INSEAD, a leading business school, has unveiled 50 big ideas from 50 of its female academics through its “50 Years, 50 Women, 50 Ideas” key initiative. These ideas, from the school’s female faculty and doctoral alumnae, celebrate 50 years of INSEAD women leading academic excellence.

The initiative was launched in honor of the school’s year-long celebration of iW50, a campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of the first female graduates from the INSEAD MBA program. For each year of action and progress toward gender diversity, 50 female academics from INSEAD share their big idea, which encapsulates the essence of their thought-leading research.

Laurence Capron, dean of faculty at INSEAD and professor of strategy, said: “These 50 women reflect the heart and soul of INSEAD’s academic environment: Diversity in research and teaching methods, with no single school of thought predominant. They focus on what matters most, which is rigour and impact on management as a practice and a discipline. We are proud to celebrate their achievements and thought leadership.”

Some of the big ideas from INSEAD female faculty members include:

l Annet Aris (Strategy): In a digitizing world, boards will have to focus significantly more on understanding customers and delivering superior value.

Linda Brimm (Organizational Behavior): Global cosmopolitans experience a complex array of challenges and opportunities when living and working in multiple countries.

Laurence Capron (Strategy): Firms that diversify their growth strategies last longer than those using M&A (mergers and acquisition) alone.

Lily Fang (Finance): Women should learn from men and tap into their social networks.

Maria Guadalupe (Economics and Political Science): Anti-takeover provisions reduce firm value and do not give managers additional bargaining power to obtain a higher price in the takeover negotiation.

Zoe Kinias (Organizational Behavior): Self-affirmation, achieved by reflecting on personal values, can eliminate gender gaps in business students’ performance.

Xiaowei Rose Luo (Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise): Widely held cultural views shape security analysts’ assessment of family firms.

Renee Mauborgne (Strategy): Lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating “blue oceans” — untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.