefitting the industry and society at large. The Executive PhD programme in Operations Management is unique as it rests on three different areas, all focused on business applications: Decision Sciences, Operations and Supply Chain Management, and Statistical Data Science.

The programme trains participants in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies for management research, theoretical foundations in the three core areas of OM (decision science, operations and supply chain management, and statistical data science) to undertake high-impact OM research relevant to the industry and society.

Decision science focuses on managing risk and developing application-driven theory to solve real-world problems. Faculty members in this area specialize in decision making under uncertainty, quantitative modelling and numerical methods for solving operational problems related to pricing, revenue management, inventory management and risk management. Faculty in the operations and supply chain management area develop and apply analytical and empirical models and methods to address strategic and operational issues in areas such as supply chains, manufacturing, services, healthcare, retail, sustainability, not-for-profit operations, project management, public policies, innovation and product design. Statistical data science faculty focuses on the theory and methods of statistics, emphasizing business applications. Students are exposed to both Bayesian and classical approaches to inference and modern computational statistical tools.

The Executive PhD participants have significant flexibility to design their research pathway (topic, methodologies and doctoral committee) by gaining exposure to the areas of research in OM and adjusting them to their individual requirements.

Organizational Behaviour

The research interests of the doctoral students and the faculty members of OB group span both the micro psychological aspects of individual and group behaviour in organizations and also the macro level organizational behaviours between and within organizations and society. The following details will help you get an overview of OB group’s activities in the space of doctoral education and research.

Courses offered: In order to train PhD students for a career in research and education. Courses specially designed for the executive Ph.D students will be offered.

Ongoing and recently concluded thesis topics: The recent research work of our doctoral students has focused on the following topics:

  • Courage at work
  • Women’s re-entry into the workforce after child-birth
  • Changes in the organizational field of Howrah foundries
  • Impact of leadership and group processes on team Innovation
  • Impact of changes in organizational environment on theatres
  • Career choices of Indian managers
  • Dissonance and meaningful work
  • Craft, place and the artisan
  • Gender norms and work
  • Place and tourism
  • Transgender inclusion in the workplace
  • Institutional logics of unicornisation
  • Organizational and occupational identities

Research work of OB group faculty: The research output of OB group faculty members is quite diverse. In the recent past, our faculty members have published papers on the topics of organizational justice, vendor-client relationship, discrimination in employment, technological innovation, commercialization of research in universities, globalization of business schools in India, social innovation, sexual violence, managing diversity, equality and inclusion, career planning and management, corporate social responsibility, self-initiated expatriates, executive compensation, and the history of Howrah foundries, multiple job holding / moonlighting, non-standard forms of work arrangement, career ecosystem, generational issues at workplace. Indian and indigenous concepts and perspectives, leader and leadership development, institutional change, healthcare infrastructures, alternative forms of organizing, corporate social responsibility, power, decolonial management studies, gender.

Public Policy and Management

The Public Policy and Management (PPM) Group is a multidisciplinary group of active researchers and teachers from diverse social sciences 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, urban governance, education and skill development, environmental resource management, infrastructure 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 executive PhD 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 executive PhD 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.

For this current Academic Year 2026-2027, the application will be accepted for the following seven groups.