Academics in many countries are raising understandable concerns about how research funding cuts threaten their work. But what if their universities receive too much money? An interesting new paper analysing grants and outputs reported in the UK’s Research Exercise Framework points to a pattern of diminishing returns in business schools.

In an article in the British Journal of Management, Vasilis Theoharakis from Cranfield University and Georgios Batsakis at Brunel University show that in aggregate, the schools within the elite Russell Group produce higher-quality outputs than other institutions, as measured by the share of their research judged “world leading” by its originality, significance and rigour.

But the positive returns are not consistent or infinite. As the overall volume of research funding rises, the academics found that “scaling research inputs initially boosts research outputs and impact, but diminishing returns emerge once institutional capacity thresholds are surpassed”.

Recalculated for the FT to show each business school’s metrics, London Business School emerges as a positive outlier, outperforming the Russell Group trend with the highest overall impact and with below-average funding per full-time academic. Elite institutions including University College London and Oxford both score highly on research output, but are at different extremes when it comes to the per capita research funding required to generate it.

The authors argue that a strong research culture attracts the right faculty and yields excellent outputs, but many institutions may lack adequate doctoral supervision and need to more actively manage the balance between external income and doctoral students on one hand against outputs and impact on the other. More is not always better.

Podcast: I talk to the AACSB about rankings, research impact and how business schools can measure what truly matters.

Faculty: Check out our latest professors’ picks of recent FT articles, complete with suggested classroom questions, and encourage your students to join the debate by commenting underneath.

From the FT

Chinese universities gain ground on UK and US in global rankings Britain and US retain grip on top 10, with MIT first and Imperial College London second.

Employers invested in returnships. Now they are ditching them A rollback of schemes to get people working after career breaks will make it harder to address unemployment.

The AI Shift: How AI is ‘senior-ising’ junior roles Changing workflows mean employers are now asking new recruits to be managers and decision makers.

Bosses must master the detail without losing the vision Paying more attention to nitty-gritty policy can help top bosses in business and politics.

Why (happy) humans still matter at work Leaders have the power to make the future of work more enticing than just ‘machine-minding’.

Professor insights

Simon Johnson: “Nobody needs as many white-collar workers as they used to” The Nobel laureate and professor of entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management on how to prepare for what AI will do to jobs.

Data line

The two main reasons graduates chose to pursue a Masters in Finance degree are better career opportunities and improved earnings potential.

For the majority of MiF graduates, working overseas and starting their own company were not significant motivations before starting their course. The reasons for studying this degree have changed very little in recent years.

Research round-up

Finally, a use for corporate bullshit Companies might one day be able to use it to choose who to hire and promote. Cornell University researcher Shane Littrell is one of a few scholars who have spent years analysing why some of us detest bullshit and some are impressed by it. 

Framing success as ‘natural talent’ has negative effects for young workers Presenting achievements as the result of effort rather than innate ability can improve performance, according to research from UCL School of Management.

Business school news

Emma Hayes, OBE and football manager, named course director of Women’s Football Management masters The course at the Professional Footballers’ Association Business School aims to prepare players for leadership careers in women’s football.

ESMT Berlin scales employability initiative across Africa The scheme, developed at the German business school, helps young African graduates move from university into meaningful work.

Harvard Business School announces recipients of Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship The awards go to two graduating students who are launching ventures that will create social or environmental value in a sustainable way.

UC Riverside launches online MBA Challenging commuting times across Southern California have increased the appeal of online education for professionals.

Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School wins award for social enterprise partnership The school has been recognised at the AMBA & BGA Excellence Awards for a project that connects university students, Ugandan women entrepreneurs and Glasgow primary school pupils through a social enterprise selling tote bags.

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Business School Insider is written by Wai Kwen Chan, Sam Stephens, Leo Cremonezi and Andrew Jack, and edited by Georgina Quach today.