THE COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS

Montpellier Business School (MBS)

Founded in 1897, MBS is a vibrant, innovative, and dynamic business school. It is triple accredited (AACSB, EQUIS, and AMBA) and offers a wide range of graduate and undergraduate programs including BBA, Master’s, MSc, Executive MBA, and DBA programs, as well as tailor-made executive programs. In 2021, the BBA was the second-best bachelor’s degree in France according to “L’Etudiant” ranking and the Master’s in Management was ranked 56th in the world by the Financial Times. MBS welcomes approximately 4,000 students every year. Its main campus is ideally located in the south of France, in the city of Montpellier, which is one of the most attractive and fastest-growing cities in France. MBS’ vision is to actively participate in the construction of a sustainable economy and society. This vision is shared and fulfilled by our 100+ faculty members (international faculty: 65% - 30 nationalities) who are dedicated to developing excellence both in teaching and research. MBS’ teaching and research activities cover all traditional areas of management science. Every year, our faculty members publish over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals listed in the CNRS, FNEGE, ABS, and FT50 rankings. 25% of these articles focus on societal themes that fit with the school’s core values of ethics, openness, diversity, global performance, and social responsibility. Members of the accounting and finance department have varied methodological approaches and research interests including contract theory, corporate governance, cryptocurrencies, entrepreneurial finance, financial inclusion, herding behaviors, information asymmetry, international financial reporting standards, microfinance, as well as sustainable finance and social and environmental accounting. 

University of Portsmouth (UoP)

The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth (United Kingdom) with over 28,000 students. It comprises 5 faculties, each with their own schools and departments. In 2021, the UoP was given 5 stars from The QS World University Rankings for teaching, employability, internationalisation, facilities, arts and culture, and inclusiveness, while the Times Higher Education ranks UoP as one of the Top 150 Young Universities around the world. During the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the UoP ranked third of all modern post-92 universities in the UK for research power, which measures the quality and quantity of research submitted into the exercise.  77% of submitted research was rated in the highest categories — world-leading and internationally excellent — with wide-ranging impacts on society, health, culture, and the environment. The Faculty of Business & Law is one of the five faculties of the University of Portsmouth, and home to the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. In 2021, the University of Portsmouth’s Business School was ranked by the Financial Times as one of the most influential business schools in the world for teaching power. For business and management, 65.8% of the research outputs, 100% of the research environment and 100% of the impact cases were judged as world-leading and internationally excellent during the 2021 REF.