The Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Singapore Management University, Singapore

Deans’ Impact Grants for Responsible Research

 

Integrating research insights directly into actionable training programmes is a winning strategy to create social impact.  For example, Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business works with industry partners to create new practices that improve individual financial well-being and social inclusion. The MasterCard Social and Financial Inclusion research takes on a Southeast Asian perspective to develop a deeper understanding of how low-income families access banking and credit facilities through the adoption of new technologies and new business models. These insights become inputs into community-wide training courses to improve financial literacy through the Citi-SMU Financial Literacy programme.  Another example is SMU’s Tri-Sector Collaboration programme where research is integrated into joint problem-solving tasks across the private sector, civil society, and the government.  Such courses prepare leaders from all three branches of society to tackle grand challenges such as local impacts of climate change, non-profit organisations and government responses to aging populations, and business integration of new practices and reporting standards for natural resource sustainability.

 

To foster a social impact-driven mindset among the faculty, the business school gives out Dean’s Impact Grants to help researchers customize their research for the Southeast Asian context, where they are actively encouraged to integrate their academic journal papers into case studies and short thought leadership pieces in the curriculum across undergraduate and postgraduate levels.