Basic HTML Version
199
Commerce Beyond the Numbers
The business of
Global Change
UCT’s Graduate School of Business (GSB) is different from
others; it stands out from the crowd and speaks to a relevance
badly needed in the world today. As a business school it is
prepared to ask the uncomfortable questions and make the
difficult choices to stand things on their heads, if necessary,
to bring about practical change, from the shaping of national
policy to innovation in local business models for improved
service delivery.
T
he GSB sees one of its key roles as enabling new ways of thinking, behaving and
striving to be proactive in response to Africa’s challenges. In the wake of the
financial crisis, and with social and environmental challenges multiplying across the
planet, innovation from business schools is a necessity, not a luxury. And at the heart
of all GSB initiatives is a commitment to research.
The GSB has identified five systemic research themes around which mainstream research
is clustered: values-based leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship, governance
and sustainability, development finance, and infrastructure, reform and regulation.
But the organising principle of all research at the school is understanding emerging
markets. Given that the school is situated, geographically, in a society and economy
which is undergoing a rapid socio-political and economic transition from agrarian and
feudal lifestyles to modern consumer lifestyles and careers, it is ideally situated to study
such contexts. It provides researchers with a special opportunity to conduct emerging
market research that is of interest to the leading international scholarly journals in all
management disciplines, and contributes to the well-being of diverse stakeholders.
Research excellence is encouraged and incentivised at the school and 20%of GSB staff now
have National Research Foundation ratings. Emphasis is on supporting and incentivising
an increase in the quality, quantity and relevance of research that is transforming
Professor Walter Baets